Tamiya purchases through Amazon imports, bargain!

[Gebbly]

Hi All,
I thought I'd post this info in case it helps anyone else get a really good deal.

I found Tamiya have a store on Amazon.co.uk and their prices (for what I was after) seem *really* good. I was searching for the Tamiya RC Centurion tank. Across the internet the standard price for that kit (56045) seemed to be around £1,200. The Tamiya store on Amazon.co.uk are selling that kit for £968!

It turns out, although I am still on Amazon.co.uk I am told
Dispatches from        Amazon EU
Sold by            Amazon EU

When I put the purchase in I learnt that the kit will actually be coming from Tamiya.de. The £968 includes what Amazon are calling an "Import Duty Deposit" of £198 which Amazon have calculated. Any import duties will be automatically paid by Amazon using the deposit. If the fees are less than the deposit, they refund whatevers left. If the fees are greater than the deposit they accept that they got the calculation wrong and they will make up the difference out of their own pocket.

I ordered the kit on the 16th March and it arrived on 21st March. On 23rd April I received an automated email from Amazon letting me know I would be getting a £35.55 refund because :
"Reason for refund: Export fee reduced"

This means a kit which normally retails for approx £1,200 cost £932.45!

----

As an extra kicker to show just how excellent Amazon customer services are...
I phoned Amazon on 21st March when the tank arrived and asked if they knew if I would be getting any import duty refund. The lady said yes I would be getting the full amount and sent me an email confirming this. On 5th April I phoned again just to check up and another lady confirmed that yes I would be getting the full £198 refund and sent me another email confirming this.

I think perhaps they misunderstood how the import deposit worked.

When I got the automated email on 23rd April telling me I would get a refund of £35.55, I phoned again and pointed out I was expecting £198. The first support lady said she couldnt do anything but she sounded unsure. I asked to speak to the supervisor (being polite all the time) and explained I had received 2 emails confirming a full refund. The supervisor then said she accepted Amazon had made a mistake when they had told me I would get the full refund and by way of an apology she would give me a £150 good will gesture (on top of the 35.55 refund) as she wasnt authorised to give more than £150 on a case and asked if that was acceptable. I said yes, I was very happy.

So ultimately I paid £968 and got a £185.55 refund.
That £1,200 kit actually cost me £782.45! Very happy customer

[Kpowell911]

They also go through periods where you can obtain an Arrma Infraction for a little over £500 delivered!  One to keep your eye one!

[ChrisRx718]

Wow that's absolutely terrible. Let me explain.

The UK Tamiya importer (The Hobby Co) is genuinely hopeless when it comes to supporting their UK retailers - that's a given. Prices are set using some strange algorithm rather than a direct conversion from Japanese Yen. 

The UK prices on some products is therefore grossly inflated for reasons unknown to mankind. Tamiya Tanks have always been expensive.

The Hobby Co should be vigilant in controlling UK RRP's to prevent private enterprising via personal imports and reselling. One very prevalent character who this forum gushes over used to have no account with The Hobby Co but was selling lots of Tamiya kits and parts on eBay here in the UK. The role of the importer is to shut this activity down, as it damages their genuine customers who are buying through them, the UK distributor.

Very rarely did you used to see anyone selling Tamiya stuff on Amazon - once the fees are accounted for it simply wasn't worth it.

Let me be clear - I'm absolutely not blaming you for seeking out the best price; you've paid your "share" of taxes (based on a fictitious RRP) and have personally done nothing wrong.

But think of it from the UK model shopkeepers' perspective. They would like to have sold you that model. They would like to have beaten the price you achieved and still made a decent margin on top, buying (as they should) through the UK distributor; The Hobby Co. 

But they're hamstrung by the prices the distributor is setting. 

The practice of finding cheap kits on Amazon is the twisting of the knife when it comes to killing off UK Hobby Shops. We all moan when they're non-existent or go out of business, or don't have the stock we want, but the reality is we're perpetuating it, driving it. 

I can't wander into my local Amazon and have them fix an ESC wire for me and serve me a free cup of coffee whilst putting the world to rights. I can do that at my local hobby shop.

Tl;dr - Tamiya products on Amazon is bad, mmmmkay.

End of rant 

[alvinlwh]

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[alvinlwh]

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[Gebbly]

I'm all for supporting  local hobby shops, sadly there are none nearby.

Without a walk in store being anywhere near me I like to find what I want online and then have a look and see if the website has a store at least in the same region. I get a lot of my supplies from a shop I found online which has a store in Farnborough which is as close as I can find. I have found 2 or 3 hobby stores that get most of my business as they are at least in the same region, including my little GF-01 and all the hop-ups, battery, receiver, transmitter, charger etc. I use another website with a model shop based in the town I grew up in for most of my static modelling (kits, paints, brushes, glues etc), they have extremely helpful staff and their prices are reasonable.

I am always happy to pay an extra few pounds (10 or 20 quid) knowing it will help a small business to give them my business. However budget has to factor in somewhere and when the difference in price between buying a kit in a hobby store and buying from Amazon is over £400 it just isnt feasible to buy from the hobby store.

Unfortunately buying from a hobby store has a downside too. Its sad but true that buying from a hobby store at the higher prices indirectly tells the importer and Tamiya that there is a market in the UK that are willing to pay these inflated prices. So they will keep charging the hobby store the same inflated prices knowing they will get passed on to customers who keep paying.

It is a real shame that there isnt more than 1 importer to create a competitive market. This would allow hobby stores to go with whichever supplier they liked and lower their own prices. It would soon force the inflated supplier to reduce prices in order to remain competitive.

[alvinlwh]

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[Gebbly]

29 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

Tamiya has a MAP policy that forces hobby shops to price according to them

Oh what an unpleasant business model

[Kowalski86]

 

1 hour ago, alvinlwh said:

One or ten importers do not matter. Tamiya has a MAP policy that forces hobby shops to price according to them with little room to wiggle.

 

The thing is, prior to Tamiyas MAP nonsense Traxxas technically started it iirc (and if we're to be optimistic it was to help keep LHSs alive). Even with MAP, Traxxas models usually stay at a set price when there isn't a sale.

Tamiya on the other hand...As an example, thanks to MAP, shipping, adding a $20 ESC. and Horizon Hobby, a $40 Grasshopper kit costs $130 in the States. A Grasshopper is a great $50 RC, it is terrible value for $130.

[alvinlwh]

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[Kowalski86]

2 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

Which is why I bought my GH2 in Asia, as in physically going there to buy it (along with many other kits). I had said many times before, the savings is enough to cover my airfare.

I'm curious to know what shipping would cost, I know someone that will be going to Japan soon so I could ask them to pick up a few kits.

[alvinlwh]

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[Gebbly]

39 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

I had shipped 20kg boxes from Asia

Oh I thought you meant you went over there with several empty suitcases  Your explanation makes much more sense.

[alvinlwh]

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[ad456]

@alvinlwhThat photo cracks me up every time dude!

[alvinlwh]

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[ad456]

Woah, I forgot about the plane here indeed, Hehe. 

[one_hit]

6 hours ago, ChrisRx718 said:

Wow that's absolutely terrible. Let me explain.

The UK Tamiya importer (The Hobby Co) is genuinely hopeless when it comes to supporting their UK retailers - that's a given. Prices are set using some strange algorithm rather than a direct conversion from Japanese Yen. 

The UK prices on some products is therefore grossly inflated for reasons unknown to mankind. Tamiya Tanks have always been expensive.

The Hobby Co should be vigilant in controlling UK RRP's to prevent private enterprising via personal imports and reselling. One very prevalent character who this forum gushes over used to have no account with The Hobby Co but was selling lots of Tamiya kits and parts on eBay here in the UK. The role of the importer is to shut this activity down, as it damages their genuine customers who are buying through them, the UK distributor.

Very rarely did you used to see anyone selling Tamiya stuff on Amazon - once the fees are accounted for it simply wasn't worth it.

Let me be clear - I'm absolutely not blaming you for seeking out the best price; you've paid your "share" of taxes (based on a fictitious RRP) and have personally done nothing wrong.

But think of it from the UK model shopkeepers' perspective. They would like to have sold you that model. They would like to have beaten the price you achieved and still made a decent margin on top, buying (as they should) through the UK distributor; The Hobby Co. 

But they're hamstrung by the prices the distributor is setting. 

The practice of finding cheap kits on Amazon is the twisting of the knife when it comes to killing off UK Hobby Shops. We all moan when they're non-existent or go out of business, or don't have the stock we want, but the reality is we're perpetuating it, driving it. 

I can't wander into my local Amazon and have them fix an ESC wire for me and serve me a free cup of coffee whilst putting the world to rights. I can do that at my local hobby shop.

Tl;dr - Tamiya products on Amazon is bad, mmmmkay.

End of rant 

I completely understand that we should support local hobby shops as much as possible, but you see, if you continue to buy at exorbitant prices set by the distributor, then you are giving them more reason to continue charging those inflated prices because they know people are still willing to pay. It’s just like in the PC GPU market right now where Nvidia got greedy and jacked up prices this generation because they thought people were still willing to overpay for graphics cards. Despite the fact that gpu mining is dead, used market now flooded with cards, no more chip shortage and the pandemic is over, they still chose to be greedy and overcharge. 
 

Also, the way I think about it is that every time I overpay for a kit or parts locally, I’m making the greedy distributor richer while making myself poorer. Yes the hobby shop loses out if I buy from abroad and I do feel for them, but I have to look after myself first. I’m already spending too much on this hobby and every little bit of money saved adds up. 
 

Sorry for the rant as well. I just feel really strongly about this because we are experiencing the same greedy bullcrap from the new Tamiya distributor here in my country. So greedy that they jacked up prices and don’t want to even allocate kits and parts to the former distributor’s stores. I’ll continue buying from the local hobby shops (except the greedy distributor-owned ones) as long as the price isn’t far from what it would cost me to bring it in.

[Howards]

Whenever there is distributor involved.... things gonna suck

[rich_f]

8 hours ago, ChrisRx718 said:

The practice of finding cheap kits on Amazon is the twisting of the knife when it comes to killing off UK Hobby Shops. We all moan when they're non-existent or go out of business, or don't have the stock we want, but the reality is we're perpetuating it, driving it. 

Is this the reason, though? Or is it really this:

8 hours ago, ChrisRx718 said:

Prices are set using some strange algorithm rather than a direct conversion from Japanese Yen. 

The UK prices on some products is therefore grossly inflated for reasons unknown to mankind.

If prices at my local hobby shop were anything close to a direct conversion from yen, guess where I'd be buying from!

[ChrisRx718]

@rich_f Sorry I'm not following - I'm not blaming us or indeed the OP as a consumer, this is all on the UK importer. They've been nothing but incompetent for years and years.

When "back bedroom traders" started undercutting UK retailers the importer did nothing. Other brands would have attempted to cut down on it; because each of those sellers represents a loss of earnings for them.

By making the price difference so extreme (by virtue of setting prices too high) they made the black market importing of goods too lucrative / attractive. It still goes on to this day, sad really.

I'm just as bad, a certain Plaza in Japan has probably had 50%+ of my RC hobby expenditure this year. I simply couldn't indulge in the hobby anywhere near as much if I was only paying UK prices  

[rich_f]

18 hours ago, ChrisRx718 said:

Sorry I'm not following - I'm not blaming us or indeed the OP as a consumer

It certainly looked like you were blaming the consumer when you said this:

On 4/28/2023 at 1:24 PM, ChrisRx718 said:

We all moan when they're non-existent or go out of business, or don't have the stock we want, but the reality is we're perpetuating it, driving it. 

As if to say - "Suck it up - pay the higher prices so the importer can make their tidy profit, because of their (as you said yourself) 'grossly inflated' prices, or suffer the consequences - you brought this on yourself".

As others have said, I'm all for paying a bit extra to buy at a physical shop, but the price difference vs. buying online is so much that it feels like extortion. 

And I don't quite understand this:

18 hours ago, ChrisRx718 said:

When "back bedroom traders" started undercutting UK retailers the importer did nothing. Other brands would have attempted to cut down on it; because each of those sellers represents a loss of earnings for them.

Why not just lower the prices then? If the 'back bedroom trader' can sell at a lower price and still make a profit, why can't the importer, who is surely trading in much larger volumes and can benefit from economies of scale and maybe even bulk wholesale discounts from the supplier (as presumably, the back bedroom trader is paying retail price)? You make it sound like the only option is to destroy all competition (and force consumers to cough up). 

[Willy iine]

My wife has an account with Amazon Japan and we buy stuff delivered to the USA at times.  Does not matter if ships only to Japan as we can have relatives ship to us.

Not always for the lowest price, but the availability of some really scarce items outside Japan, for example CF handle for my 7PXR.. should have it soon, with hope.  

[Kowalski86]

On 4/28/2023 at 2:02 PM, one_hit said:

Sorry for the rant as well. I just feel really strongly about this because we are experiencing the same greedy bullcrap from the new Tamiya distributor here in my country. So greedy that they jacked up prices and don’t want to even allocate kits and parts to the former distributor’s stores. I’ll continue buying from the local hobby shops (except the greedy distributor-owned ones) as long as the price isn’t far from what it would cost me to bring it in.

I can't speak for foreign countries, but here in the US Tamiyas prices are set by Tamiya themselves, not TamiyaUsa nor our distributor Horizon. Perhaps it's that way for other countries as well?

I'm very much in the camp of "I'll buy online if it saves me money", but usually the price difference is negligible.

[Badcrumble]

On 4/28/2023 at 3:01 PM, alvinlwh said:

One or ten importers do not matter. Tamiya has a MAP policy that forces hobby shops to price according to them with little room to wiggle.

 

From limited research, Minimum Advertised Price is a US market device, it doesn't apply in the UK. The UK has the Recommended Retail Price instead and MAP infringes the Competition Act in the UK.