RX42B motor prices

QUOTE (StuBeeDoo @ 25 Jul 2012, 19:53) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>It's probably to do with exchange rates. There'll be 2 exchange rate conversions on stuff bought from US sellers. I don't know what difference it will make, but it will make a difference.

Sorry, don't buy the exchange rate argument. SCX presumably price in Euros and that currency is weak against both the dollar and sterling so should be just as cheap for us to import from Spain. The pound is also down against the dollar so that makes buying from the USA more expensive for us.

The rrp of normal SCX cars in the UK is, to all intents and purposes, £40. In the USA it is about $45 which equates to £30. Yes, there are deals to be had on both sides of the ocean but exchange rates can never account for a £10 difference in the basic retail price.

I doubt the UK dealers have a higher profit margin than the American ones so that means either the manufacturer, distributor or both are overcharging the UK market.

Thanks for your insight Sean. Please note that I wasn't criticising dealers like yourself who generally give an excellent service at the best price within their control.

In answer to a couple of your points: the motors I bought were brand new in blister packs, not split from cars. The Americans generally do not remove sales tax for overseas transactions and didn't in this case. I paid exactly the same price as a US resident.

Their sales taxes are many and complicated but, overall, slightly less than ours. However, although your points are valid they do not explain such huge differences in price. I can buy these motors at any number of USA stores for the dollar equivalent of £5 - that is half the cheapest on-line price in England! Of course, a supplementary question might be, "How come UK dealers have nil stock of SCX spares while they are in abundance overseas?"

CJA, Sorry for my "pathetic whinging" although I thought I was raising a valid concern. I will, of course, make every effort in future to pay the highest price possible for my slot car purchases. I will also cease to pay my window cleaner in cash as that is morally wrong.

I stand corrected on the sales tax even though I am, of course, sitting down. As the motors were so cheap anyway I don't think I will bother to reclaim it from the seller. American sales taxes are truly bizarre. At a hotel in Savannah last year I was charged state and city sales tax plus a bed (occupancy) tax! Can you buy expensive things, like a car, out of state on the internet and avoid taxes?

I am also not quite sure what our respective health care systems have to do with the price of toy plastic cars but most Americans I have met seem to think our NHS is verging on communism.

Anyway, back to topic - yes I bought from a "bricks and mortar" store and I had a choice of several selling at the same price. Stripping out tax from the equation, the fact remains that a UK dealer will pay the distributor £6.60 for an RX42B and his American counterpart can sell the same item at £5 and, presumably, make a profit. As far as I am aware there is no import duty payable by the UK distributor as we are part of the E.U. as is Spain.

Nobody has yet given me a satisfactory explanation for the discrepancy.