Excessive mark up on cosumable spare parts for American toilet.

[rotrax]

Having been in the motorcycle business I often imported stuff from the USA for Harley Davidson motorcycles. I think I have some idea of the costs involved in so doing.

Imagine how horrified I was to see the two UK specialists for Raritan Marine Toilets offering a rebuild kit for £106.00 plus VAT and carriage.

At Raritans Southern HQ in Fort Lauderdale, Florida you can walk in and by the same kit for $76.00! I expect there will be local sales tax-used to be 6%.

Needless to say, my friend Dennis will pick me up a couple when he is in Fort Lauderdale early next year.

I will get two for the price of one-a bogoff!

Excuse the terrible pun.......................................

 

[JumbleDuck]

Having been in the motorcycle business I often imported stuff from the USA for Harley Davidson motorcycles. I think I have some idea of the costs involved in so doing.

Imagine how horrified I was to see the two UK specialists for Raritan Marine Toilets offering a rebuild kit for £106.00 plus VAT and carriage.

At Raritans Southern HQ in Fort Lauderdale, Florida you can walk in and by the same kit for $76.00! I expect there will be local sales tax-used to be 6%.

Needless to say, my friend Dennis will pick me up a couple when he is in Fort Lauderdale early next year.

I will get two for the price of one-a bogoff!

Excuse the terrible pun.......................................

I have a spare overhaul kit for a Raritan Compact II which you can have for a very modest sum. PM me if you're interested ...

 

[rotrax]

I have a spare overhaul kit for a Raritan Compact II which you can have for a very modest sum. PM me if you're interested ...

PM sent-but research shows it differs in some parts from the one I need, but the joker and flap valve may well be the same, so could be very useful as spares.

Ebay has a USA supplier listing the correct one for £78.00, post free but plus any customs/vat costs.

That is more like it-normal with Harley bits was they cost retail the same in Pounds Stirling as Dollars, so in the ball park.

It must be the UK agents heavy mark up adding the extra costs.

Well, no surprise there..........................................

 

[Cockaigne]

Why should a company charge less than it can get for its goods and services?

 

[Tranona]

Well, no surprise there..........................................

Well I guess there are only (relatively) a handful of those toilets in the UK .

Do the sums. $78 plus 25% freight and duty = $100 approx. 50% markup to give 33 1/3% margin = $150 or at a typical rate over the last year rate approx £110 plus VAT = £132. Gross profit for importer = £35 per unit. Annual unit sales - maybe 5 units?

Of course the importer may get a discount from the US list but still hardly a good business if you want to get rich.

 

[claymore]

This being an american toilet - I'm wondering how nobody has brought Trump into the conversation as yet........

 

[scruff]

I'm sure there must be a joke about American crap intertwined with Harley's and toilets...

 

[JumbleDuck]

Well I guess there are only (relatively) a handful of those toilets in the UK

I have the Raritan Compact kit because, for some strange reason, Westerly fitted these US-made toilets as standard throughout the Laurent Giles years and perhaps beyond. I presume they got a very good deal for buying them by the thousand, much as they did with Volvo.

Do the sums. $78 plus 25% freight and duty = $100 approx. 50% markup to give 33 1/3% margin = $150 or at a typical rate over the last year rate approx £110 plus VAT = £132. Gross profit for importer = £35 per unit. Annual unit sales - maybe 5 units?

Lee Sanitation have them at £110.41 including VAT and UK delivery.

 

[claymore]

I'm sure there must be a joke about American crap intertwined with Harley's and toilets...

'There was this bloke who went to the toilet in Arizona having ridden all the way there from Denver on his Harley��

 

[rogerthebodger]

My daughter goes to the US at least once a year and if I need anything I order it online and pay by paypal and get it sent to her hotel.

If its from out of state you can also save local sales tax and the shipment within the US is often included.

 

[vyv_cox]

I was about to tell the tale that when I was testing C-links I began to order the one sold by West Marine, which appears to be a hardened and tempered one and thus possibly comparable to the Crosby ones. It cost something like $7 but the cost to send it across the Atlantic to me was horrendous, something like $70.

Before posting I thought I would check whether this is still the case but I find that I have no access to West Marine's website due to GDPR concerns.

"We have detected that you are visiting us from a country with Global Data Protection restrictions (GDPR). Due to requirements placed upon West Marine as a result of Global Data Protection Regulation, we are not permitting internet traffic to our website from certain countries in order to avoid any violations. No tracking or performance measurement cookies were served with this page."

 

[Tranona]

I have the Raritan Compact kit because, for some strange reason, Westerly fitted these US-made toilets as standard throughout the Laurent Giles years and perhaps beyond. I presume they got a very good deal for buying them by the thousand, much as they did with Volvo.



Lee Sanitation have them at £110.41 including VAT and UK delivery.

Lee's price sounds about right if you do the sums with, say a 25% discount from the US retail as the buying price.

Seem to remember South West Marine Factors being the agent in those far off days. They supplied a lot of gear to Westerly.

 

[JumbleDuck]

My daughter goes to the US at least once a year and if I need anything I order it online and pay by paypal and get it sent to her hotel.

Having a sister in America saved me roughly 50% of the cost of a Yanmar 1GM10 cylinder head and associated parts.

I was about to tell the tale that when I was testing C-links I began to order the one sold by West Marine, which appears to be a hardened and tempered one and thus possibly comparable to the Crosby ones. It cost something like $7 but the cost to send it across the Atlantic to me was horrendous, something like $70.

I want to buy a poster from the US. It costs $19.95 and their cheapest postage option to the UK is $100.

Seem to remember South West Marine Factors being the agent in those far off days. They supplied a lot of gear to Westerly.

That would explain it nicely. Thank you.

 

[langstonelayabout]

PM sent-but research shows it differs in some parts from the one I need, but the joker and flap valve may well be the same, so could be very useful as spares.

Ebay has a USA supplier listing the correct one for £78.00, post free but plus any customs/vat costs.

That is more like it-normal with Harley bits was they cost retail the same in Pounds Stirling as Dollars, so in the ball park.

It must be the UK agents heavy mark up adding the extra costs.

Well, no surprise there..........................................

This sounds rather good...

Anything I ordered from the USA with the word 'JEEP' written on it was always priced at more than 1 USD to 1GBP. Then the carriage to the UK, followed by the import duty and then the additional charge for collecting the import duty.

My last purchase from the USA was from Catalina Direct. A companionway hasp & staple for the lock. By the time the price, tax, P&P and collection changes were made the (small) thing cost over GBP50.

Rather put me off buying anything from the USA.

 

[JumbleDuck]

My last purchase from the USA was from Catalina Direct. A companionway hasp & staple for the lock. By the time the price, tax, P&P and collection changes were made the (small) thing cost over GBP50.

In a year's time the same may go for Bavaria and Beneteau spares as well ...

 

[awol]

So why is it that Lewmar bits, made in the UK, are cheaper to source from USA, including transport (if you are lucky)?

 

[doug748]

Jap stuff is often cheaper in the US as well. I think it's why they call it the land of the Free.

I have just paid a lot more than the equivalent Dollar price in Pounds for an item sourced from America. Furthermore In the States it is supplied as a kit including an extra four large band clamps, set screws, spacers, Loctite, allen key, and seals.
This is via the UK distributor, not a one off, so large delivery fees are not the key factor. What seems to happen is everyone take a nice bite out of you at each stage. It was always said that American exporters called the UK "Treasure Island"

 

[Bilgediver]

The killer is that many american outlets utilise a postal service that gives good service but not necessarily the cheapest. I just priced a service kit at a canadian store that I use and lets us into their website and they have a kit for a Raritan Cricket at 98 Canadian dollars but basic delivery using Canadian post was a further 76 Canadian dollars and this end we have 20% of the total bill including shipping plus duty. It all adds up.

I find this a useful place to go when in Vancouver as they sell imperial fittings such as 3/8 and 5/16 bronze bolts a la Blakes sea cock at sensible prices and also do imperial grease nipples and wing nuts . Better still if a friend is cruising in and out of Vancouver or Rocky Mountaineering.

I am a regular visitor as have family over there.

Vancouver based chandler.
https://www.stevestonmarine.com/

 

[Mistroma]

I was about to tell the tale that when I was testing C-links I began to order the one sold by West Marine, which appears to be a hardened and tempered one and thus possibly comparable to the Crosby ones. It cost something like $7 but the cost to send it across the Atlantic to me was horrendous, something like $70.

Before posting I thought I would check whether this is still the case but I find that I have no access to West Marine's website due to GDPR concerns.

"We have detected that you are visiting us from a country with Global Data Protection restrictions (GDPR). Due to requirements placed upon West Marine as a result of Global Data Protection Regulation, we are not permitting internet traffic to our website from certain countries in order to avoid any violations. No tracking or performance measurement cookies were served with this page."

Vyv, just get TunnelBear VPN and pick USA or Canada (or pretty much anywhere not in EU) and you should be able to use the website. TunnelBear is excellent, I've used it for years on public Wifi. It is completely free for 500MB/month and that's plenty for most people. You can't download torrents or use BBC iPlayer anyway, but fine for general browsing.

I use it for security, blocked sites in UK (e.g. ISPs block PirateBay etc.). It used to work with BBC iPlayer but I think it was blocked last year. I used to download first 15MB of a prog, pause and stop iPlayer then disconnect TunnelBear before restarting. It was a great way to get iPlayer progs outside UK but not needed now.

Well worth getting just to work around nuisance GDPR stuff. Even checking Euro rate on Yahoo falls foul of it nowadays.

Apologies for thread drift.

 

[Sailfree]

US is a consumer society with cheapest prices.

UK is no far behind.

Unfortunately while food wine and marina fees in Portugal are far cheaper boat parts are not so still get visitors to bring bits out or collect on visits eg. 0ptima spiral wound batteries £150 in UK but cheapest here €241, anti foul £360 but €570 here.

Going on cruise to US in December must think of what I should consider buying? I am considering replacing all my Raymarine chartplottrs and Radar but not sure of price difference.