The Sales or lack thereof...

[AirSniper]

I know times are tough and retailers are watching their profits dwindle... compared to last year, are any of the suppliers actually offering a sale on items and not just the spares?

I recall there was one supplier offering 20% off back in 2021 sales but this year, their sale items are pistons and hop-ups and seals...

 

Does anyone know of any retailers actually having a sale on items that you would normally associate as sale items like RIF's

[Matt.2504]

Airsoft direct have up to 30% off

zero one have 10%
 

they are the only emails I’ve had so far

 

 

[AirSniper]

18 hours ago, Matt.2504 said:

Airsoft direct have up to 30% off

zero one have 10%
 

they are the only emails I’ve had so far

 

 

I have not had any emails from either ASD or ZO

 

Airsoft Direct:

Pistons, seals, motors, a few RIF's that I expect are over stock items... 

 

Zero one:

To celebrate get 10% off your orders placed before the end of New Years Day! 

 

which is a bit tight arsed if you ask me... Most of the RIF's I am interested in are sold out.

 

I also looked on Patrol Base and there doesn't seem to be a sale on same for Fire Support...

 

Guess I will wait until next Black Friday sale.

 

[Colin Allen]

1 hour ago, AirSniper said:

I have not had any emails from either ASD or ZO

 

Airsoft Direct:

Pistons, seals, motors, a few RIF's that I expect are over stock items... 

 

Zero one:

To celebrate get 10% off your orders placed before the end of New Years Day! 

 

which is a bit tight arsed if you ask me... Most of the RIF's I am interested in are sold out.

 

I also looked on Patrol Base and there doesn't seem to be a sale on same for Fire Support...

 

Guess I will wait until next Black Friday sale.

 

Times are hard for everyone, including airsoft retailers; their operating costs have gone through the roof while sales have decreased, partly through unavailability of stock due to lockdowns in China and the lingering impact of logistics issues.  Already tight margins have been squeezed to the point where offering discounts is not viable.

 

 

 

 

[Emergencychimps]

Land warrior Airsoft had some reduction, not sure if that's stopped now.

 

Retailers tend to put stock that's not selling or has been sitting around for a bit too long that's tying up cashflow so that they can re invest in stock that will move at full price. 

 

Also January can be a pretty tight month so having some cash flow, even if not the most profitable, can still be a good thing. 

 

As pretty much everything seems to be hard to source, I'd question how much of this old stock is actually kicking about. 

[Philby21]

We'll know it's bad if the DFS sale ends! 😂

[Cannonfodder]

Apparently Landwarrior had a sale today

[John_W]

I would settle for retailers having stock in the first place, rather than sales.

Got an in stock reminder email from a retailer the other day for something that had been out of stock for six months or more...

[Colin Allen]

4 hours ago, John_W said:

I would settle for retailers having stock in the first place, rather than sales.

Got an in stock reminder email from a retailer the other day for something that had been out of stock for six months or more...

That is a result of the lockdowns in China, their current policy on exporting airsoft guns, and continuing logistics issues.  Retailers cannot stock what they cannot get.

[John_W]

2 hours ago, Colin Allen said:

That is a result of the lockdowns in China, their current policy on exporting airsoft guns, and continuing logistics issues.  Retailers cannot stock what they cannot get.

Marui aren't Chinese...

[Colin Allen]

1 hour ago, John_W said:

Marui aren't Chinese...

Logistics issues do not just impact items coming from China;).

[Madhouse]

I work in manufacturing, not sure if Airsoft works in the same way, but if you see an offer in the supermarket it’s not them that’s doing the deal. It’s whoever makes it that’s discounting it, so it may be that the manufacturers have cut their promo support (I know we have).

 

Low stock levels and the resulting pent up demand means that there is also no incentive to discount. Why sell it cheap when there’s a queue of buyers willing to pay full price? Especially when you are seeing costs going through the roof.

[Pupa2794]

What're the issues with exporting rifs from China? 

[BigStew]

7 minutes ago, Pupa2794 said:

What're the issues with exporting rifs from China? 

covid is still a shit storm in china. also there is a trade imbalance full boats leave china empty boats go back there for more expensive and boats take longer as they have to find other trade ports to take goods to. 

[Colin Allen]

36 minutes ago, BigStew said:

covid is still a shit storm in china. also there is a trade imbalance full boats leave china empty boats go back there for more expensive and boats take longer as they have to find other trade ports to take goods to. 

Shipping rates from China have also dropped to the extent that shipping lines are limiting the number of voyages to try to push the rates up.

49 minutes ago, Pupa2794 said:

What're the issues with exporting rifs from China? 

For some reason, export of RIFs is now only allowed through Hong Kong.

[BigStew]

1 hour ago, Colin Allen said:

Shipping rates from China have also dropped to the extent that shipping lines are limiting the number of voyages to try to push the rates up.

For some reason, export of RIFs is now only allowed through Hong Kong.

Ah my info was out of date

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

Plenty  of vessels go back via Hamburg etc.  Germany has a positive trade balance with China.

[Colin Allen]

8 hours ago, Tactical Pith Helmet said:

Plenty  of vessels go back via Hamburg etc.  Germany has a positive trade balance with China.

In 2021, which is the last year for which full data is available, Germany's trade deficit with China was 39,399,934,000 Euros, which is Germany's largest trade deficit with any country.

 

According to the German Economic Institute (Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft), the 2022 deficit was 41 billion Euros by the middle of 2022.

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

1 hour ago, Colin Allen said:

In 2021, which is the last year for which full data is available, Germany's trade deficit with China was 39,399,934,000 Euros, which is Germany's largest trade deficit with any country.

 

According to the German Economic Institute (Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft), the 2022 deficit was 41 billion Euros by the middle of 2022.

Serves me right for reading the free trade magazine at work...   

[The Waco Kid]

  All of the suppliers I use for (non-airsoft) have put their prices up for the   New Year, typically it’s February. 
 

  A couple of them did price rises less than 6 months ago. Some very marked increases. 
 

  It’s just across the board.

[ak2m4]

All good explanations.  This time last year the £ was trading around 1.35 vs the $, today it's 1.2.  When you have to purchase a 20 foot container that small increase is gonna hurt.  

[AirSniper]

4 hours ago, ak2m4 said:

All good explanations.  This time last year the £ was trading around 1.35 vs the $, today it's 1.2.  When you have to purchase a 20 foot container that small increase is gonna hurt.  

Speaking to a store owner today, many retailers have stopped restocking in objection to price gouging by the big suppliers who have in many cases, removed the 25% hike in price.

You also have HM Customs and Manufacturers to contend with as they take advantage of the current situation yet these are countries of origin where the COL rises are not a factor.

 

Then you have the warehouses that have had stock in 2022 that they price up on the COL when its only cost them the 2022 pre COL rise that HM Customs are taking several months to clear and some of these suppliers are in the EU and therefore BREXIT is to blame for delays in the system.

 

In addition to that the store owner I spoke with had a consignment that they had to send back because the RIF's were not legal in the UK, seems that Chinese manufacturers are sending out RIF's to make fulfilment on orders for UK market that should be for EU and US markets.

So in real terms, there are no items on sale because retailers can't let items go at a discount because of manufacturers, delays by HM Customs and BREXIT backlog as well as merchandise that is sent out by manufacturers to fulfil orders.

 

I bought a Glock mag recently that is clearly not for UK markets as it lets 0.2g bb's fly out in excess of 396 fps, so I now have to buy a new regulator so I can use the magazine because its output is around 1.4 Joules, well over the 0.9 Joules of a standard UK magazine.