Buying a part from a bike shop may become $24.75 more expensive

[p.dath]

I see Customs are talking about adding another fee to imports:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/3570...of-web-imports

This will increase the gap become a domestic consumer brining in their own parts versus buying them from the local bike shop.

And don't forget the new 15% GST rate coming in (which many domestic importers wont have to pay).

Wouldn't want to be in the parts business at the moment. Perhaps they might be better stocking samples only, and themselves shipping direct from another country.

So do you think this is another death knell for the local parts business, or a chance or a radical change?

[rainman]

I see Customs are talking about adding another fee to imports

More taxes, yay.

[steve_t]

I see Customs are talking about adding another fee to imports:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/3570...of-web-imports

This will increase the gap become a domestic consumer brining in their own parts versus buying them from the local bike shop.

And don't forget the new 15% GST rate coming in (which many domestic importers wont have to pay).

Wouldn't want to be in the parts business at the moment. Perhaps they might be better stocking samples only, and themselves shipping direct from another country.

So do you think this is another death knell for the local parts business, or a chance or a radical change?

Won't this decrease the gap? Won't it mean that when I buy an exhaust from overseas, I'll pay $24.75 more, but the dealer gets to only pay $24.75 for an entire container of gear thus being able to only increase the price of each product by a small amount, if any?

[scott411]

in bigger items it will not make a difference, but smaller stuff that has come under $400 it will make a difference,

[p.dath]

in bigger items it will not make a difference, but smaller stuff that has come under $400 it will make a difference,

+1. That's exactly what it means.

[Robert Taylor]

More taxes, yay.

It actually should be about the Government collecting tax that they are not collecting, thereby also levelling up the playing field a bit so that legitimate businesses arent disadvantaged.
The threshold value that atrracts customs interest should be at zero, so that everything that comes into the country accrues clearance charges and gst, just like a legitimate business does. Further to that fraudulently written down invoices should create stiff penalties.
This would create so much more tax revenue that there would likely be no need to raise gst. It would also create employment for an extra army of customs officers.

[Mully]

Meh, it's only an extension to the current importers paying it.

If the difference between buying locally and importing is $25, you should probably buy locally anyway.

FYI; current grapevine is that NZ Customs have been told to find more revenue. Expect those people who under-declare the commercial value on their express (DHL, Fedex, etc) packages to be audited with more regularity.

[dipshit]

If the difference between buying locally and importing is $25, you should probably buy locally anyway.

That's right. Though with the fee and GST you can still come out way ahead from purchasing overseas usually.

[Conquiztador]

So do you think this is another death knell for the local parts business, or a chance or a radical change?

Shusshhh!!! You are not allowed to suggest on KB that the local business is not already very radical!

[MarkH]

I see Customs are talking about adding another fee to imports:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/3570...of-web-imports

This will increase the gap become a domestic consumer brining in their own parts versus buying them from the local bike shop.

But if the local bike shop gets parts in that came in a container with hundreds of other parts then this new fee may add something like 5c to the cost of a part - it doesn't seem like a big deal to me for the dealers. To a private importer who brings in something worth $600 and has to pay $75 GST it will add another $24.75 so he has to pay out $100 to get it through customs - this may bring it closer to the price to by it locally (if it is available locally).

[Robert Taylor]

That's right. Though with the fee and GST you can still come out way ahead from purchasing overseas usually.

At current exchange rates the answer is often yes. But it depends how long the rates will be at their current level.

[twotyred]

But if the local bike shop gets parts in that came in a container with hundreds of other parts then this new fee may add something like 5c to the cost of a part - it doesn't seem like a big deal to me for the dealers. To a private importer who brings in something worth $600 and has to pay $75 GST it will add another $24.75 so he has to pay out $100 to get it through customs - this may bring it closer to the price to by it locally (if it is available locally).

considering the massive markups evident in NZ,it should still work out cheaper in your example... 24.75 is still worth it to save hundreds on local prices

[MarkH]

considering the massive markups evident in NZ,it should still work out cheaper in your example... 24.75 is still worth it to save hundreds on local prices

In some cases yes, in others no. I have bought quite a lot of stuff from overseas including bike stuff - sometimes to save up to hundreds of dollars, sometimes to get something not available here.

My Givi screen was no cheaper from overseas, but it arrived within a week and I had been told that the local suppliers were out of stock with more due in about 2 1/2 months. My Stebel airhorn was much cheaper than buying anywhere I could find in NZ. My Canon flash for my camera cost $600 including freight & GST when I bought it from the US - locally the price varied from $900 to $1200, so that was a $300 saving for me!

Whenever I need something I compare prices and if the local price is within reason I buy local - much easier if you have a problem. But I was told that the workshop manual for my Burgman wasn't available, so I bought one from overseas, my drive belt was going to take 3 months to arrive or I could pay extra for airfreight - so I paid over $100 less and got a Malossi one from the US instead. The Givi screen cost the same but arrived 9 weeks quicker from the US. The Stebel Nautilus was hard to even find in NZ and was cheaper from the US.

But I agree at least some of the time you see stupidly huge markups on stuff in NZ and you can save hundreds by buying overseas.

[breakaway]

But I agree at least some of the time you see stupidly huge markups on stuff in NZ and you can save hundreds by buying overseas.

But the shops can't possibly provide you low prices with all the overheads they have! This is the argument of all retailers.

[MarkH]

But the shops can't possibly provide you low prices with all the overheads they have! This is the argument of all retailers.

Except that they buy wholesale and the goods in the shop were shipped to NZ in containers by ship - that is way cheaper than being sent as an individual package by air. Of course some of the importers whack on a huge margin and then even with a perfectly fair margin the retailer is selling way dearer than the customer can buy from overseas for.

I mostly blame the importers - they are usually the ones that look at the product and say "I'm the sole importer, this is a niche product, I think the suck^d^d^d^d customers will pay $x for it" Then they set a suggested retail price and sell it to the retailers allowing 25% mark-up to the retailers while making >80% mark-up themselves. Of course the savvy customers will check on the internet and find some overseas retailer that will happily sell the same thing for much less.