and they wonder why we aren't spending OUR money

[ZXR750]

I thought it meant, half Sheep, half People.
Eg: People that just follow others, like sheep.

No you are confused with the definition of what a New Zealander is

I must be confused, thought they were "sheepuckers"

Thats not how you spell sheep in NZ. You take their back legs out of your gum boots.

[Mattjin]

Can we figure out who is profitting in the local market? I have been in the market for a large Givi top box to go on my 1400GTR. I went to a couple of very trusted local bike shops with both quoting around the $550 mark for the case. How is it I can get one overseas and have it shipped via courier and have it landed at my door for $240. The box itself was under $180!! I also optioned both an interior liner and a gloss cover and got them both included for free shipping for $80! Here they want over $100 just for the cover.

Let's figure this out. Say $180 (that was my retail price, not a dealer price). Add GST goes to ~$200. Shipped in a container with 100 more of them, let be generous at $20 so that is $220. Maybe $10 to get it picked up from the docks. $230. So who is charging 2.5x the price to the customer? I would have figured $80 profit form the importer is fair for doing what is essentially paperwork shuffling. You cant tell me the bike shops are throwing on almost $250 to that in profit.

The end result is that whoever has been making the big bucks is now getting NO bucks. I too run a business so I am not heartless, but I am also not stupid and wont pay crazy money when I can get the same item for less than half with just a few mouse clicks.

Back to the old Pazzo levers discussion. I have been to China many times and my wife is Chinese so I speak with a little experience. What I would say is happening is Pazzo are having the levers made in China. They would have agreed to a production failure rate, maybe something like 95% good, with the other 5% thrown away. The factory would have made all 100% perfect, then just back-doored the 5% to ebay sellers. Then after hours, they keep the shop running and make a bunch of extras off the record. Pazzo probably have the anodising done to a higher standard, with the ebay versions just getting a quick job to make them look pretty. Yes I have a set of the copies on my Z1000. When you compare the originals with the copies, even the machining marks are identical. China does produce some world quality components but you dont pay rock bottom prices for those. Also the wages they get are comparable. At roughly 6:1 for the Yuan to the Aussie dollar, if someone here got AUD$30k per year and the worker in china got AUD$5k (30k Yuan) per year it works out the same for their living standards. If it costs us AUD$10 for something here it generally costs them 10 Yuan over there. That is why their labour force is strong at six times cheaper than here.

[pittster]

Coming from working in a dyno tuning shop which also sold everything you could possible buy. Prices are set by the supplier then the shop puts there %10 on top (why old workplace did %5 just to get more sales)

e.g. A Bridgestone BT016 rear 190/55-17
Retail $340
Shops buy price $290-$300 excluding shipping (would normal order a bulk amount to save on shipping)
Import from USA to my door in 3 days $196

This goes for a number of other brands. No wonder people import cause most shops do it now just to compete.

Also the price is set by the tyre manufactures and if your caught undercutting other shops you get threatened with having the privelage of selling xxx brand taken away. They also push how much tyre changes are worth, last time I heard they wanted $80 if the tyre is imported and the customer brings it in.

[bonester]

Kawasaki are guilty of it too- headlight fairing for ZRX is around $800 AUS and $300US.

[greenmeanie]

I agree about us being ripped off by importers etc, but the op was bitching about the manufacturers making a killing, when this is complete bollocks, the people that do make the killing are the people that do the least, importers etc. I buy lots of things from abroad, but I always check out the Aus price first, I don't mind paying a small premium for buying Australian.
.

Totally agree on this I just recently got pads for my zx10 wanted genuine local dealer quoted $120 a set =$240 to do the front. after having a small stroke went online & found Partshark.com
Ordered through them and delivered within 4 days for the grand total of $136.00

So yeah If it was $150 from the dealer no probs but to save $100 well that saving just bought more stuff for my bike

Yep partshark is the go i'll be buying oem parts from these guys. If you do a decent order & even factoring in postage it is heaps cheaper.