Be careful, be wery, wery careful

[cxs58]

Absolutely Freaky....I work hard for my money so I want to get the best available price....if this means getting suppliers to compete for my dollars, then so be it....my original gripe of this topic was about a supplier contacting another supplier because of the deal they did to get my business....obviously it upset them.
I agree with you Doc....suppliers are out to get as much profit as they can, thats business....the days of a 'fair price' for parts or for that matter any service has vanished....ask any supplier/contractor and they will tell you they will charge whatever the punter is willing to pay....after all this is a democratic society....therefore we, the punter, have the same rights to minimise the cost of our purchases....
My first priorty when shopping is to Australia....this is followed by the price....obviously, due to everyones differing financial situations, we all have a different mark where loyalty and price cross paths....generally I reckon we all try to do the right thing here, but money doesn't grow on trees so its ok to buy the cheapest as long as the quality is the same or better....

[marshallmech]

To right doc I tried to get some honda plastics from O/S would have worked out a saving of over 100 bucks
but the australian supplier has a deal with them and they wont sell to austalia.I dont mind paying a bit more
but I wont get ripped off either.

[Doc]

If I had a nice bank account I probably wouldn't mind so much but a lot of the time I have absolutely no choice but to find the cheapest alternative as I simply can't afford it any other way. 'If' I only had 1 bike then it wouldn't be so critical but when i have to share funding over 3 or 4 bikes at any given time then I struggle. Thin out my collection I hear..no way!!  It is a free country and anyone can sell for any price they see fit, fair enough they want top dollar but no sale = no profit and no return business and no referals to others. It doesn't take much to keep most happy and in this case $10 would have made all the difference and I would have done the deal there and then. That $10 extra was pretty much the profit they were making on the postage alone and took the guard to a price I could not justify for a replica  

marshallmech, that's not doing anyone any favours in the long run either..I'm lucky I have a mate in the US who will help with this sort of thing if the local postage US is much cheaper. A guard (or 2) should only cost about $10 -$15US to post to Oz so if their local postage is only about 10 than it can still be viable if you buy a couple. They get shipped to the US address for $10 then shipped over here for another 10 or $15..if your saving 20 or more on each guard than it works fine. $10 to me =  3 Spark Plugs or some chain lube, fuel or oil, gasket paper or a few packs of screws. on 2 guards is $20 which is a clutch or front brake cable, a front sprocket, new grips or levers whatever but $10 bucks is still 10 bucks and to me it's not small change be nice if it was but it's not hence i push the budget bikes to the hilt 

[marshallmech]

The place is in the US doc their price for a fender $65 about $70 oz + post
Oz supplier $120 + post.  Like I said BIG difference. Im the same the dollar means
alot to me Wife and 2 young kids and trying to rebuild and race bikes. Bike shops have
overheads and things I agree but about $50 difference is a bit much!

[YSS]

I can see $ 50.00net savings on a mudguard is convincing . But lots of the savings it is the drop in value of the US$
and no GST when sent by post in small volumes . I can see the similar things happening with our shocks . People can buy YSS now cheaper in US than in Australia . But , there is a but . When our importer in US  has to reorder from us , he has to pay in Euro with the adjusted rate and then he has to lift his prices sooner or later. Anything that the US has to import now , will be alot dearer in future . So unless its made in America or it is old stock , the prices will change soon. Enjoy the low prices while they last . Thats globalisation for you.

[oldfart]

point taken Walter . But the Internet has made it a lot easier to SHOP AROUND  and compare prices 

[Nathan S]

Interesting. The usual deal is that if a wholesaler is willing to sell direct to the public, then they sell at the retail price. Numerous sources have told me that I'm better off buying YSS from Les or Fernando than directly from Walter, for example.

In the bigger picture:

A lot of Australia wholesalers are trying to make retail type profits.... It shouldn't - and in this day of the interweb, can't - work that way. You can buy PWR radiators from the USA, including freight, significantly cheaper than your local dealer can buy them from PWR (before your dealer makes any profit). Madness.

Mostly, the retailer isn't gouging you. If you find a retailer who makes the effort to look after you, you'd be mad not to support them.

Interestingly, I've found the 'local' country dealers FAR more realistic and accommodating than any of the city dealers.

Two thumbs up for:

Wright Motorcycles, Yass.
Cowra Motorcycles, Cowra.
Bruce's Motorcycle Repairs, Mitchell ACT.
The Yamaha dealer in Goulburn who's name I forget.

 

[crash n bern]

I have to agree with Nathan. It's not the dealers, it's the wholesalers. I once had a wholesaler tell me that 40% mark up for a retailer was good profit. I laughed, try running a shop and paying staff on a 40% profit margin. Then consider every customer wants his 10% discount. Not to mention how much money a retailer needs to tie up in stock for a small return.
This was in contradiction to another wholesaler who was in the rag trade who said that a retailer needs to make 100% markup to stay alive.
Many years back I used to retail a few bike accessories. (I originally got into it so I could get cheaper stuff for myself. This was before the internet was invented.) I was after a new set of pants for myself a couple of years ago. Retail was $280, wholesale was $199. I bought them off the net retail from the US, the same pants with a jersey and gloves combo pack was $120us retail. I also threw in a set of socks and got the lot for $180au  landed. And that was when our dollar sucked. So it was cheaper for me to buy retail from OS than it was to go to my wholesaler.  So when a retailer starts buying his personal stuff off the web you know there's a problem. I've since dropped that side of my business as it just wasn't viable.

As wholesalers sell more than a retailer their markup can be smaller as they rely on larger turnovers. But this doesn't seem to be the case. I come across a lot of this with fledgling wholesalers who try to wholesale their locally made products for the same price as imported brand name products. Giving themselves a healthy 150% markup and allowing me 50%. Then wonder why they can't get their brand off the ground.