[Otto.Skorzeny]

Monkeydepot has Toy Model's Kettenkrad for $529.99 and i bought one 7 months ago from China for $323.99 shipped to Russia. Willys costs $499.99 so i think it's price in China can be around $250 + shipping or even shipped by any slow cheap service.

 

[onesixthpolice]

So what are you saying....MD is making big money ....?

 

[SpaceCrawler]

Bear in mind the very large size and the cost of importing them to the US, then shipping them to a dealer. With the larger 1/6 scale items unfortunately a huge portion of the retail price is representative of logistics costs.

Well, as I said the manufacturer posted here in this thread earlier: "I can say it's below $250(including the freight)."

Sean

 

[Otto.Skorzeny]

So what are you saying....MD is making big money ....?

I just said that buying from China is cheaper.

 

[AdamC]

Besides, shipping cost should have NOTHING to do with the retail cost.....

So, where did the doubling of the retail price come from?

Of course it has everything to do with the retail cost of an item. They don't make it from China to the US for free, then from a distributor to a dealer for free. :knock

 

[AdamC]

Two years ago, I might have agreed, but with fuel costs as they are today...nah. Even tires (and other petroleum based products) have come down in price based on the cost of a barrel of crude.

There might be other factors to blame the high price on, but transportation fails to be one of them in today's market.

Sure if its entirely domestic freight. That goes out the window on larger oversized items once you are shipping them internationally and they get billed by dimensional weights and minimum cubings. Unless someone is importing a container of these prices are going to be high. Also as an FYI every carrier has announced freight increases for 2016, USPS included.

 

[onesixthpolice]

Of course it has everything to do with the retail cost of an item. They don't make it from China to the US for free, then from a distributor to a dealer for free.

My point exactly.....but that is shipping cost....over and above the retail cost. So Does Monkey Depot double the retail cost (for whatever reason), and then charge their shipping cost, over and above the high retail?

 

[AdamC]

My point exactly.....but that is shipping cost....over and above the retail cost. So Does Monkey Depot double the retail cost (for whatever reason), and then charge their shipping cost, over and above the high retail?

It's a factor of the landed costs. For example the process looks something like this:

Go Truck Cost Ex-Works Cost (pickup at factory/warehouse -> Distributor picks up -> Distributor adds China side booking/documentation/ACI/customs/ship to port costs, Distributor adds US side sea shipping, brokerage, security, inspection, port/dock fees, insurance, delivery to warehouse, then finally their markup (double digit) to arrive at Dealer Cost -> Dealer adds shipping cost and their margin to the already inflated distributor cost and you arrive at a retail much higher than the retail in China. Monkey depot is going to of course charge shipping on outgoing orders as they would for any other product.

Boxed figures are easier to deal with as the cubing and weight is low, shipment quantities are typically much higher, and multiple releases are combined (this is why US releases are often late) to lower the inbound costs. If you could find a distributor who would take a 20 foot or 40 foot container of Willys, and had dealers taking pallet loads of them at a time the retail would come down.

The math gets really goofy with smaller quantity shipments of larger/heavier items via sea as there are a number of fixed costs in the shipping and import process that you can't avoid. Shipping a few Taowans for example can cost up to a 1/3 of the cost of shipping a container.