fixed pricing by uk airsoft distributor and they wonder why we buy from europe

[chris555]

he purpose of this letter is to announce that we are establishing a Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policy for all our China made AEGs. We feel this will allow our dealers to earn reasonable profits as we are concerned with the level of price discounting online.

Under our policy, we ask that all advertised and listed price be set at or above MAP price. An advertisement that includes a price lower than MAP or advertises a price below the MAP through the use of a percentage-off coupon does not comply with our MAP Policy. Any type of discount program that effectively lowers the advertised or listed price below MAP is considered a violation of our policy.

 

brilliant and they wonder why i buy everything from Poland when they don't allow fair price competition

[Samurai]

Well, that defeats the purpose of capitalism. And I believe that's why there are laws against this.

[chris555]

i would hope so but if they are so blatently doing this there must be a loophole they are exploiting and frankly needs to be stopped because it us that pay for it

[Zak Da Mack]

This is why I don't trust capitalism Who originally posted this letter?

[sp00n]

while i cannot provide any concrete evidence, i do know of an individual who was a WE disturber, who was apparently selling SMG8's to his mates for cost ... around the £100 mark

[Guest PT247]

I tend to always at least see what prices for guns are in Asia before spending money in UK retailers. Other stuff will buy in the UK but when you would end up saving well over £100 buying just mid range guns why would you not import them!

[Muppetdaze]

Is this for real?

 

Fact, we see every day people trying to charge us 200 quid for an ICS M4 that cost 180 new, just because they'd added a magazine and 'upgraded it'

 

here's how that works

 

barrel 30 quid New Lonex M4 L series 300 Quid (or 220 to you )

new gearbox 80 quid crap one swapped with Lonex

new rewire 20 quid rewire geabox, already done with new

front rail 30 quid use any element crap to replace

 

So having swapped bits with lonex, the only 'upgrade' is to the sellers optimistic wallet

upgrade part like barrel are already done

 

second item for sale is 'lonex M4 never skirmished, just 250, some upgrades

 

So why would we want to deal with a British Shop that can only guarantee that they won't charge less than a certain price for set items

I'd do that to look great, set up a dummy wholesaler, charge myself a fortune for tax reasons, because of the new pricing structure lose a fortune for tax reasons, add to the fact that I'm now in competition with companies that don't have the same OPERATING (note that) Factory labour laws as we do and place myself in competiton with making myself some money off importing stuff as a private individual and managing to resell it for less than the MAP by using the airsoft forums as a private guy and charging more for it 8)

[TheGrover]

This is collusion and it is price fixing. Both are illegal and neither is good for our sport.

 

Hard to believe though. OP, where was the letter from?

[chris555]

I will put up the exact web adress when i get in from work this evening as it will be stored on my pc. it was a whole seller that popped up when searching for info on cyma m4's but its defiantley real made me wonder if more of them are doing this its actually listed on there policy page with all the applicable makes

[TheGrover]

They need to be reported to trading standards if this is real. Its blatant unfair, criminal trading

[BrightCandle]

Agree needs reporting, they can investigate it.

[Mack]

http://www.ukarmsairsoft.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1

[Lozart]

So this has been in place since May 2013 then....

[Zak Da Mack]

What would happen if you were to disagree to this wholesaler? What if I imported my guns straight from the manufacturer?

[Lozart]

What would happen if you were to disagree to this wholesaler? What if I imported my guns straight from the manufacturer?

 

Most manufacturers will only sell through distribution. Of course that doesn't mean you're limited to one wholesaler in particular.

[IMF2000]

There is another factor to consider;

 

On the face of it, importing from Japan etc may look considerably cheaper than buying from a UK Retailer at their set RRP.

 

If you are able to get the retailer to knock 10% off, or throw in some items, if the order is reasonable enough, you may well be able to wipe out the 'saving' that importing direct seems to provide, add to that the benefit of local support and no issues with customs importing, it could be a deal maker.

 

Always factor in the import duty/vat and charge that the courier levy, as well as the international postage from the seller.

 

I'd be surprised if you can't make them cost out about the same in nearly every case when an AEG is purchased.

[DX115FALCON]

he purpose of this letter is to announce that we are establishing a Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policy for all our China made AEGs. We feel this will allow our dealers to earn reasonable profits as we are concerned with the level of price discounting online.

 

Under our policy, we ask that all advertised and listed price be set at or above MAP price. An advertisement that includes a price lower than MAP or advertises a price below the MAP through the use of a percentage-off coupon does not comply with our MAP Policy. Any type of discount program that effectively lowers the advertised or listed price below MAP is considered a violation of our policy.

 

brilliant and they wonder why i buy everything from Poland when they don't allow fair price competition

Who is doing this?

[Lozart]

Who is doing this?

 

 

http://www.ukarmsairsoft.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1

[DX115FALCON]

 

 

sorry, hadn't seen that

[Guest PT247]

There is another factor to consider;

 

On the face of it, importing from Japan etc may look considerably cheaper than buying from a UK Retailer at their set RRP.

 

If you are able to get the retailer to knock 10% off, or throw in some items, if the order is reasonable enough, you may well be able to wipe out the 'saving' that importing direct seems to provide, add to that the benefit of local support and no issues with customs importing, it could be a deal maker.

 

Always factor in the import duty/vat and charge that the courier levy, as well as the international postage from the seller.

 

I'd be surprised if you can't make them cost out about the same in nearly every case when an AEG is purchased.

you are right to an extent, some Asian retailers do pretty much cost the same in the end as buying from the UK, if you shop around though then there is considerable money to be saved. I have first hand experience as most of my more expensive guns have come to me by importing them myself.

[TheGrover]

Ok, after reading it, im not sure its collusion, since the retailer is forcing the change, rather than the dealers, but it is certainly price fixing, and certainly illegal

[Sitting Duck]

Evike & Airsoft GI have numerous guns with MEP or whatever - no discounts or coupons can be used

 

Also worth noting is though we buy the more "budget" range from europe at a good price

them same retailers are no cheaper - in fact often more expensive on other stuff like G&G Raider's

 

Dunno why - but no doubt it is all to do with larger volume discounts of sales of say Cyma's but you do wonder...

How feckin cheap do these guys get them for ffs and are we being raped & mugged at same time buying cheap AK's over here in UK ???

 

Poland has 23% VAT btw so it ain't coz of UK VAT but maybe our import duty stings everybody a bit - but still begs the question why ???

[chris555]

that's my point surely the most profit to be made is on the low to midrange guns that fly out the door with a 60 pound price tag and lets be honest the quality is good on them. now i want to know what this forced mark up is they must be cheap if the minimum buy order is 500 pounds and i can buy from Poland delivered for 60 and this cant be the only wholesaler doing this or they would not still be in business. further more this loss in profit affects us in other ways as it means smaller retail stores smaller sites smaller choice and higher prices else where to make up from the loss in sales the likes of evike has not grown large as it has by sales of high end guns.

[chris555]

bigger question is what can we do to stop it because as we all know price fixing is illegal

[Zak Da Mack]

You could contact the competition and markets authority (cma). It's their duty to sort this thing out. Also, just because profits are lost does not mean that retailers will pull out, especially if they are earning large profits, they might earn less but it could still be better than moving on to work somewhere else