Anyone know of any of the Maui or mainland US shops that actually take international orders? The major Maui shops don't seem to.

With the dollar the way it is, I'm keen to grab a new harness among a few other things.
Would prefer to get it locally but the US prices are more than $100 cheaper, so no contest.

Google is your friend qwerty

Thanks Donk. Have googled all the known shops. However, they either don't have facilities to order anything, or if they do, state that they don't ship overseas.

Perhaps they are not aware that their dollar is going down the toilet and people are chomping at the bit to throw some money their way.

For example, if you click on the Shipping Information page for the Naish Maui store, you get this (and I mean exactly this):

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Seriously, WTF is that?? Does Rainman work for Naish now?

I think there is a company in the states where you buy the item and send it to them, then they ship it anywhere in the world. Can't bloody remember what their name is.
Keep searching qwerty, you will get there.

Just buy local and support the industry that supports you in your area. Besides the after sales service wil be better

i wonder if you can buy starboard boards

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Donk said...

I think there is a company in the states where you buy the item and send it to them, then they ship it anywhere in the world. Can't bloody remember what their name is.
Keep searching qwerty, you will get there.

If its Bongo International that Donk is talking about, suggest you do some research on Google first!

I'm fairly sure the crew at neil pryde maui will ship gear, just send them an email, they're pretty flexible.

To be honest, by the time you add the shipping cost (+ insurance or take the risk). There won't be much of a difference in price.

You are better off visitng your local shop and doing a bit of negotiation on price.

Or better still, with the price of air fares and great Au$, go to maui for 10 days, do some sailing and a lot of shopping, win win!

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I totally agree, suport local shop, but what A COST!!! Any ideas why it's so expensive?

Yes...

Number 1 (and this is very true for my own business as an importer) we buy in USD and are hedged until May at $0.91 - which was, if you'll remember six months back, a very good price. We can't cut margins until our next order arrives in August for which we'll have paid less.

Number 2 - the cost of employing Australians is ENORMOUS. This is the lucky country - even warehouse workers have a pension, a good enough wage to dream of buying a home at some point in their lives and lead a pleasant life. This is all because of the expense of employing Aussies. Including work safe, super and wage, I'm basically looking at $20 an hour for the lowest skilled worker. If I was to employ the same person in the UK, it would cost me $8.

So here's the rub - Australia is the lucky country where everyone has a chance to lead a half-decent life. The downside is that you pay more for your goods than anywhere else on the planet for that privilege.

If you buy local, you're supporting companies that employ Australians. Buy offshore? Well don't get upset when companies more their distribution centres offshore to cut costs, avoid GST and pay less corporation tax.

Hi guys,

Did you know that seabreeze only exists because local.. Australian.. businesses advertise here? Without them, the site would not exist.

Like a country town, if you buy your petrol in another district, pretty soon your own district won't have its own petrol station. Local competitions fierce enough to ensure that prices are as competitive as possible.

Please shop locally, support your local businesses.

Out of respect for the businesses that do support seabreeze and make this forum viable, can I ask that you don't post/promote overseas purchasing deals in these forums.

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laurie said...

Hi guys,

Did you know that seabreeze only exists because local.. Australian.. businesses advertise here? Without them, the site would not exist.

Like a country town, if you buy your petrol in another district, pretty soon your own district won't have its own petrol station. Local competitions fierce enough to ensure that prices are as competitive as possible.

Please shop locally, support your local businesses.

Out of respect for the businesses that do support seabreeze and make this forum viable, can I ask that you don't post/promote overseas purchasing deals in these forums.

Great idea and fully support this, BUT,when i carn,t buy a product because the importer won,t bring that model into the country and the company won,t supply me the product cos i live outside the states and its protecting its importer, then i will by pass the system and import it using these great postal services.Some companies need to lift their game. Rant over

@ flckyspinny

What a load of BS !!! $8 an hour? the minimum wage in uk is about 6GBP the actual cost to an employer is estimated to be on average 2.5 times this once they have covered national insurance and employers tax contributions, compulsory sick leave and holiday entitlement etc

That's typically ( based on minimum wage) about 15 pounds an hour, based on current exchange rate is about $23 an hour. Wages and benefits across the European union are comparable to Australia, worse for employers who in France for example have to give employees more than 30 days annual leave, up to 36 days a year sick leave.

The cost of employing an Australian is no more than employing a Brit, frenchy, german and so on. So pull the otherone please it plays a tune!

Maybe he is quoting the price of EU labour (eastern uropean labour)...

I worked on a construction site there a few years ago And most of the workers were migrants from the east.. the funiest piece toilet graphitti I've ever seen was written above the bog roll. It said, "polish passports, please take one" hehhe.

No disrespect I love you polskies :)

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DrJ said...

@ flckyspinny
The cost of employing an Australian is no more than employing a Brit, frenchy, german and so on. So pull the otherone please it plays a tune!

Thanks for your input.

I have set up and run businesses in both the UK and France as well as here in Australia, so I know the numbers pretty well thanks.

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FlickySpinny said...

DrJ said...

@ flckyspinny
The cost of employing an Australian is no more than employing a Brit, frenchy, german and so on. So pull the otherone please it plays a tune!

Thanks for your input.

I have set up and run businesses in both the UK and France as well as here in Australia, so I know the numbers pretty well thanks.

Then you know what you wrote is totally rubbish then, and that as an employer in Europe( most of) you have the same financial responsibilities and liabilities as you do here, according to your numbers ($8) your employees would be paid 2 pounds and 8 pence an hour, that is 28 pence an hour less than I was paid at the age of 16 by the 'Walton on the Naze' branch of Woolworths in 1987 to stack shelves..... Are you going to maintain that wages have not gone up, but in fact down, in the last 25 years. You will not gain any support by talking out if your ass.

Anyway before those links were taken down I browsed the sites listed. Prices did not seem to be much cheaper than here. Perhaps sails from some brands were cheaper by a fair margin but you can usually get those sails for a good price if you buy last year (this years) model.

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DrJ said...
You will not gain any support by talking out if your ass.

Not necessary; it is possible to discuss wage rates without having a go at people personally thanks.

Please have respect for each other, even if your opinions differ.

This subject has been discussed in length in another thread, however I would say the biggest factor in our local pricing is the volume of sales, or lack off.

If you can sell 10,000 boards a year you can afford to operate on a lower margin then someone that sells 2,000 / year.

The size of market and volumes in the US or UK would have to be significantly higher than OZ, probably 10 fold or more.

So the more we buy from OS the more we support current or increased local pricing. Worst case is, we lose the option of buying locally.

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Mobydisc said...

Anyway before those links were taken down I browsed the sites listed. Prices did not seem to be much cheaper than here. Perhaps sails from some brands were cheaper by a fair margin but you can usually get those sails for a good price if you buy last year (this years) model.

Depends on what gear you're looking at. One fin I was checking out was at least $100 cheaper than oz price, though would have to take into account shipping, customs and other charges to get one over. However, since I live 400km from the nearest windsurf retailer (in Perth) and would have to pay freight anyway to get it shipped to me, then paying around $45US to get a fin shipped from the states still works out much cheaper in the long run (haven't done the deal yet though!).

Re supporting local retailers, I asked a fin importer out of curiosity why the same fin that costs $125 in the US sells for $230 AU. He became very defensive to my question and suggested I go and buy the fin elsewhere!!! Should I now support this 'local' (i.e. 400km away) business by buying his product considering his attitude, or go 'offshore'?

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f I asked a fin importer out of curiosity why the same fin that costs $125 in the US sells for $230 AU. He became very defensive to my question and suggested I go and buy the fin elsewhere!!! Should I now support this 'local' (i.e. 400km away) business by buying his product considering his attitude, or go 'offshore'?

attitude aside the retailer probably has to cover overheads such
as rent power etc so that's part of where the magic 100% markup comes from. Also don't forget our mate the GST.

all seems a bit hypocritical. retailers say we should support local retailers... but walk into a shop and literally everything in there is imported.

it's normal practise for retailers to import goods to cut save money and preserve their profit margins, why is it any different when consumers do the same thing?

there is a fair few aussie board manufacturers out there now... how come the local shops don't support their local manufacturers?

Gotta be impressed if anyone is sailing gear from the US.

What you pay in import duty you would save in an airfare ?

I imagine the problem with gear from the US is that being left hand drive it takes a while to get used to, especially the footstesps which are the opposite way round.

I was in Maui last year in August and the cost of buying a harness over there was so much cheaper than here it was a no brainer. Having said that the cost of boards and sails (the actual hardware) was pretty close to what it is here. I would rather buy my stuff from my local cause we get not only decent rates, but also the personal service that comes with it.

Dr J is right the actual hard numbers would say the costs of employing some one here is the same as the EU. He hasnt taken into account the fact that if you are moving a ****load of gear your buying rate will be better and your commodity costs (staff) will actually be amortised across a heap more gear. Surfing, especially clothing, works on 100% margin and no one seems to be whinging about them on here.

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DrJ said...

I imagine the problem with gear from the US is that being left hand drive it takes a while to get used to, especially the footstesps which are the opposite way round.

The main problem is the US waveboards are designed for their swell, in feet. Our swell is in metres

Wow amazed this post hasn't been pulled!
Google. UPS. Stay under $1k. Your risk if you buy a board...

Well, a lot of post has been deleted...

Like I said in a post that has been deleted. All gear or almost all gear are made in Thailand, China, closer to Oz than mainland america...how come it's a lot cheaper ?

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swoosh said...

all seems a bit hypocritical. retailers say we should support local retailers... but walk into a shop and literally everything in there is imported.

it's normal practise for retailers to import goods to cut save money and preserve their profit margins, why is it any different when consumers do the same thing?

there is a fair few aussie board manufacturers out there now... how come the local shops don't support their local manufacturers?

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laurie said...
Like a country town, if you buy your petrol in another district, pretty soon your own district won't have its own petrol station.

Laurie,

I agree that people should support their local shop when ever they can. After all it's a bit hard to test the latest board / sail if your shop is web based and on the other side of the world.

However, I think your example about the local town doesn't apply. I have just lived in a country town where the local super market and gas station engage in what can only be called blatant price gouging.

I think the windsurf market in OZ is slightly different. The big factors for pricing are volume and exchange rate. Given that shops / importers will need to order a product several months before they end up in the shop the exchange rate can change quite considerably.

Back to the original question...

I know Neil Pryde Maui will ship internationally. However, for anything bigger than a fin or harness the price of shipping usually negates any exchange rate savings. Then there is the big question of warranty. I don't know about windsurf gear but for a lot of electronics equipment the warranty is only valid for the market where the product was sold.

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NordRoi said...

Well, a lot of post has been deleted...

Like I said in a post that has been deleted. All gear or almost all gear are made in Thailand, China, closer to Oz than mainland america...how come it's a lot cheaper ?

Because of differences in import duty, local sales taxes (eg Oregon has none) as well as the fact that windsurf gear manufactured in Asia is traded in US$. That means in the US 1US$ is always 1US$. If you look at the rise and fall of the Australian dollar to the US$ over the past 3 1/2 years the difference can be quite significant within a very short time frame.

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[b]stehsegler said...
Because of differences in import duty, local sales taxes (eg Oregon has none) as well as the fact that windsurf gear manufactured in Asia is traded in US$. That means in the US 1US$ is always 1US$. If you look at the rise and fall of the Australian dollar to the US$ over the past 3 1/2 years the difference can be quite significant within a very short time frame.

That would make it cheaper in Oz now than the US. The further our dollar goes up against the USD the cheaper imports become.