Atlantic

  • Thread starter Thread starter Neil Ogilvie
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Neil Ogilvie

Still Learning.......
Why is all your equipment over in the US so cheap? What you pay in dollars in Britain we pretty much pay in pounds. Which means it ends up about 1.5 times the price.
Lifes not fair.................
 
But we lose out so badly not having a Royal Family, so that easily makes up for it.

:D
 
But meanwhile here in the colonies we're still all searching for that elusive British EQ...
 
How can Shure justify charging the yanks $79 for an SM 57, but we pay £89? Whats going on there?
Oh, and while I'm on the subject, are you all as proud of your country as Hollywood makes out? I mean, the stars and the stripes at the end of saving private ryan was a little cheezy.......
Don't get me wrong though, I'm not slagging your country off. As it is, I was born in Fort Lauderdale. so I do hold an american Passport.
 
Don't forget shipping costs and import taxes. O think that might be a large part of the markup.

That and the exchange rate.

About a year and a half ago I purchased a high-end communications receiver. It is top of the line. I got it from a company in England and paid almost $100 US dollars less than if I'd purchased it here in the States.

I think the exchange rate had a lot to do with that.
 
Neil Ogilvie

Do English people really have green teeth like Austin Powers?
 
Do you know Mr. Bean? And how come you guys don't brush your teeth?

But seriously, it's not uncommon for goods to be more expensive in countries other than the country they were manufactured in, as others have stated. You certainly don't have it as bad as some people around here!

Slackmaster 2000
 
Neil Ogilvie said:
How can Shure justify charging the yanks $79 for an SM 57, but we pay £89? Whats going on there?
Click to expand...

Shure doesn't have to justify its prices. Pricing is the mechanism by which supply and demand are kept in balance. When demand for a product puts pressure on the supply of that product, the price goes up. When supply of a product exceeds the demand for that product, the price drops. That's nothing more than Economics 101.

There are of course, many other factors to consider, such as the degree to which an economy has been infected with socialism, the cost of production and distribution, etc. but the simple fact remains that price is how producers and consumers maintain a balance between supply and demand.

Anyway, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. :-)
 
European (UK) Prices

DKMurphPr said:
... price is how producers and consumers maintain a balance between supply and demand....
Click to expand...

True enough, and that would explain the difference if there was some significant barrier that prevented the supply of SM57s in the US (or wherever) from finding their way into the UK to satisfy the demand of the UK consumer. However, so far as I know, there's no such barrier. I suppose there's some duty, but nowhere near enough to explain the price difference.

And the bulk of low-cost products sold in the US (maybe not Shure mics, though, I'm not sure) aren't manufactured in the US, anyway, but in China, Taiwan, Korea or somewhere else. The UK should -- theoretically -- have a cleaner import channel from China: after all, they had a colony sitting in it for 100 years or so, and that ex-colony is still crawling with British expatriates.

I suspect the real reason for most of the difference isn't wholesale cost, but retailer markup. Retailing in the US is absurdly cut-throat. It always has been, to some extent, but the Internet has brought the retailers the great "boon" of making consumers into fluid-as-water price-chasers, and given retailers the wonderful opportunity to throw away profits in pursuit of market share more quickly than was possible with old technology.
 
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I think Neil may have a genuine complaint. I paid $999 USD for my Allen & Heath Mix Wiz 16:2 from Musician's Friend..... :D

How much are they in Jolly Old England?
 
Neil Ogilvie said:
Why is all your equipment over in the US so cheap?
Click to expand...
Because the market here is absolutely flooded with new and used gear. It’s a buyers market.
 
I just want to know why all English people seem to want to be lumberjacks, dress up in women's clothing, and hang around in bars...?
 
Yeah I guess it is just supply and demand. In England we pay more for things than the french and Germans - although we do buy Sennheiser microphones cheaper than you guys :-) . I think theres just a real greed problem here in England too. It used to be the home of fresh, original music (Beatles, the stones, sex pistols) But now it's just choking it's small studio's. Check out www.studiospares.com for our prices.
And no, we don't all have teeth like Austin Powers. I have perfect teeth I am very proud of.
 
Well, I learned all I know about British culture from watching Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and Benny Hill. And I've got LOTS of questions...
 
Well I could contribute from my position. I live in Costa Rica ( Central America for those of you who were never good in Geography :D ) Some audio/instrument stuff is cheaper, more expensive or just the same as in the States. I think it depends on the distributor. For example, the Pearl dealer here is cheaper in most drumsets than in the US, because they buy directly from China or wherever they manufacture them. There are other things that are bought from a US distributor, so you can figure theres about an increase of 30 to 40% due to taxes, shipping costs and dealer´s profit. Some stuff I order directly through the internet and have it sent to a delivery address of mine in Miami. This way I can blow off the 10 to 20% the dealer would charge me. Of course, most people like myself who are not lucky enough to live in the US and are into recording are at the mercy of offer and demand, while in the US, there is buyer´s market where the consumer has 1000 different options to buy from, and where ther is always a war of prices.....
 
i live in canada. at the one shop in my city of 2 million or so that carries marshall mics, an mxl603 is 200$ after tax. that's for one. On 8thstreet, where i ended up getting them, they're 160 american for two with two free XLR cables (260 canadian vs 400$ minus the cables). i told the guys at the shop about this and the salesman tried to mark it down in his computer, but it wouldnt even let him reduce it by 10$, which just goes to show how high the wholesaler's markup was. They buy their marshall stuff from a yamaha distributer, he told me. odd how these things work, eh?
 
But speaking of France

Why do the girls not shave their under arms? And what's up with no one taking a bath?

:)
 
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