Advice sought - polarizing filter.

[DickyOZ]

(aside)

I was going to make an aside comment earlier on this point but I chose not to unless the conversation developed:

I am not commenting/debating whether one should or should not buy on line or locally; nor am I commenting about buying at the cheapest/cheaper price.

I am commenting about quoting and comparing the differences in price as simply a "mark-up" - as doing so potentially avoids addressing the more probable reasons for the price differences.

Unless one knows the two re-seller's buying prices then one cannot compare their individual "mark-ups" or assume that the local re-seller is making a larger percentage Gross Profit than the Hong Kong on-line store.

In Australia, many bricks and mortar re-sellers are contracted to buy from the local agent/importer/distributor (i.e. they cannot import directly and then resell - well they can, but if found out they risk breaking their contract and might not be supplied ALL the items distributed by that particular Australian Agent.)

So, it is entirely possible that for this item of a Filter the local camera shop in Qld. who is selling it for $135.00 is working on about the same or maybe less "mark-up" than the Hong Kong on line re-seller who is selling it at $70.00. And it is also possible that the Qld. re-seller who quoted you $199.00 buys the item at an higher price than the Qld. bloke selling it at $135.00

There are other costs in running a B&M store in Qld., and many are unavoidable, such as essential/legislative business overheads and GST. These costs probably contribute to why the local store-owner might feel s/he has to charge more for this item and indeed their "mark up" might be more than the Hong Kong store - but we don't know and can't quantify how much more that "mark up" might be, unless we know each re-sellers buying price: and my gut feel is the Hong Kong On-line Store has an advantage on that point.

Whatever the case, it seems an exponential trend that there will be fewer and fewer local stores in Aus., so any comparisons of prices and 'mark up', will be irrelevant in the not too distant future even if the recently proposed GST reform legislation is passed and even if all the Australian mandatory/legislative business overheads were to be repealed.

***

The "HD" Series has very good press and was not invented when I last bought a Filter - I think you have made a good choice and hope that you enjoy using the filter.

WW

Many thanks for your comments and observations Bill. I agree with you entirely, I really don't want to see local stores go out of business. Charging GST on imports will happen sooner or later and will make a slightly more level playing field. But what can we do to cut out the greedy grubs somewhere in the middle that put their hands in our wallets and help themselves to a 100-200% profit whilst doing absolutely nothing to earn it?

Sadly there are too many people in the world like the man who bought a drug company and put up the price of a lifesaving drug by 4000%. He sits in court gloating and smugly aware there is nothing the law can do to curb his greed. I would not want to be in his shoes on judgement day.

[William W]

Yes, indeed, well expressed: in the supply chain, especially for many Bricks and Mortar stores, there are many people "in the middle".

I don't know what can be done. It is a topic I think about but I don't have the faintest idea of an answer to it.

I do not think that genius economists know the answer, either.

It is very complex and (among many other contributing factors) - we are isolated geographically; we have a comparatively very small population; an exceeding large land mass; comparatively poor transport infrastructure; small~medium businesses are comparatively over governed and legislated . . . all those factors add to the cost of the final purchase.

"judgement day" is well expressed, too.

WW