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tictactux

tictactux

Distinguished Member
Distinguished Member
For a friend I was looking up the local price for something as simple as a Bundy Bass clarinet (he was intrigued by the tone of my Artley).

I guess for that price he could fly to New York or any other place in the world, pick his instrument personally and have a nice long weekend with the missus.

Jeez.
 
Check the price locally for a new Yamaha student model bass clarinet. It's a better playing instrument than a Conn-Selmer bass clarinet and might be less expensive? Here it costs about $2,500 (I think around $1,600 in USA, so maybe your local price is similar to my country).
 
clarnibass said:
Check the price locally for a new Yamaha student model bass clarinet. It's a better playing instrument than a Conn-Selmer bass clarinet and might be less expensive? Here it costs about $2,500 (I think around $1,600 in USA, so maybe your local price is similar to my country).
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I know, I'd never recommend it at that price. (The Yamaha is - interestingly enough - "only" $3500 here)

But at these prices it's a hypothetical discussion anyway, when a roundtrip to eg New York costs less than $500...
 
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This reminds me of seeing the price specs on PM Mauriat saxophones in Denmark last year (I have the file somewhere). The price of an alto PM67 or alike was 700 EU from the factory, but after importer and dealer revenues plus taxes, the price for the customer was around 2500 EU. Sales tax is 25% but that still leaves ~1300 EU for importing and selling an alto sax. If I ever more back, I certainly would travel overseas to buy. As Tictac says, in the end it gets to be the same but at least you had a trip out of it and the knowledge that you did not overpay ridiculously.
 
steen said:
This reminds me of seeing the price specs on PM Mauriat saxophones in Denmark last year (I have the file somewhere). The price of an alto PM67 or alike was 700 EU from the factory, but after importer and dealer revenues plus taxes, the price for the customer was around 2500 EU. Sales tax is 25% but that still leaves ~1300 EU for importing and selling an alto sax. If I ever more back, I certainly would travel overseas to buy. As Tictac says, in the end it gets to be the same but at least you had a trip out of it and the knowledge that you did not overpay ridiculously.
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While I'm pretty positive that not all manufacturers operate like this, I had a Taiwanese or Chinese manufacturer approach me to have me sell their instruments through saxpics.com. The price sheets showed well over 100% markups, of which I was supposed to send the company a portion.

I somewhat recently sent a bari sax from Arizona (USA) to England. Not only did it not cost that much to ship, the customs charge was low.

Yah. People in Britain and Canada have a zillion taxes; I dunno about Switzerland, but that bass is more than triple what it costs in the US: $1529 compared to $4600 (converting Euros to $).
 
pete said:
Yah. People in Britain and Canada have a zillion taxes; I dunno about Switzerland, but that bass is more than triple what it costs in the US: $1529 compared to $4600 (converting Euros to $).
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If I imported it myself, I'd have to pay $1529 for the horn, $100 for shipping, $60 for import duties and customs handling, plus 7.6% VAT ($130). Makes roughly $1830, $2770 cheaper than buying "local".

Of course, you have to be prepared for all sorts of snide remarks should you ever want to have it serviced here, because you dared to hyper-bypass the importer (a license to print money) and the shop. I normally say then I've bought it while on vacation over yonder...
 
tictactux said:
If I imported it myself, I'd have to pay $1529 for the horn, $100 for shipping, $60 for import duties and customs handling, plus 7.6% VAT ($130). Makes roughly $1830, $2770 cheaper than buying "local".

Of course, you have to be prepared for all sorts of snide remarks should you ever want to have it serviced here, because you dared to hyper-bypass the importer (a license to print money) and the shop. I normally say then I've bought it while on vacation over yonder...
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How about saying you bought it from someone on on WooF, who thought it wasn't worth more than $1529.:)
 
I don't buy from local music shops in town because I can get as much as 50% off online or at Kessler's Music in Las Vegas. I prefer Kessler's because the instruments I've purchased from him come tweaked.

Even if Dave Kessler doesn't have the instrument, he can get them for us. Witness Suzy's Howarth English Horn which I purchased last Christmas for her. She loves that instrument.

I also see my Selmer Privilege 67 bass clarinet (to low C) offered at 'clearance prices' that are over $3000 more than I paid for mine. Of course mine had been used a Namm trade shows for a year before I got it. If I were thinking about getting another bass clarinet I'd start here: http://www.kesslermusic.com/html/clarinet/bassclarinets.htm
 
Gandalfe said:
Of course mine had been used a Namm trade shows for a year before I got it
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Actually, yours was used as a display model for the 4 days of the NAMM trade show and that was it. As you can imagine, being mainly a dealer show, it likely didnt get much real "playing" but rather just "feeling" during those 4 days.

Regardless, you got the best steal of the century on that bass considering what they sell new for now!
 
I have a "favorite" shop in Canada that I buy stuff from every so often and they ship it to me in the US.

Canada has a tax on anything french made that is shipped to the US it seems .. new or used. So anything made in france from Buffet, Selmer or Leblanc (etc) gets a tax put on it .. whether it's brand new or an old instrument.

But a Keilwerth (germany) or Yamaha (japan) .. no additional tax

go figure.
 
DaveKessler said:
Actually, yours was used as a display model for the 4 days of the NAMM trade show and that was it. As you can imagine, being mainly a dealer show, it likely didnt get much real "playing" but rather just "feeling" during those 4 days.

Regardless, you got the best steal of the century on that bass considering what they sell new for now!
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And the deals keep coming. The whole flute section is up in arms at the price I got for Suzy and my custom flute head joints. Not because I got such a good deal as much as the deal doesn't exist any more. :cool:
 
SteveSklar said:
Canada has a tax on anything french made that is shipped to the US it seems .. new or used. So anything made in france from Buffet, Selmer or Leblanc (etc) gets a tax put on it .. whether it's brand new or an old instrument.
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Can you explain that to me Steve? I've not heard of this. Is this happening with only 1 store you deal with?

As consumers here in Canada we aren't charged extra when we buy something French-made, either new or used. It doesn't make sense that businesses in Canada would be charging a tax like this, because who would they be turning it over to?

The Canadian federal government has no such tax. When Canadian businesses have to file their tax returns, they do so with the Canadian Revenue Agency. Any revenue collected in the form of taxes by a business (for example our GST, PST, or in some provinces the HST) is turned over to the Feds.

I would be checking into this if I were you. To my knowledge, the Cdn. government is not in the habit of asking small businesses to collect surtaxes on behalf of any other country. (We have a small consulting business, and I have never heard of this.)
 
Helen said:
Can you explain that to me Steve? I've not heard of this. Is this happening with only 1 store you deal with?

As consumers here in Canada we aren't charged extra when we buy something French-made, either new or used. It doesn't make sense that businesses in Canada would be charging a tax like this, because who would they be turning it over to?

The Canadian federal government has no such tax. When Canadian businesses have to file their tax returns, they do so with the Canadian Revenue Agency. Any revenue collected in the form of taxes by a business (for example our GST, PST, or in some provinces the HST) is turned over to the Feds.

I would be checking into this if I were you. To my knowledge, the Cdn. government is not in the habit of asking small businesses to collect surtaxes on behalf of any other country. (We have a small consulting business, and I have never heard of this.)
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When I was working for a Buffet dealer, we experienced a jump in prices when distribution switched from a Canadian company to Buffet's Florida location. This was because the American government was charging duty on anything brought into the US from France. That duty cost was then added to our wholesale cost.

Canada does not charge a duty on woodwind instruments, just GST, and for the end user in Canada, GST and PST. Any retail purchase shipped out of Canada is not subject to either of these taxes.
 
Yes. Thanks for clarifying Merlin. The various taxes that companies charge here in Canada (PST, GST, or HST) are only charged to consumers here in Canada. They would not be charged to anyone outside of the country. If the product being purchased is being shipped outside of Canada, no taxes should be charged. Any duty, or local taxes due, would be collected in your state when you pick up said item, or when it is delivered.
 
SteveSklar said:
I can't explain.
I jsut know that anything I order that is (or was at some time in the past) made in France is an extra cost added to it. I forgot their specific explanation. But nothing is collected on my side when I receive it.
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I'd be very curious to know who you order from. PM if you'd prefer.

I worked in music retail here as a buyer as well as salesperson, so I'm pretty well versed in the ins and outs here in Canada.
 
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