Marine electronics prices

[tuffyluffy 76]

A piece of brand name electronics on my boat just packed up, and if the crew at Tiscos can’t fix it, I’ll need to replace the unit. Hence I phoned the NZ agent for a price on a replacement, cost will be approx $1,300 incl GST.

 

A quick google of the part, and I find UK and USA distributors that will supply the unit. Cost, including courier and assuming I pay GST at the border will be between $750 - $800.

 

The unit doesn’t require any 'New Zealandising' or any other input from the distributor that would add to the cost.

 

Now I’m all for supporting NZ companies, but this price difference is ridiculous.

[Guest]

Yeah, pretty sad huh. Maybe a supplier from NZ could explain this big difference to us...surely we have some around here??

[Guest]

Don't forget if it's over NZ$400 I think, you could easily be up for other costs like clearance and a few things. Maybe adding another hundy or so could be a safe call.

 

In the UK the distributor would by 1000 units, in NZ that would probably be 10. Go to anyone saying 'I want 1000' and they will drop their pants a lot more and a lot faster than if you ask for 10.

 

Also don't forget that all this gear is very easily track able so if it plays up the locals will probably, more than likely, charge you to even look at it let alone repair it. Before anyone bitches 'That's unfair' think about the local dude having to run around and do the fixes on gear they never sold. To expect them to do that for nothing is both unrealistic and plainly unreasonable.

 

And that price differential doesn't apply to everything. Just sold some Italian made product to an Italian boat who said we sold it to him a tad over 25% LESS than he could have brought the exact same gear in Italy for. I can assure you we didn't sell it for nothing. Do we hear bitching about that? Knot often

[Guest]

 

Also don't forget that all this gear is very easily track able so if it plays up the locals will probably, more than likely, charge you to even look at it let alone repair it.

 

 

Does anyone ever repair this kind of stuff anymore?

[Guest]

KM I second that - i know from experience that in certain cases, US Retailers are selling a certain very well known electronics brand for less than the NZ distributer buys it from the manufacturer. Just economies of scale.....of course when it goes kaput, expect to pay $120 an hour for the local service agent to look at it, plus any costs associated with removal or installation.

[Guest]

There are a few things cheaper in US or Europe than in NZ.

Electronics is one ofthem.

Safety at Sea deal in world wide brands and often come up against this.

Economies of scale are one part of it. Cheaper pricing in home country is another with the manufacturer unable or unwilling to give a bigger discount to the overseas (read NZ) distributor.

But buyer beware. A good example is the baby McMurdo Fastfind PLB. Cheaper but not by much in USA. Illegal in US spec in NZ.

[Guest]

 

Also don't forget that all this gear is very easily track able so if it plays up the locals will probably, more than likely, charge you to even look at it let alone repair it.

 

Does anyone ever repair this kind of stuff anymore?

Knot as much as they used to as the big name multinational that controls/owns a lot of marine electronics doesn't like repairing gear as we have all noticed recently

 

And something else that came up over the lunch time chat, Lost leaders and 'the full package'. Lost leaders are common so can distort pricing if you suss the interweb and go looking for the cheapest. And sometimes the price is quoted of an 'item' then compared to that 'item' here or elsewhere. That happens locally as well and seen often. One outfit at the moment is doing a item very cheap to get you in the door. When someone buys this item they usually buy one or 2 other things that go along with it at the same time. Those extra bits are horrendous in price and the punters would save moonbeams by going to the local dairy and buying them.

 

Also are you getting the exact same thing for those bucks? Sometimes you aren't. Had a case of that last week where someone quoted a price $300 below another BUT one price included all the accessories and one didn't. There was a real good case of that last year where a local known name was selling an item at a price miles below everyone elses cost price. On investigation it was found this outfit had split the 'standard package' into 2 parts. Part one, the headline name, was seriously cheap but by the time the punters brought Part 2, both parts were needed for it to work, the price was actually well above what the normal price usually is. Many fell for that and were badly shafted even if most didn't know it.

 

It's very hard often to know exactly if you are comparing apples with apples. Even harder if you are doing it long distance.

 

It's the 'whole package price' you want to look at knot just part or components of. That includes back-up and servicing it the item may require it.

 

Hey, it still maybe cheaper from offshore but then it may knot. It's knot quite as simple as it sometimes appears.

[Farrari 4]

I think it's called loss leaders ... but yeah the supermarkets do this all the time. They used to sell alcohol below cost to entice you into the supermarket to buy the more expensive item (like soft drinks, chippies or peanuts) until some do-gooder got the law changed. Something about NZs bad drinking habits

[khayyam 68]

from my last experience wandering around a marine store in the US vs prices here, it's almost no comparison. miles cheaper there on almost everything.

 

mostly economies of scale, but i think perhaps somewhere higher in the chain than the retailer level. the shop i was in was in a city of similar size to auckland, and not part of a big chain, so it's not obvious where the retailer-level scale would be coming from.

[Guest]

from my last experience wandering around a marine store in the US vs prices here, it's almost no comparison. miles cheaper there on almost everything.

 

mostly economies of scale, but i think perhaps somewhere higher in the chain than the retailer level. the shop i was in was in a city of similar size to auckland, and not part of a big chain, so it's not obvious where the retailer-level scale would be coming from.

 

I think that on the whole the US retailers accept a far lower profit margin and operate on the assumption that it is far better to move an item, even for minimal profit, than have it sitting on the shelf - which is really capital just doing nothing. It is a different mind set.

 

I often buy things while in the USA/overseas and they generally last longer than their warranty - 'cos nobody is stupid enough to make their warranty last longer than the item will. It is the same for items bought here.

[wheels 543]

I used to import and there can be a few big pitfalls to be careful of.

Most of the distributors in NZ arenot ripping us off. As KM says, it is economy of scale. Some overseas manufactures will supply only in container lots at a time. No joke. Some will sell in 10,000 units or similar figures. Dpends on what the itme is of course. Then there is warranty and CG, which of course means you have to carry spares for 7 years and all sorts of other issues. It is expensive to be a supplier in this country. In a nutshell though, we are still one of the cheapest countries in the world for electronics when you look at the entire Nut and not just the local price versus the Retail price in the US. Oh and the margins in the US are really really small and we simply can not afford to run those margins here in NZ. And of course there is nothing more infuriating than to have something for three years and have it fail and then find that the company no longer exists, leaving everyone out in the cold.

[SloopJohnB 323]

So if we cut all the different makes and only have one, a so called "black Model T" make, will they be cheaper.

[Guest]

I think that on the whole the US retailers accept a far lower profit margin and operate on the assumption that it is far better to move an item, even for minimal profit, than have it sitting on the shelf - which is really capital just doing nothing. It is a different mind set.

Yeah could be a point in that but again that comes back to population rather than mind set. Bigger customer base so bigger volume so a smaller margin is able to be charged. Quite a few do that here but it would be a hard one to argue with marine electronics I'd think as the volumes are tiny at best.

 

If it was just mind set and NZ business swung to the cost plus 10% (and in the US cost plus 5% isn't uncommon on marine electronics sometimes) sort of thing and sell a lot of them you'd soon all be only able to shop in the US via the interweb. It's been tried on a few occasions and failed... usually owing lots of money. In the US the big dudes can get away with that in areas as they off-set that with far higher costs on other product lines. I'm sure for every one you pick at, say West Marine, that is hell cheaper I could show you one that is hell expensive compared with NZ.

 

Here's a very popular item every boat has at least one of that pops quickly to mind. These are all the exact same item converted to NZ$ at todays rate and are RRP's inc whatever local taxes -

West Marine - $957

BIG Aussie marine chain - $1184

NZ - $767

The item is knot made in NZ, nor Aussie or the US come to that. And that above is with a very high NZ dollar which should make the offshore stuff a lot cheaper. What's more that item is one that NZ sellers can still get a decent margin on. Do we here bitching about that, I think knot

 

And it's pretty well know that many big outfits often drop large amounts of gear, usually towards the end of it's model life, onto the US market below cost to both get rid of it and buy market share at the same time. That is done and then sold well below what the actual cost of the NZ importers is. Again the US has the horsepower NZ just doesn't.

 

To add to what Wheels has said re volumes. We bring in an item and we pay more for it than it is sold in the US sometimes. The usual minimum quantity is a container full or around 10-12 years worth of supply for all of NZ. To get those items, you the punters want, we have to pay a hefty premium to get less than a container load. We could buy a container load and save but then we'd have to pass on some large financing costs, extra rent for storage and so on, so either way it's all cost that has to be recovered somehow.

 

It's all knot quite as clear cut simple as 'big verse small margins' as it appears.

 

SJB - Yes it would.

[Guest]

You will find the crappy Chinese stuff getting more expensive as their middle class grows - large local retailers are already struggling to keep the interest of Chinese manufacturers simply because the orders are so small in comparison to what they can now sell in China. Why make 10,000 for a market when you can sell a million units to someone just down the road.

 

There will always be anomalies and as alluded to earlier local after-sales service is worth quite a bit.

[Guest]

Here's a very popular item every boat has at least one of that pops quickly to mind. These are all the exact same item converted to NZ$ at todays rate and are RRP's inc whatever local taxes -

West Marine - $957

BIG Aussie marine chain - $1184

NZ - $767

 

Sorry KM but this example holds no weight, I could give you 100's more in the opposite direction. Looks like you just found one to support your argument. Just compare one of crew.org's sponsors and Mauriprosailing.com, BIG difference.... I can PM you examples if you so desire.

 

And before you all load guns and start firing my way, I do try and support NZ as much as possible but sometimes in the end the money in my pocket is better in todays times. On the other hand there are some NZ shops I go in to buy stuff and the staff are fantastic so I keep going back,price regardless.

[Changed 10]

I've had a bit of a look around over the last couple of weeks over here in the UK. Thought I'd get something cheaper and then get the tax back. Even with the high $ at the moment NZ prices still look better and retailers seem to be as rare as rocking horse turds!!!

[Steve Pope 243]

Had to replace a gearbox, Price quoted by NZ agent, replacement of the original mechanical gearbox only, ex Australia $3400.00 + GST, 6 weeks delivery.

Much higher spec hydraulic box plus CV type coupling plus oil cooler ex UK $3400.00 including freight and GST delivered in 8 days.

Both items foreign manufacture and 1 off imports, no economy of scale here.

Name brand hand held GPS failed, it was out of warranty (only had around 400 hours use.) paid well known local agent to identify problem only to be told the mother board had failed and was not replaceable, bin it and buy another! Yeah Right! wouldn't have made any difference whether I had bought it in NZ or overseas end result the same, crap gear, crap "service". As to the epirbs (Jono) that are illegal in NZ that come with the overseas yachts visiting NZ and all their electronics how do they fare getting repairs/ warranty work done from the NZ agents of their particular brand of equipment. All the manuals generally give the names and addresses of their overseas agents, (surely the dealer can claim back from the manufacturers for time and parts used doing warranty work) or do they get treated like NZ'ers who have succumbed to buying more cheaply priced items outside of NZ??

[Guest]

Here's a very popular item every boat has at least one of that pops quickly to mind. These are all the exact same item converted to NZ$ at todays rate and are RRP's inc whatever local taxes -

West Marine - $957

BIG Aussie marine chain - $1184

NZ - $767

 

Sorry KM but this example holds no weight, I could give you 100's more in the opposite direction. Looks like you just found one to support your argument. Just compare one of crew.org's sponsors and Mauriprosailing.com, BIG difference.... I can PM you examples if you so desire.

 

And before you all load guns and start firing my way, I do try and support NZ as much as possible but sometimes in the end the money in my pocket is better in todays times. On the other hand there are some NZ shops I go in to buy stuff and the staff are fantastic so I keep going back,price regardless.

 

Of course it holds weight or at least as much as the 1st posts singular example. As a FYI that example was the 1st thing that popped into my mind and being honest the price differences did surprise me with the lot larger than expected gaps. But there are many more examples if you want them, especially in my little corner, I could quote 100's

 

Yesterday I organised 900kg of stuff, knot what I mentioned above, for some boats in the Caribbean and even after airfreighting the whole lot there they are still paying well less than the local rate, which is set by the US right next door. The airfreight basically doubled the price. The local rate is US$7 per FOOT. You walk into my place and the exact same spec stuff would cost you a tad under NZ$13 per METRE. What's more the local stuff is US made, the stuff we send was Italian.

 

With warranty work I think you'll find most locals will happily do visiting boats repair work under warranty. I believe most locals have some agreement with HQ about that. But why should they piss around and help some local dude, who didn't want to know them and cut their lunch, for nothing? Shouldn't they have the right to show the exact same disdain the local dude did to them when they went shopping?

 

And I'll raise another point here. This is purely one example of many. How many do the Simrad and happily take their support and goodies yet did the races with B&G, for example, gear they imported themselves cutting the Simrad sponsor out. You all want outfits like ATL, for example, to help support your yachting and that costs ATL. Do you think they just walk out the back and pluck 1000's of $$ off a tree to throw at the event each year???

 

But I do totally agree some prices here are crap but equally you can knot say that is a blanket statement and it's as simple as 'NZers being greedy'. That is just wrong, most of the time.

 

Swings and roundabout lads.

[Bimini Babe 0]

But buyer beware. A good example is the baby McMurdo Fastfind PLB. Cheaper but not by much in USA. Illegal in US spec in NZ.

 

What do you mean by 'Illegal in US spec in NZ'? Do you mean the overseas models are illegal in NZ? Why? What's different about them? Apart from the price?

 

Case in point - I just bought 2 of these PLBs from the UK and got them delivered in less than a week, all for the price of a single unit in NZ.

[tuffyluffy 76]

And i registered a foreign EPIRB here without a problem.

 

Perhaps some claification from people who know is needed