Why are US made welders disproportionately more expensive over here?

[zardoz]

And I dont mean by a bit either. ie: A Miller 200DX AC/DC TIG machine is £3,540.00 inc VAT at Welly weld, or £2888 excl VAT at Rapid weld [£3465 incl VAT] (I'm not singling these two out. This model seems to be the same price everywhere. As do all new Lincolns and Millers) Its almost as if its been agreed upon beforehand to keep the price artificially high

In the USA they retail at most $3500, which is almost exactly £2000. or £1500 less!

Thats an increase of 75% in price! Not forgetting that a UK business would not be paying retail prices either. (anyone know how much these wholesale at ?)​

I cannot belive that a single one of these would work out much each to ship over. (A retailer could of course buy maybe a dozen on a pallet, thereby making a huge saving?) Even with adding VAT on top for a UK buyer (anyone know a way of getting my welder VAT free?)

Surely taking in to account the wholsale price that they would have to pay for them from Miller, someone must be making a fortune on every purchase.

Has anyone ever looked in to purchasing a single machine direct from the USA ?

 

[fixerupper]

I wonder what the import duty whould be ?..Years ago when we first move to Crete we bought some Greek language learning CDs from the US ... the import duty was 100 euros on CDs costing 200 dollars ...ouch

 

[Shox Dr]

You have to remember price quoted in the states do not include state TAX, also they have a lower profit margin (20%ish) than over here, and typically you'll have to buy a lot before they will discount more than they give a Distributor other there. Then you have shipping DUTY and VA on top of all that add in the Importers cut and finally the UK Retailers cut. (and they like a lot of profit margin) and there you have the difference.

 

[cumbriasteve]

It was the same years back with Levi denims, can remember a mate coming back with them, he had paid something like £15 and they were over £30 in the UK.

I should imagine the prices in both countries are governed by demand/competition/ manufacturing costs/profit margins and shipping costs etc.

The USA is obviously a much larger market so they can cut the profit margin due to increased sales volume.

Am sure I read somewhere that the import/VAT can be beat to some effect by an American relative or friend buying the item, owning it for a certain period and then sending it as a gift to the UK.

 

[matt1978]

There is a Lincoln and a Miller UK, so all UK distributors would be purchasing directly from the UK subsidiaries not from the US factories.

 

[normspanners]

I bought a piston for an engine from blackpool in uk cost me about £100 and a week later it seized ( my fault) but they didnt have another and said it would be a month or so to get one from the US. So I found one from a dealer in the US, the guy sent it ( before I had actually paid for it!) with everything all in, taxes shipping etc with small end bearing and pin, and it was £60, I had it in 4days. Quicker than the first took to get to me from Blackpool !!

 

[TAITSIE]

I bought a piston for an engine from blackpool in uk cost me about £100 and a week later it seized ( my fault) but they didnt have another and said it would be a month or so to get one from the US. So I found one from a dealer in the US, the guy sent it ( before I had actually paid for it!) with everything all in, taxes shipping etc with small end bearing and pin, and it was £60, I had it in 4days. Quicker than the first took to get to me from Blackpool !!

I bet the guy from Blackpool bought the first one from USA then just put mega mark up on it !!

 

[gordon stephenson]

When I looked in to the differing prices for a hypertherm plasma between the UK and USA, Some of the reason was that the UK machines are slightly different in the internals to conform with the UK/EU electrical standards. But I'm quite sure this is not responsible for the big increase in price over the USA.

 

[TAITSIE]

I have had various items sent from USA and even taking into account postage and customs charges the parts still worked out cheaper than buying them here

 

[500e]

Orders to Helitech in US Monday evening (time difference) delivery Wednesday lunch time
Our electronics side most distributors next day, if in stock

 

[AndyStobbs]

Not very well up on us power supply, but do they have to 'convert' them to UK spec?

 

[chevy2]

I bought a Miller Dynasty 200dx just under a year ago and did consider importing one myself,
However after speaking with Miller in the US and a bit of my own homework i bought one from a uk dealer, Empire welding and a fair bit cheaper than the above prices, £2550+vat to be precise,and stillat that price, it soon worked out an even better deal once i added torches, pedal etc,

The main reasons i didn't import were,
although the 3year warranty is valid you would have to bear the cost of sending it to Miller in Holland for any repairs as a US spec machine would not be CE european compliant and may not be legal should you need to take it out on site?
Some repair shops may refuse to repair non CE machines due to insurance implications and finally you'll have to use US spec tig torches as they use a different fitting at the front of the welder.

 

[fixerupper]

I thought that in the US mains voltage was 110....jeff...

 

[norlander]

I have had various items sent from USA and even taking into account postage and customs charges the parts still worked out cheaper than buying them here

used to buy in Harley parts from the states, still cheaper after customs etc, Harley France have now dropped their prices as loads of people got wise to it.Can still pay to ship in from the states tho.
I recall a couple of years back that Triumph bikes were cheaper in the US than Britain and they are made at Hinckley (yes-I know the bonnies are allegedly built in Taiwan).Not checked to see if that is still the case -the prices I mean not the bonnies built in Taiwan.

 

[shenion]

I thought that in the US mains voltage was 110....jeff...

For single phase it is 120/240 split phase. Basically two 120V feeds out of phase. Use one and neutral for 120 and across both is 240.

I know stuff I have sent to the UK and Germany gets huge import duties.

 

[hotrodder]

Miller Dynasty is totally unfussed about what flavour leccy it's fed regardless of origin, they're all multivoltage and run off anything from 110 - 460V single or 3 phase IIRC. My Lincoln v205t is similar but single phase only so happy on 110 - 240V 50 or 60Hz

As Chevy with the Miller, CE versions of the v205t are slightly different having seperate plugs for foot remote and torch switch instead of just the one. Bypassing the UK importer probably complicates warranty too- that's part of what their profit pays for. The V205t is (or at least used to be) made by Selco in Italy IIRC while the US version is Henco en Mexico i believe

Dunno when things changed but back around 2000 when i bought it the Lincoln was a chunk cheaper than the equivilant Kemppi, not 100% sure where the Dynasty sat in relation but i think was in middle price wise. Back then they were all closer spec wise (all 200A output etc), these days the Kemppi is 230A has more bells and whistles and is cheaper

Pretty much all been said... an importer/UK distributer adds another step in the supply chain and their profit margin means a higher VAT bill when it's retailed. Beyond that it all gets complicated as taxation varies lots and it's not just sales/import, there's general taxation/public spending/wages/living standards and so on. The grass is always greener, rip off UK... [/daily wail]

 

[matt1978]

I am not sure as to why the American brands maybe more than in the USA but the UK is generally the cheapest in Europe to buy any of the well known European equipment. When ever we have a sales meeting and we discuss prices in our respective markets it tends to be the UK that has most competition and most aggressive pricing policies compared to the same manufacturers in other country's

 

[julianthegypsy]

A few years ago, I imported some aftermarket harley parts from a dealer in the midwest. My local harley specialist reckoned he was paying a good chunk more than I did at wholesale. Custom chrome for one insisted that everything was bought through holland, at higher prices that .s dealers were retailing at. I have no idea why, but I saved at least £100 on a set of cams, even after duty and vat.