Are we still being ripped off?

Thinking of getting a new multiplier, so went onto the net to check out prices. Was amazed abu are still ripping us off after all these years!
I bought a C 5500 about ten years ago for about £90 in Belfast and later found the same reel in the states for $39.99. Checked out three shops in the UK and three in the states. These prices are for the Abu 7000 C3.

Gerrys of Morcombe £112.99 €162.68
Fosters £113.99 €164.12
Sportsmail £139.99 €201.55

Basspro $99.99 £56.33 €81.10
E Angler $119.99 £67.60 €97.33
Boatersworld $119.99 £67.60 €97.33

Askari have the 7000 C4 lever drag for £119.99!

Has anybody else noticed this difference in prices? Haven't settled on which reel to buy yet, but I don't think it'll be an Abu.

P. S. Anybody going to the states with a spare suitcase?(':lol:')
Laughing

Assume you are fishing most of the places that I do.

525 Mag/Supermag hard to beat if you are wanting one reel to do it all. Run mine with 18lb mainline to take advantage of extra strength that this reel has over say a 7ht or 6500. Sacrifice a bit on the distance front but in the real world would hardly notice it.

On the rip off front, I always check mail order prices, add on delivery cost and then go to the local tackle shops to see how close to it they can get. Even if they are a little bit more expensive, I buy from them as feel it is best to support local shops. Mail order is great but no good when you need to get odds and ends at last minute.


p.s. Have a mate who goes to states with his work. Not sure when he is going that way again but if it would be any help. . . . .

Lee

Is ABU still riping us off or is it the crazy amount of F***ing taxes we have to pay on things cos we're living in the UK! :x

Just look at petrol for a good example of price difference between the USA and over here. Its all down to government TAX !

Even though the price looks good in america, once P&P is added and then chances are customs might add some the price gets closer to the prices being advertised over here.

But sometimes it gets through customs and nothing is added, i've been lucky enough to get some things without any extra charges.. :lol:


Have a look on ebay [url]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ABU-7000C3-NIB_W0QQitemZ7174441078QQcategoryZ11728QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem[/url]

Ryan

Ryan
Quite right about the taxes. But manufacturers recommended price in UK is £179.99, and $129.99 in America. Somehow I think there's more than taxes involved.

Bill.

Lee
Iagree with you about local tackle shops when their in the same ballpark figures wise. But when they don't budge or try to meet you, your left with no alternative. The tackle shop that was in west street done me a very good deal on a pole. £200 as opposed to £400 list price. Mainland all around £250. Reel is for general beach plus tope.

Bill

if you´ll hang on i can check what i pay for the reels here in sweden.

Perhaps we can cheat the system ;)

Well it looks as the prices you found are just as good as the ones i get here in sweden... One should start his own company and buy them directly from distributor or factory.

Ambassadeur fishing Reels

CS Pro Rocket 4500 102£
CS Pro Rocket 5500 102£
CS Pro Rocket 6500 109£
CS Pro Rocket 7000 116£


C3 7000 142.63£

NOT INCLUDING SHIPPING

if buying a new reel try to get a few mates interested as well, either for a few reels or rod/reel combos, sometimes you may save quite a bit with a bulk order, with mail order or even local shops?

I fish with a Daiwa Tournament X 13' 4" as my main competition rod. I got it in England brand new for the Euro equivalent of €420. A certain tackle dealer in Dublin was selling them for €770. I bought an Abu 6000 baitcaster for my Bass rod in America for $39 and got it sent over by courier. The total cost for this reel, which arrived in my house 2 days after it was sent was €57. The same reel has been on sale in a different tackle shop for €160. Its up to you guys but if you're buying anything, and i do mean anything, then i strongly suggest you buy it outside Ireland. Either that or pay through the nose.

I have had similar experience. Bought a Mitchell 300 from Cabelas last year. After shipping, the total cost came to approximately 45 Euro. Quotes from tackle shops in Dublin ranged from 90 - 105 Euro. What strikes me about tackle in Ireland is the similarity of prices across all tackle shops. It is very rare to come across any noticeable difference on price if you are after a specific item, rod or reel. I actually think that the wholesalers are to blame for this. If you think that there are only a handful of tackle wholesalers in the country, you can see how they can easily control the prices. What really annoys me is when you see rods and reels advertised in the UK mags with a RRP of, say, UK£89.99, selling for UK£59.99. Now you know the RRP is nonsense. The true selling price in the UK is £59.99. Yet here, the converted price is based on the UK£89.99 figure. For what it's worth.
SE

Just got back from Florida, yes we are being ripped off in the UK.
I picked up 2x Abu 5500 C3's for $58 each :D , which when converted to £'s comes to £32 each :D , the best price I've seem them for in the UK is £65.
:evil: :evil: :evil:
Spent a small fortune in the massive BassPro shop :lol: .

Just got back from Florida, yes we are being ripped off in the UK.
I picked up 2x Abu 5500 C3's for $58 each :D , which when converted to £'s comes to £32 each :D , the best price I've seem them for in the UK is £65.
:evil: :evil: :evil:
Spent a small fortune in the massive BassPro shop :lol: .

C3 5500 £65?? i get them to a better price i recon

I have seen the price lists for rods and reels that the dublin shops operate from. In 99.9% of cases the retail price is exactly twice the wholesale price.

So for instance, if a rod costs the tackle shop 50 euro, then it costs us 100 euro. So they make 50 euro profit - it seems high, but I suppose they may feel entitled to it.

The problem is for rods at the upper end of the scale. So for instance, a rod that costs them 200 is on sale for 400 euro. Now, if you ask me, I think that is wrong wrong wrong! In fact it makes my blood boil to think they are making 200 euro from a rod from me! Especially when it requires the same storage space as a rod that only makes them 50 euro!

I gave up buying rods in Ireland a long time ago, and the same applies with reels. It's just not worth it. I bought a Daiwa Supercast a couple of years ago from the UK, which cost me 175 euro including p&p to my door after a little haggling. The same price in Ireland - 337 euro. Do they think we are complete muppets?

It's not just rods and reels either. I was asked to pay 4.50 for a packet of 50 crimps in Dublin city centre today. 4.50 like! And 5 euro for 50 5mm beads. Disgraceful!

I told them where to go, cos the same items only cost 2 euro each in my usual tackle shop. They basically told me to feck off, as it seems they have enough idiots willing to pay these prices to keep them happy.

I have always tried to support my usual tackle shop, and in fairness they do look after me, and their prices are better than most. But the prices we are being asked to pay in most shops are asbolutely criminal. And they won't get any better until people start giving them hassle over them. Unfortunately it's a very Irish trait just to accept the status quo!

Ok rant over...

Whats wrong, wrong, wrong in making a profit ? do you work for nothing ?

A city center shop will have greater overheads than an out of town shop, you will have travel expenses to pay to visit out of town shops, your lucky if you get what you want in an out of town shop.

To mention the price of tackle in the USA is wrong if you don't add the state taxes, they don't show up on the price list, but they must add them, just as we add VAT. To mark an item up 100% and see it as €50.00 wholesale going to €100.00 retail is wrong, take 21% Vat from the retail price and you have €79.00 not quite the mark up it started out as, right.

What about "returns" who pays for them, break a rod or a reel and you expect either the shop or the factory to make good on it, that has got to be taken into account too, try sending a rod back to the US and ask the retailer to foot the freight cost.

Almost everything tackle wise that comes into Ireland has extra freight charges, even from the UK, it costs £35.00 to get either one rod over or 3 rods over.

I don't think Tackle shops are making any more money/Profit than any other business out there.

Before you ask....I don't own a tackle shop 8)

Tom.

We are getting ripped off. I remember one tackle dealer who told me he had the rep for a well known tackle distributor come into his shop one day saying that the other two tackle shops locally were complaining that he sold stuff too cheaply - the other two wanted the rep to get him to join in a price fixing scheme. He told the rep to get lost and carried on selling quality kit at fair prices. Fair play to him. He reckoned he was making enough mark up to do him and didn't need to charge the earth.

another case of RIP OF REPUBLIC

What really cheeses me off is the price of the consumables like standard hooks, swivels, beads, crimps etc. Expensive in most shops, it is the massive variations in price between shops which is baffling.
E-bay for all the bits and bobs and shop around for the rods/reels etc.

Sandman,

The tackle dealer is not going to tell you the rep was complaining that he was charging to much, is he, think about it.

if you are right, who is it that's ripping you off then, the shop, the wholesaler or manufacturers.

My comment was directed at the post that said 100% on the wholesale was to double up, that's not right, as I stated.

So what items are you talking about being rip-offs or do you mean the whole trade in general ? or Just Ireland for that matter ?

I am in the tackle trade, I can tell you I do everything I can to keep prices as low as possible, its not good business to do otherwise.

Tom.

I don't think that anybody here is denying their tackle shop owners a good living and many of us would be fulsome in our praise of our local man.
We all realise that prices/taxes etc can vary between countries and shops. A long establisehed dealer who owns his shop has a far lower cost base than the new guy who leases his premises for instance.
The problem arises for me certainly when you come up against exhorbitant prices which are higher than foreign dealers and other Irish shops for which no explanation is obvious. Rods are a once off purchase and I can appreciate why shop owners may feel the need to have a high margin to reflect the relative rarity of selling a top line rod. Why consumables are priced so high however is beyond me.

Rockhopper,

The tackle dealer in question was telling me that two other tackle dealers had complained to the rep for a certain product line because he was not selling for as high a mark-up as them and as such was getting the bulk of sales on that product in the area, which the other two dealers were obviously unhappy about, but were unwilling to cut their markup to compete. They other two had the rep try to persuade him to up his markup so that every dealer in the area was then selling at the same price. Clear now?

Lets, take a few of your points Rockhopper. Sales Tax in the states is typically 6 - 8% and not 21% like Irish Vat. Like Blaker I also agree that a tackle shop owner has to make a few quid, but quite a few are taking the pi$$ Taking the Irish example, most of the Tackle shops have been set up for some time and the shops tend to be owned so the very high overheads that you mention do not apply. As mentioned rod and reels tend to be a low turnover stock item so they would tend to have a higher mark up. I happen to know that the mark up is around 200% before vat. That's before vat.... :? I'm not 100% sure if consumeables suffer the same mark up but I'm guessing that they do. I know some smaller items do for sure. Like I mentioned... every body's got to make a living but why so much extra has to be charged is beyond me. If I can get a rod or reel of my tackle dealer even close to the online price + post I will, but that rarely happens. A simple tip for you if you can get to Dublin once a year :wink: If you are looking at a new rod or reel wait until Feb. when the tackle show is on near Dublin Airport. Most of the Dublin shops take a stand there now and you would be suprised at the discounts offered for that one day. The reason.... The UK dealers are all around them offering discounts and they have to, to sell anything. Why do they even bother to go to the show I hear you ask ????? They quickly copped on to why they were selling no rods and reels after Feb. 3 - 4 years ago there was maybe one Irish shop in the show, last year there was about nine. Hopefully soon they will cop on to the internet and start marking up at a reasonable rate. If they don't there business will continue to decline... from me anyway.

Tight Lines,

Kev