LAB12s in Australia

[broughd]

HI!

I would like to get some LAB12 drivers in Australia. The Eminence distributer here wants AU$470 each!!! (about US$420) which is a lot more than the US$150 at USSpeaker.com.

http://www.usspeaker.com/lab12-1.htm

Does anyone know a good place to get these in AU or have experience importing into AU from overseas?

I'm sure a few of you out there have build Labhorns

cheers, DB

[smithy666]

The reason they want so much is they weigh 10kg each, and then add GST. Shipping by air would be A$150+, by sea A$90+, so their $470 probably is $50-100 more than it should be, but it's not too far off. You need to get a bunch of people together to buy 10+ to bring the shipping cost down. Best you could do would be around A$300 landed if you wanted them by air, or $250 by sea

[broughd]

Originally posted by smithy666
The reason they want so much is they weigh 10kg each, and then add GST. Shipping by air would be A$150+, by sea A$90+, so their $470 probably is $50-100 more than it should be, but it's not too far off. You need to get a bunch of people together to buy 10+ to bring the shipping cost down. Best you could do would be around A$300 landed if you wanted them by air, or $250 by sea

Thanks for the reply!

$250 - $300 is a lot better than $470, especially when buying 4! I think I would be happy to pay that.

I didn't realise they weigh that much though...

I have heard that when buying more than about $2000-3000 there is a risk of customs applying import duty. I don't now how much that is though.

Do you think shipping would be less if buying a whole bunch? May be able to get a better unit price too.

I don't suppose you know of any suppliers who will ship to AUS?


cheers, DB

[DaveCan]

Give partsexpress.com a look.. They might have a better deal and they have the newest Gen II Lab 12's Dave

[cowanaudio]

G'day Dave

The first generation of LAB12 drivers were never available for sale, they were a prototype only. All LAB12 drivers that have been sold are Gen II.

Cheers

William Cowan

[DaveCan]

Thanks William I didn't realize that... Looks like a lot of woofer for the money though especially in the Lab enclosure, hope you can get a good deal DB... Dave

[smithy666]

If you import over A$1000 of goods you will be subject to GST (10%) + duty (if it applies). If the drivers are made in the US there won't be any duty payable (Aus-US free trade agreement), other wise duty will be charged at 5%.
If they send them through the mail and the value is >$1000 (including the postage - it's the total, not just the driver cost), then you will have to get them "cleared", which means filling out customs docs. This adds another $65 odd if you do it yourself or $150+ if you get a customs broker to do it.
If you bring in 4 you more than likely will have to pay GST, as the total cost inc shipping will be >A$1000
The best bet freight wise is to get the supplier to give you a quote - sometimes they have good rates with UPS or Fedex (better than you could get yourself), and they will automatically do the clearance for you ($65 odd charge)
I'd ask both partsexpress and usspeaker for freight quotes & see how you go.

[broughd]

Originally posted by smithy666
If you import over A$1000 of goods you will be subject to GST (10%) + duty (if it applies). If the drivers are made in the US there won't be any duty payable (Aus-US free trade agreement), other wise duty will be charged at 5%.
If they send them through the mail and the value is >$1000 (including the postage - it's the total, not just the driver cost), then you will have to get them "cleared", which means filling out customs docs. This adds another $65 odd if you do it yourself or $150+ if you get a customs broker to do it.
If you bring in 4 you more than likely will have to pay GST, as the total cost inc shipping will be >A$1000
The best bet freight wise is to get the supplier to give you a quote - sometimes they have good rates with UPS or Fedex (better than you could get yourself), and they will automatically do the clearance for you ($65 odd charge)
I'd ask both partsexpress and usspeaker for freight quotes & see how you go.

Thanks for the info, very helpful !!! You have obviously have experience. I had a quick look at the Australian Customs site, and it seems like the best approach is to keep the value under $1000 and avoid all the fees/taxes and paperwork.

I might just try to import 2, and if it works out ok, I'll get another 2...


USSpeaker said that they can only supply Eminence drivers if the dealer in my country is unable to supply them. I believe that in Australia this would be in breach of the Trade Practices Act (which obviously does not apply to USSpeaker), I don't know about the situation in the US. Perhaps these types of laws are not intended to cover international jurisdictions...



cheers, DB

[broughd]

Originally posted by smithy666
The reason they want so much is they weigh 10kg each, and then add GST. Shipping by air would be A$150+, by sea A$90+, so their $470 probably is $50-100 more than it should be, but it's not too far off. You need to get a bunch of people together to buy 10+ to bring the shipping cost down. Best you could do would be around A$300 landed if you wanted them by air, or $250 by sea

Hi!

You said $90 each by sea, that is what we pay, but if the distributer is getting a container or half container load of parts I would expect the cost to be a fair bit less. Given that they would also pay less than the US$145 (~AU$167) that USSpeaker charges retail, perhaps (just guessing) US$125, it looks like they are just taking advantage of the fact that there is such a limited range of good drivers available in AUS. I would be surprised if the distributer is paying much more than AU$170 landed. So if they were charging $340 retail ok - reasonable markup, but $470 ???


cheers, DB

[Bikeman]

Hi DB,

I wouldn't get your hopes up with parts express. I was looking to get a couple of sub drivers from them and asked about shipping options. I was told the only way they ship is via UPS, and the charges were SCARY...

If they would just post the things, it'd be worth doing. Still not cheap, but not bad compared to what is in Aus. I don't need to have them here in 3 days via courier, but it seems the only option here.

Cheers,

Mark