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One of my sons lives in England and has some woodwork projects coming up next year so I thought that with Xmas around the corner I would look into getting him some power tools to help him out.
I tried the Axminster website having heard good things of them on the forum but was somewhat taken aback by their prices for Makita and Festool.
Are there any other suggestions for power tool suppliers in the UK or are prices over there just high?
UK poind = $1.83 you would have to add VAT
Makita | Industry Leading Tools & Accessories | Toolstop
Festool price fix although they don't call it that. I've bought a few from the UK, but the savings really came from not having to pay UK VAT (20%), and it was back when some Fe$tools cost less than AU$1000 landed here, so no import duties. None of that available if you're buying the tool to remain in the UK.
I get a significant proportion of my tools from Europe and usually land them here at a very substantial discount from the Australian prices. If landed cost is only 20% below local price, then why bother. Remember warranties may not be enforcible, or too costly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Huon pine fan
My preferred suppliers are:
- Dieter Schmid fine-Tools, Germany,
- Axminster Tools, UK, and
- Dictum Tools, Germany.
Often I can get top brand name hand tools for less than half the Australian retail price.
But I can rarely do that with electrical tools; their prices are quite similar to Australian prices. One of the few electrical items was a Fein Multitool bought at an affordable price about five years ago.
Graeme, I am not looking to import they are for my son who lives in the UK. I realise that there is 20% VAT as compared to our 10% GST but what I was looking at in power tools is greater than the tax difference. Also the packages there for battery tools seems way inferior to here.Quote:
Originally Posted by GraemeCook
My experience with electrical tool prices in Europe is that they are very similar to Australia - sometimes a little cheaper, sometimes a little dearer. If you want something, then you pay the local price.Quote:
Originally Posted by Huon pine fan
When I want a new tool and have decided, more or less on the specific make and model number, then I google that make and model number and see who has it at what prices. Gives me sources and haggling points. I only buy overseas if the landed cost is lower than 75% of local price. Reflects my estimate of risk, delays and loss of warranty.
Sometimes you get real lucky. About 3 years ago I was just perusing and noticed that Axminster had a flash sale (their term) of Veritas twin screw vises at £150 each (£125 VAT-free) and free shipping world-wide on orders over £99. Rang a mate and he immediately said "get me one, too." At 10 pm on a Friday I sent an email to Axminster enquiring if they were able to ship two vises to Tasmania and confirming free shipping. Got a reply 40 minutes later thanking me for drawing attention to an advertising error - "it should have said free shipping within the EU" - but we will honour our advertising and provide free shipping on two vises for you. I confirmed the order at 11 pm. The gross cost of two Veritas twin screw vises was £250, which converted to $448, plus $2.50 FX fee from the bank. The vises arrived at my home just before 12 noon on Tuesday - less than 4 days transit time, and the package weighed 19.7 kgs, just under the courier limit of 20 kgs.
Gloat; my vise cost me $225.25 -
- The Wood Works currently has them in stock at $669.20,
- Carbatec has them listed but out of stock at $499,
- Ebay has them at $537.98 plus freight from UK.
https://www.thewoodworks.com.au/shop/equipment/vices-wood-working/kit-veritas-twin-screw-chain-drive-vice-705816-detail
Veritas Twin Screw Vice with Cover | Carbatec
Veritas Twin Screw Vice AP500226 05G12.21 | eBay
Axminster currently has them at £268.38 (£223.65 excl VAT) plus shipping. VAT free price is approximately $407, then you must add freight.https://www.axminstertools.com/veritas-twin-screw-vice-500226
There is an online company in the UK called “Screwfix” who may be cheaper than Axminster; give them a whirl.
There is really very little pattern to pricing worldwide, except that Australia is frequently very expensive. Each country, even in these days of international ordering, tends to price to what they think their local market will stand. Sometimes that means the UK is cheaper than the USA, sometimes the other way around. In my experience it is rare for Australia to even be in the same ballpark, our prices are often twice what other countries are paying. Obviously the exception to this is when manufacturers set the prices and the dealers have no choice, but this is rare.
There are many reasons for this, the various taxes are used as an excuse but 10% GST does not equate to a doubling of price (and with the US free trade agreement there are rarely any other taxes or import duties), and if an end user can buy the product retail (not wholesale like a dealer) in another country, pay standard shipping to get it here and it's still half the Australian price, then there is some "greed" at work..... I've also been told by one importer that the massive price increase was due to needing "C-Tick approval", which was interesting because the item in question was battery operated and exempt from any approval requirements. One importer (not woodwork related) 15 or so years ago was so irked by people trying to avoid his >200% mark-up over US prices that he attempted to persuade the product manufacturer to ban their US dealers from making direct sales to Australia.....
The next time you read that a three bedroom house in Sydney costs $12million, you know why!!
International pricing has always been impacted by all kinds of things. Years ago I lived in the UK and worked in the US. I also, when I was young and fit, was a keen mountain bike rider. Some of the parts I wanted for my bike were made in California, just down the road from where I worked, so I figured I'd buy them in the US where logic suggested they'd be cheaper (most other things were!). In fact they turned out to be more expensive in the US than in the UK - at that stage the US had punitive import charges on Japanese goods, so the Shimano (the Japanese competitor) parts were very expensive and the US manufacturer simply inflated their own local prices to match!
Warb has illustrated how weird pricing can be. You just have to do your homework!
Yesterday I bought four M10 x 150 mm galvanised coach bolts and they cost me $1.50 each from a local supplier. Before I went I did some comparison shopping on the web who advertised different prices according to size of order:
Attachment 504090 www.boltandnut.com.au/m10-x-1-50p-metric-coarse-galvanised-cup-head-bolts-nuts-low-tensile-class-4-6?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3rbUtYqh9AIVkZ1LBR2A6w7DEAQYAiABEgJ8-PD_BwE#641=3493
Suppose he just broke even on the sale of a box of 1,000 bolts, then the break-bulk sale of just 1 bolt would imply a margin of 1,100% - makes Warb's 200% margin look parsimonious.
the other thing to note is that prices for 2nd hand equipment fall much faster in the UK. rule of thumb i worked too when i lived there was - 2nd hand = 50% original price, minus age/condition.
a car for example loses 30% of retail value as it drives off the showroom - unlike here.
i am constantly astonished at how stuff holds value/price expectations for 2nd hand here are so high.
I've been here for 22 years or so, and I still haven't got used to it! OTOH I'm still doubtful that the prices being asked are ever actually achieved. For example, if you look at eBay you'll see some huge prices for second hand gear, but if you filter the search to "completed listings", i.e. look at what actually happened as opposed to what was "asked", you'll find most of those items never actually sell for even close to the money that was asked. People might list a given article at $1000, but you rarely find them sold at that price, and sometimes the few actual sales are at a fraction of the money!Quote:
Originally Posted by Hangfire
Equally there is a chap on my local "Buy Swap and Sell" Facebook group asking $3.3K for a lathe, bed extension and a few unspecified gouges including "a Robert Sorby". I still have a 2018 Carbatec catalogue which lists that lathe, new, at $1900ish and the bed extension at $250ish. Unless the selection of gouges is very special and very numerous, he's asking upwards of 30% above the new price of that setup - and with no warranty or support!
Then again, we have just been offered a trade in of just over 55% of the original new price of a 5 year old ute. That's a price offered AFTER the price of the new vehicle was agreed, so it's not a sweetener or part of a deal, the price for the new vehicle was negotiated without mention of a trade! So the dealer thinks that they can at very least break even on selling that vehicle! Dropping in to the four Yorkshiremen sketch again, when I were a kid I remember 5 year old cars in the UK being sold for scrap value.......
100% agree... but marketplace prices that I have offered a 50% price on have all been refused.....