From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
David Edwards writes, <>
That's OK David, I don't take your comments personally
- though I'd emphasise that in my reply to your offer
of a Burris scope I did not imply one little bit that
you or the rest of the guntrade was profiteering at our
expense. You will recall that I thanked you for your
enterprising offer of a Burris Compact 4-12 at L280
all-in, and commented that this beat the absurd price
listed by "official" Burris importer, Viking Arms, of
L470. Perhaps some other CS viewer will snap up the
scope at what is, by UK standards, a favourable price.
Like other members of the guntrade, though, you imply
that we should willingly pay over the odds to some
extent, in order to support a domestic guntrade. In a
way this is worthy, but at the same time unrealistic.
It's a cliche by now to say that we inhabit a global
market for consumer goods, but nevertheless true: the
growing impatience of the usually apathetic & supine
British consumer with our inflated petrol price is an
example, because we all know the stuff comes out of
the ground dirt cheap, and that its breathtakingly
high price at UK pumps is a product of fiscal &
financial manipulation. In the USA it's a fraction
of our price, and I've just returned from Germany and
the Czech Republic, where unleaded was respectively
65p and 50p per litre; the UK price is expected soon
to be 88p per litre...Same with gunny stuff. The Burris
item mentioned is impossible to think of as being a
L470 scope, i.e. on a close par with items by Swarovski
etc, because here is David Edwards offering one at
L190 less - and you can buy it from US dealers like
SWFA or Colorado Optics for around 300 USD. So it's a
200-quid scope, and when UK consumers get quoted
significantly more than that, we back away and ask
ourselves why the hell we should pay over the odds.
I know members of the guntrade, and have had many
discussions with them about the economics of importing
US kit, so I certainly don't engage in facile criticisms
about rip-off pricing - not these days anyway, though a
few years ago I badly upset one importer when I took him
to task because his US gun-cases cost three times more
here than over there... I know how much prices have to
be loaded, because of the economics of stuffing freight
containers with light but bulky (and not very valuable)
items such as gun-cases, and the higher costs of doing
business in UK compared with the USA. But I don't have
so much spare cash (none in fact!) that I am prepared
to willingly subsidise the UK guntrade to the degree
so many of them seem to demand.
It's called a free market - moderately free anyway,
though the State sticks its oar in too much. And it
doesn't necessarily mean the death of the UK guntrade.
Steve mentions The Sportsman: I know these guys well,
and they've made lots of enemies in the trade through
their unwillingness to tolerate the sort of greedy,
complacent, sluggish attitude of too many "official"
importers, preferring to import stuff direct from
foreign agents & wholesalers. They survive where many
dealers have not, because they keep prices down as
much as they can.
BTW David, I don't engage in smuggling - though I
have no problem with the word, since smuggling is an
ancient English tradition, and a perfectly reasonable
response to the State's oppressive & greedy desire to
confiscate more of our money than we think it should.
When I brought back all that Pilsner Urquell from
Prague, I rejoiced that I'd paid a reasonable 30p a
bottle instead of the (?) one pound fifty considered
acceptable here. Dare I tell my local off-licence?
Will they say I should have been happy to pay the
extra, knowing that it would help keep them in
business?
BTW Steve, whatever else Gunmark/GMK do, they have
the decency to list their own (restricted) selection
of Leupold scopes, for which they are official
importers, rather than claim to stock the lot. Prices
are too bloody high, of course...
Another BTW David - why does your trade name of
"Howitzer" include all those superfluous umlauts
and other accents? When my wife (she's German) saw
it she laughed!
Regards, Anthony Harrison - a moving target just
trying to weave around the obstacles thrown up
constantly by Bastards HQ...
--
I haven't dealt with Gunmark for awhile, so I am
glad to hear about that. I know in the past I
had tried to buy various Beretta bits and pieces
and they could never get them.
I remember when I was a kid and I used to be
interested in model railways, and I used to go
into the local model shop and be shown the German
Trix brochure, with about 5,000 items in it. And
then the dealer would show me the UK price list,
which had about a dozen things on it, basically
some sets of points and signals! But at least
he was honest about it!
Steve.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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