Steve Campbell
Elite Veteran
Location: Baton Rouge, LA
| That's my point, Andi (and Eric). My buddy paid $720 US for his SE, WITH a pair of 72cm NHP blades, and some tail blades (forgot which ones) from Bob J. That's a delivered price, including shipping and customs.
UK guys pay a 17% Value Added Tax on hobby stuff. Like Andi said, they pay a lot more, proportionately, than we do. The UK pound is worth around $1.60 US. Yet, my buddy got a machine with $150 US worth of main and tail blades delivered from England for less than he would have paid for just the kit sans blades here. One can draw his own conclusions from that...
I forget his name (getting old sux), but MHT's European correspondent was told by Robbe suits at the Nuremburg Toy Fair in Germany that the Futura SE would be available, in limited quantities in a right-hand rotation version only, for the US market. That was months ago. I thought I read somewhere just a week or so ago where they had decided not to do that; and now we are hearing that it's back?
Like Andi said, much of all of this is rumor and second-hand information. The fact that neither Robbe nor their US agent (HUI- Paul Goldenberg) has stepped forward with definitive word is curious, to say the least.
Eric, I've been out of the loop for some time now. I don't have as many contacts as I used to. But I know what appears to be price gouging when I see it. Not trying to start a fight here, but it just irritates me that an established firm, which has a popular, excellent product, looks to be playing hide-the-weinie with pricing and availability of said product.
There are many potential Robbe/Schluter customers who have bought other models because, for one reason or another, they were not comfortable with the policies/prices/etc. of the line. I'm one...
Steve |
