Sportouring Cee Bailey Screen Pricing

[BBB61]

Have you seen how much they are charging for the Cee Baileys enhanced windscreen protection system for the 1200GS? Try £282!!! Compared to $299 from Cee Bailey in the US. That's £150 or so at the current exchange rate. How can they justify such a huge mark up?

 

[Peter Pan]

Have you seen how much they are charging for the Cee Baileys enhanced windscreen protection system for the 1200GS? Try £282!!! Compared to $299 from Cee Bailey in the US. That's £150 or so at the current exchange rate. How can they justify such a huge mark up?

I can understand some mark up for import duties etc, but that does appear to be an extraordinarily large difference! Having said that, all too frequently you see the dollar price in the US reflected as GB£ over here.

 

[BBB61]

I would expect some difference, but not almost 100%. Sportouring surely wouldn't be paying the full retail price for them and then have to mark them up to cover their costs and make a profit. The price they are charging for the full kit is almost the same as it would cost to buy the genuine adventure screen and hardware from a BMW dealer.

 

[Schtum]

That sounds like a fairly standard for a comparitive price on just about anything. The price in $ US is usually roughly equivalent to the price in £ Sterling.

 

[BBB61]

But given the fall in the value of the dollar against the pound in the last few years, why does it remain this way? You can bet that if the pound was to fall against the dollar that the suppliers would start to bump up their UK prices, but they never seem to lower them when the exchange rate is at the level it is now.

It's not just the Cee Baileys stuff either. Sportouring sell the Kaoko throttle locks, which are listed at under £40 if you go to Kaoko's own site, but Sportouring sell them for £80.

 

[Sportouring]

Sportouring Prices!

Ouch Guys!!!

I am always happy to explain my pricing on the products I import. You only have to ask!

When I look at importing a product I have to work on a middle range exchange rate based on the last 18-24 months, not the current variable rate. I have to build in enough of a buffer to survive when the rate drops as well as rises.

When you look at the costs of importing any of the products yourself, you have several components added during the import process that are not evident at the time of purchase! A lot of people come unstuck with this! It works like this... cost of item, plus delivery, converted to Sterling, plus import duty, plus UK VAT plus admin fee. Admin fee can range between £8.50 and £13.50 with Parcel Force for example. Again, I'm always happy to explain these costs and how it works!

The delivery costs on screens in particular is horrendous! The screens don't weigh a lot but they 'volume out' which means you pay for the volume of the carton its sent in and not it's physical weight!

If you work through the true costs of importing an item, it's not a coincidence that my prices will work out slightly cheaper than the total cost of importing an item directly yourself!
We take the hassle out of the process and provide you with a UK based guarantee and supply route, so if something is not right, you deal with me here in the UK not a supplier in the USA, Australia or Africa! That has a value in itself!

I'm in the game to make money of course but I'm not out to rip anyone off! I'm a motorcyclist myself and I take pride in providing fantastic products and superb customer service. Again, this has a value in itself!

If any of the forum would like to contact me to discuss importing, I'd be happy to listen & explain! You can call me direct on 01443 742421.

As forum members you also get to beat me up on a discount

Ride safe guys,
Mike.

 

[BBB61]

Mike,

Thanks for popping by and giving your input, it is appreciated, honest.

You mention exchange rates, but the pound has been trading at $1.80 per pound for over 3 years now. The key for you must be the price that you buy the item in at, which I would be very surprised to hear it was the same price they retail for in the US. I don't know of many retailers who have to buy in goods from other countries at the price they retail at. An example that was given to me quite recently by a dealer in the UK was a helmet that has a retail price of £65, but it only costs the dealer £22 to buy it, so it is quite a profit margin.

Even taking the Adv screen kit at a price of $299, when you add delivery charges of $90 (quoted from the Cee Bailey website) that brings it up to $389. If you get hit with the customs charges that is usually 9% import duty then 17.5% VAT on top, so that brings it up to $498. At the current exchange rate of $1.98 that equals £251.20. If Parcelfarce sting you for their admin fee of £13.50 that comes to a grand total of £264.70.

Your website shows it at a price of £282.35 with delivery of £15 on top, so a total of £297.35.

Whilst I appreciate that there are costs added on by Blair and his cronies, I am still at a loss to understand why the same product in the UK from the UK importer comes in at almost double the price in the US.

 

[Major Gadget]

Goods from abroad

I have just bought a Beadbreaker from Bestproducts in America. It cost
$150. The postage was $40. To pick it up from Parcelforce it cost me an extra £31. £16 something Customs duties and £15 something for Parcelforce.
So with the rate about 2$ to the £ the cost to me was £120 as opposed to $150 in the USA.