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Ali Cat said..husq2100 said..
Top quality boards were $1800-$2000 about 4 years ago. Race boards were $2200. The material costs have not changed that much. THere is more competiton in the market place now. ANd if you think shipping a container of boards over costs more than any other shipping container , well.....
A big part of Aus retail prices is determining what the market will pay without a great loss in sales. The companies realise that the high end of the market is the smallest and that charging more wont dwindle sales so the get away with more $$$ in their pockets.
BTW this is not really the retail outlets fault or decsion.
I don't think the Aussie distributors/retailers for the big brands have as much influence on determining the retail prices based on an Aussie market as you might think. I'm pretty sure many of the brands set the prices each year (give or take exchange rates) so that the boards cost about the same in each country and the margins between each construction type are maintained.
Also need to remember that 3-4 years ago the Aussie dollar was very strong, so although the cost of materials/shipping etc. may not have changed that much (based on whatever currency they are traded in) if our importers are paying for stock in USD, the difference between an exchange rate of $1.10 back then to around $0.90 now is HUGE!
I'm not having a chop at anyone here or saying the prices are or aren't reflective of increased costs of production, distribution and/or adjustments to suit what consumers will pay - just recognising there's a lot more factors that will come into play with the big imported brands.
Also I'm pretty sure the cost of Aussie custom made boards has increased comparatively - a custom carbon race board will cost you a lot more than $2200!!! and the shapers aren't exactly rolling in it with increased profits.
hang on, where did I bring up customs?
If youd like to go down that path it wont serve your arguments well. Customs are way more labour intensive and dont have the scale of volume to reduce costs....Yet, they are still cheaper!!!
I bet you can get a full custom race board (carbon) built here on the GC for closer to the $2200 than you think, and closer than the imported mass produced stuff. Im also certain you can get a full custom surf sup for cheaper than $2800 that these SB RRP for....
that was not my point. The point is costs have gone up but not in proportion with the price increase. And it is my opinion we were paying too much in the early days but had no choice then....
Seriously how much is a custom top line Surfboard? And yes while these SUP are bigger, the proportion does not represent the same increase in material costs.
You by more foam, more cloth, more resin etc you are going to get a better rate.
Its simple business, they said x,y and z sell for this much, so SUPS can sell for this much as determind by the current market place when sups first hit the shores. They got away with it and why would they change...
If they are really worth what they are new, why 3 months later are they worth 2/5ths of FA!