Are we being ripped off

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robertj

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Going through the thread on survival suits and seeing their quality/price for myself, would it be fair to make the observation that foul weather manufacturers excluding XM seem to be way over priced?

Most if not all are made in china, where unit costs are at a minimum, but prices are top dollar.

Bob
 
'Charge what the market will stand' seems the motto rather than any relation to production costs...

That may -hopefully- be a thing of the past in the current financial climate.
 
The top brands are pricey, however you do pay for what you get. I have a top brand jacket that cost me £350, but I've had it for 6 years and last year the top brand replaced it with their latest model as there was a fault with it. When they were replacing it I had to borrow a mates fairly new jacket that cost him very little and it was aweful, I got wet, cold and had a generally miserable experience.

While you can see it as being ripped off as the kit is very expensive the kit works exceptionally well and the customer service is great (from my experience and I expect a miserable git to argue otherwise).
 
dylanwinter said:
sailing gear is pricey

but us sailors are rich when co mpared to fishermen and builders

so I buy most of my wet weather gear from other places

Dylan
Click to expand...
In my early days of sail cruising, my wet weather gear often had WIMPEY or COSTAINS written across the back.
And this was before fashion logos were common, I must have been a trendsetter!
Also had vinyl shouldered donkey jackets for cold weather, kept one for best when going ashore.
Well, you have to keep up appearances.:)
 
DanTribe said:
In my early days of sail cruising, my wet weather gear often had WIMPEY or COSTAINS written across the back.
And this was before fashion logos were common, I must have been a trendsetter!
Also had vinyl shouldered donkey jackets for cold weather, kept one for best when going ashore.
Well, you have to keep up appearances.:)
Click to expand...

that would make a good visual joke........wimpy.costains,Gucchi
 
robertj said:
Going through the thread on survival suits and seeing their quality/price for myself, would it be fair to make the observation that foul weather manufacturers excluding XM seem to be way over priced?

Most if not all are made in china, where unit costs are at a minimum, but prices are top dollar.

Bob
Click to expand...

You dont understand business. A £5 watch from the filling station will keep time just as well as a £5k Rolex but the punter who buys a Rolex buys the brand name which worn on the wrist says to others " look what I can afford".

Its the same with sailing clothing. No doubt you could buy some fisherman's kit which would be just as waterproof as the best Musto - in fact I've done it. But others pay £1k for top of the range Musto and a major part of what they buy is the label. Thats why its always on the outside of the garment.

"ripped off" is when you buy the fake Musto or the fake Rolex.

P.S. Remember the old business saying " a cost is a fact * , a price is a decision".

* or so the beancounters would have us believe
 
"The quality will be remembered long after the price is forgotten" - Henry Royce.

Certainly true of my Musto kit - Jacket now into it's 17th season and I replaced the original non breathable trousers with some HPX ones about 4 years ago. They're still excellent as are my orignal trousers but they make me sweaty because GoreTex didn't exist all those years ago.
 
I dunno - the bog standard commercial emergency ones come in at about £150, which doesn't seem extreme compared with other safety gear. And to be fair, the market for survival suits that you can function & sail in (as opposed to just survive) must be pretty small, so I'd say even £500 for the Guy Cotten ones doesn't seem that unreasonable.
 
Bosun Higgs said:
You dont understand business. A £5 watch from the filling station will keep time just as well as a £5k Rolex but the punter who buys a Rolex buys the brand name which worn on the wrist says to others " look what I can afford".
Click to expand...

Well, Rolex is definitely a brand that trades heavily on the name - amongst watch aficionados, Rolex are strongly deprecated as being ONLY for showing how much money you can blow away! Once upon a time - 50 years ago, maybe - Rolex were leaders in watch-making. Unfortunately, they haven't moved on much since then, and what were advances 50 years ago are now commonplace. For the same price you can get much better watches; better, that is, in terms of horological merit - as you say, a supermarket special will probably keep just as good time, for at least a while, until the damp on board gets it! But the pricey watches are mechanical movements, with many elaborations. The most expensive are works of art! I like mechanical watches - but for sailing I wear a G-shock. Good time-keeping, useful functions (including tide on mine), pretty much bomb-proof and cheap enough that it isn't the end of the world if I drop it overboard.
 
My Henry Lloyd Offshore jacket and trousers were very expensive in 1995, £400 or so... perhaps more?

They are still going strong, still waterproof, still warm, still look OK. 17 years for £400 doesn't seem bad.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Well, Rolex is definitely a brand that trades heavily on the name - amongst watch aficionados, Rolex are strongly deprecated as being ONLY for showing how much money you can blow away!
Click to expand...

The point is that a Rolex will not depreciate!
A good watch is an investment as well as a joy to own and something to leave to your offspring. I have only had 2 watches during my adult life. I bought an Omega Seamaster for myself for my 21 birthday. I paid 34 pounds for the watch and 9 pounds for the bracelet in 1964. When I stopped work I sold it on ebay for 850 pounds!
My current Rolex, bought on my retirement, is already showing a profit by the prices on ebay!

John

Written 9.03 pm on 17.4.12 but being a newbie, who knows when it will appear!
 
alasdair said:
The top brands are pricey, however you do pay for what you get. I have a top brand jacket that cost me £350, but I've had it for 6 years and last year the top brand replaced it with their latest model as there was a fault with it. When they were replacing it I had to borrow a mates fairly new jacket that cost him very little and it was aweful, I got wet, cold and had a generally miserable experience.

While you can see it as being ripped off as the kit is very expensive the kit works exceptionally well and the customer service is great (from my experience and I expect a miserable git to argue otherwise).
Click to expand...


I grant you that they are good stuff but still doesn't alter the fact the top brand kit is stupidly expensive.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
I like mechanical watches - but for sailing I wear a G-shock. Good time-keeping, useful functions (including tide on mine), pretty much bomb-proof and cheap enough that it isn't the end of the world if I drop it overboard.
Click to expand...

Each to his own I guess. I have 3 Omega watches stuffed in a safety deposit box because as mechanicals they arent reliable or accurate . I suspect they arent even good examples of mechanical watches but you would know better than me. For sailing I use a Seiko kinetic divers watch - the second one bought a couple of years ago after its 20 odd year old predecessor was nicked from the marina showers in St P Port. It had withstood even a car running over it without a scratch when the clasp came undone whilst riding my motorbike.
 
robertj said:
Going through the thread on survival suits and seeing their quality/price for myself, would it be fair to make the observation that foul weather manufacturers excluding XM seem to be way over priced?

Most if not all are made in china, where unit costs are at a minimum, but prices are top dollar.

Bob
Click to expand...

Foul weather gear, what's that?
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Well, Rolex is definitely a brand that trades heavily on the name - amongst watch aficionados, Rolex are strongly deprecated as being ONLY for showing how much money you can blow away! Once upon a time - 50 years ago, maybe - Rolex were leaders in watch-making. Unfortunately, they haven't moved on much since then, and what were advances 50 years ago are now commonplace. For the same price you can get much better watches; better, that is, in terms of horological merit - as you say, a supermarket special will probably keep just as good time, for at least a while, until the damp on board gets it! But the pricey watches are mechanical movements, with many elaborations. The most expensive are works of art! I like mechanical watches - but for sailing I wear a G-shock. Good time-keeping, useful functions (including tide on mine), pretty much bomb-proof and cheap enough that it isn't the end of the world if I drop it overboard.
Click to expand...

A guy I used to work with collected fake Rolex watches. Unlike most other fakes ther was a real pecking order with the realy good ones costing much more than many every day real brands. Apart from the price you really neaded to know what you were looking for to see they were fakes.
 
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