Thread: Cost of Dado blades - U.S. vs Australian

You could take your first sentence and substitute almost anything for "dado blade", and the sentence would still be true.

Except maybe wine...

Part of the price of living in the "lucky country". I guess.

And people wonder why retail is dying here.

Part of the difference is shipping costs but don't forget that Amazon is online only; most of the places here have actual shop fronts, not just warehouses, that need to be rented and staffed (and we pay decent wages in this country that have to be covered). Amazon also has buying power and, I would assume, goes direct to the manufacturer; if you order 10,000 units direct, you'll get a much better deal than the little guy who's ordering 100 units through a distributor (who wants to make their cut of the profit as well).

I don't like it any more than the next person, just trying to put it in perspective.

Originally Posted by Sebastiaan76

Is it just me, or are the cost of Dado blades in Australia way off what they are in the U.S.?

Freud SD208 Trenching head ( dado ) 8" set is $245 @ Majorwoodworking.com.au, and $92 AUD on Amazon for the exact same model number.
Even with shipping on top of the $92, it's still an outrageous difference!

What gives?

I love my Freud 208. It's a fabulous unit. The arbor holes are a tad tight and I worry about the wear on the threads from putting them on/off, but other than that, very happy.

Price difference? It's everything. Had a good friend just return from Germany after 4 years and he is simply stunned at the cost of anything! Went to bunnings on Wednesday and a 2 metre length of chain was $30.

The look of horror on his face was priceless. He violently threw it from his hands as if it were red hot! It was a reflex action, just like a hand on a hot plate.

This, mind you, from a guy who is a merchant banker. His almost constant refrain for the entire day, every where we went, was "it was quarter the price in Germany"

In the last 18 months I have started buying online, when it is economically viable to do so. Sometimes you can save a bunch of cash. Sometimes it is just not worth it though. This week I am going to buy a 14TPI dovetail saw. It is offered for sale on the Lee Valley web site at $69. But you pay in US dollars. The exchange rate as I write (9/12/2013) is 0.91 cents to the dollar. So the real cost to me in Australian dollars is $69/0.91= $75. Then I have to pay for shipping and wait for it to arrive. I do not know what the shipping on a small dovetail saw might be but even if it was $20 the the real cost becomes $95. (The actual cost is likely to be a good deal more than that. I am waiting on 2 sets of Narex chisels to arrive and the postage was about $45 for them). I can go to a shop near where I live and purchase the saw this week for $93. So in this case it was not worth buying overseas.

However some products are just not available in Australia or the price difference is so great that it is worth paying postage. It was more often worth buying on-line when the Australian dollar was at parity or above but now at 0.91 cents the point at which this is viable has changed. What is always worthwhile, I have discovered, is to get on the computer and check what the total price is going to be, delivered.

1989 Rodeo.
Fuel economy was really bad, looked to be the originals still there at 280,000k's.
Rang around, looked online, $165 each was the best I could find in OZ plus post.
Landed 4 quality recons from the US for $193.00 all up. When putting them in, which I had not done before I screwed up an "O" ring. Typically (for me at least) they were product specific in size, so only available from Holden at $41.00 each! 2mm thick, 7mm across and $41.00!
I recontacted the US firm I bought the injectors from and for $20.00 they sent me 4 sets of the 3 seals needed for each injector incl. the O rings, in a padded envelope.
Uncle bought 4 new OEM rotors for his E63 AMG Merc, when landed he still saved $160 per rotor...
Local Post office has 4wd tyres arriving sometimes ex US. The chap who buys them lands them at a saving of around $100.00 per tyre...pays $20 to have 'em fitted, each. Still good value!
Sometimes I wonder!
The only trend I see now is the cost of post/delivery from the US has gone a bit nuts. My neighbour buys lots from the US, has delivered to a US address and has them forwarded, saves about half to a third of the freight cost.

Yup. Pretty outrageous. I might give Major Woodworking a call and ask them why? There must be some price gouging going on somewhere along the line for the price difference to be so big.

Interestingly, this issue has come up before on this forum.........with the same exact model of dado blade! in 2005!

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f44/co...des-usa-24230/

perhaps we've uncovered the great dado blade conspiracy!

One things for sure.......i'm checking everything on Amazon before I buy locally from now on!

Originally Posted by Sebastiaan76

Yup. Pretty outrageous. I might give Major Woodworking a call and ask them why? There must be some price gouging going on somewhere along the line for the price difference to be so big.

Interestingly, this issue has come up before on this forum.........with the same exact model of dado blade! in 2005!

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f44/co...des-usa-24230/

perhaps we've uncovered the great dado blade conspiracy!

One things for sure.......i'm checking everything on Amazon before I buy locally from now on!

Love to hear them try and wriggle out of it
Do tell us how it goes.

Originally Posted by Sebastiaan76

Yup. Pretty outrageous. I might give Major Woodworking a call and ask them why? There must be some price gouging going on somewhere along the line for the price difference to be so big.

!

Good luck with having a business honestly explaining their pricing structure to you. And they are never going to admit to price gouging to someone who cold calls on a the phone. For all they know, you could be the ACCC.

I suspect that you will be told, something that falls somewhere between the two extremes of on a scale of politely, "it is none of your business" to outright rudeness, "are you <€%={*]ing kidding me! who the ~~€?+{ do you think you are?" That's if they don't just outright laugh in your face and hang up.

How a business arrives at a price is immaterial. We either accept that price as a fair market price or not. If not, we buy elsewhere and the company then makes a choice. They either alter their business model and structure or they don't. They either survive or go broke and declare bankruptcy.

Originally Posted by Ray153

How a business arrives at a price is immaterial. We either accept that price as a fair market price or not. If not, we buy elsewhere and the company then makes a choice. They either alter their business model and structure or they don't. They either survive or go broke and declare bankruptcy.

Spot on!

I know a bloke with a M10 hardware store, and the story goes...
Gets a call for a price on a very expensive ladder, gives cost plus 10%

Gets a call a half hour later for a quote on the same ladder, from a young girl(?), if he's lucky he will sell 1 per year, so two phonecalls same morning a bit suss, so gives retail price.

10 mins later gets a call from a guy for a price on the same ladder, my guy thinks they must think I'm stupid, gives retail +10%

Gets a call from the original now very irate and angry caller asking why he would not tell the green shed the price he gave him.
My bloke points out that the green shed were never going to buy a ladder from him, why should he give them a price, any price. The original quote was between my guy and the caller.

Bloke storms in later, slams money down and says where's my f!@#$&*( ladder.?
My guy offers to deliver. Turns out it's across town, but so be it. He delivers ladder.

1 week later my guy gets a call with an apology admitting he was in the wrong, and that he realises the marketing is all a front to convince the masses. Now he's a happy well serviced regular that drives across town...

I recently HAD to go the the green shed, wife's gift voucher, paid $3.20 each for poly fittings that were $1.90 at the blue shed next door, we discovered the next day.
ouch...

I'm not overly price sensitive, preferring to go get looked after, but there are fast becoming less and less places to get that...