Why are tools so expensive

[RSD]

Yes, ignore the US market. It may not be around for too much longer in its current state anyway.

they certainly aren't heading in the right direction at the moment...

Now I have imported *rather a lot* of power tools for people over the years and have done extensive research into various brands, so I know (at least knew) precisely what I'm talking about. There is a brand that this is very worthwhile for because of the extraordinary margins that are applied locally, particularly to the accessories for said tools. The tools themselves usually worked out to be 65-80% of the local cost after air freighting them in, but there were some (larger/heavier) tools that freight made uncompetitive, depending on the exchange rate at the time. There was no GST applied as the packages were always sub AUD1000 ex freight. SOme of the accessories were 25% of the local cost and the average for accessories was about 40%.

For us newbies - is that the one that starts with F and has 7 letters?

[Beardy]

Why aren’t some of the other high end brands represented here in Australia and getting in on the action of ripping us Aussies off and making their fortune?

[RSD]

Why aren’t some of the other high end brands represented here in Australia and getting in on the action of ripping us Aussies off and making their fortune?

Our market isn't really big enough for most brands to set themselves up here and so they need to find/be found by an importer/distributor.

[Beardy]

Our market isn't really big enough for most brands to set themselves up here and so they need to find/be found by an importer/distributor.

And of course that would have nothing to do with the potential disparity of pricing when one of these niche product companies does setup camp here with reps on the road offering free onsite product demonstrations, an Australia wide network of retailers stocked with their product and an after sales support and repair service.
I wonder where the money comes from to pay for that?

[Glider]

Does anyone know how it all works in Noo Zulland?

mick

[elanjacobs]

My guess would be that it's what the consumers will pay. If no one bought at high prices, the prices would have to come down. That's the nature of basic economics.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

Oh gawd did you really have to re-open this? It was quite happily dead for over a year and now we gotta go through it all over again

[Spyro]

Is there anything cheap in Australia?
At some point I imported kangaroo leather from the US cheaper than the shop in Melbourne, explain that to me.
Poor roo went around the globe post mortem for no reason other than humans being weird.

[allfix]

Oh gawd did you really have to re-open this? It was quite happily dead for over a year and now we gotta go through it all over again

Most of these threads are full of comments like yours which don't have any useful content so it's frustrating to read through the entire posts in search for a useful information, please only replay if you got informative content or opinions.
Regarding the topic, I do agree that the products' prices go crazily up parallel with high demand but they will go down when there is little demand.
I always remember what an "uneducated" marketing teacher said to me that marketing is the study for understanding what people want to buy while I argued with her that marketing is the art of selling stuff people don't really need.
And we in Australia all know that we live in a BIG island where most of the stuff came from overseas unless we produce it.
I often see stuff listed in US or UK (for example) cheaper than what we pay in Australia while the same identical stuff is made in China from the same brand.
Delivery is another issue because I often see that it's cheaper to ship the same item from China to the US but it would be more expensive to ship to Australia even so we are closer to China.
People talked about US wages being lower than Australia and that doesn't make sense to me because you need to do a full overview between two nations.
And lets look at our AUD which in these last 10 years has became less than valuable.
Many of you guys buy from overseas and you know how "painful" is the exchange right now, 10 years ago I could buy something on eBay listed for US100 and only pay AUD95 while now I pay AUD130-140 for the same item listed for US100, also add carriers' fees listed in USD to be converted to AUD.
Then we have the new compulsory 10% GST on imported goods and you we'll see that Australians are being ripped off.

[elanjacobs]

Most of these threads are full of comments like yours which don't have any useful content so it's frustrating to read through the entire posts in search for a useful information, please only replay if you got informative content or opinions.

Yes, because we're all sick to death of seeing the same question and the same answers being done over and over again. Nothing you've said hasn't already been said by someone else, either in this thread or in another one just like it. It's tedious, it's pointless and it's not going to change anything.

[allfix]

we're all sick to death of seeing the same question and the same answers being done over and over again

You do not represent all forum users nor you're obliged to go through these questions.

I've found this thread quite interesting and I'll keep on adding information so my question is why do you keep posting non informative content here if this thread bothers you to death?

[doug3030]

You do not represent all forum users nor you're obliged to go through these questions.

I've found this thread quite interesting and I'll keep on adding information so my question is why do you keep posting non informative content here if this thread bothers you to death?

Were you looking in a mirror when you typed that?

[Lappa]

First the postage thread now this one

[doug3030]

allfix has not made any friends yet

Doesn't surprise me

[justonething]

First the postage thread now this one

Lockdown rage

[poundy]

I kinda feel bad for the postal rampage, but not really... but at least I can say here that I didn't click no "report to admins" like I may have been accused of