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Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Topic Date User

Australian prices! 18-May-2011 At 4:16:28 PM citationx

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On 18/05/2011 strerror wrote:
>On 18/05/2011 citationx wrote:
>Laziness I get. I've also heard people say that they don't trust forwarders
>(bit bizare but ok), but the worse off financially you are, then surely
>the more incentive to get things at good prices? Also we're not just talking
>about $15. I recently spent about ~1.3k AUD (over some months) on climbing
>/ camping gear for a saving of around ~1kAUD. A good example is my Mountain
>Hardware Drifter 3 man tent and foot print that I paid $160AUD for. See
>how close you can match that locally, in some cases I've seen prices at
>over 3 times that cost and that's without the footprint!
>
While this is all good and well for people that want to spend $1,500 on gear in one hit, my point was that people have probably already made large purchases for cams, ropes etc. I'm going to be very general (and include many of my own thoughts) but i'm willing to bet that a lot of current climbers already have 90% of the gear they need. They probably only need to replace a cam here, or a jammed nut there, maybe only a 5-pack of draws, or a new beanie. If you were goign to "overhaul" your rakc and gear, then sure, go nuts overseas. But i'm not going to go to the effort of replacing my number #1 camalot for $15 bucks, especially if i'm in the middle of a climbing trip in the gramps...

>Something I ran into until I learnt to trust manufacturers sizing and
>read a few user reviews on popular sites giving an idea as to fit.
>

I've read many reviews and found lots of thing lacking. I guess that's mainly because i'm not "short and fat" like all the "outdoor" companies tailor their clothes to. I have long limbs, but a slender torso, this makes it hard to get clothes that fit snuggly around my body but don't leave my ankles or wrists cold... Regardless, reading reviews i've seen people claim to be 5'9" that have an L fit perfectly, as well as a 6'3" have the same L garment fit...meh.

I guess my initial and most important point in my original post was the point that yes, importers are likely to be "greedy" and "screwing us because they could". I've seen it happen, but as mentioned, those representing the importers haven't ever actually explained why they need to add 100% of the import price to determine the wholesale price, and why they need to state the rrp is 4 times the import price... (maybe they have really inefficient stores with high overhead costs. likely, given the prime property used in Kent and Ltl Bourke sts...)