New Mesa Triple Crown

nick79

I tried to make a thread about this the other day, but strangely it said it needed approval by a mod and then it never appeared.  
Anyway, i'm looking forward to seeing what its like, could be the amp for me. Although it will be very expensive...

Deijavoo

Is VAT, shipping, UK voltage and Westside really such a hike?

Runt 50 looks like even better value all of a sudden.

fretmeister

Westside is the culprit. 

richardhomer

It kind of makes you happy that Westside doesn't handle Dumble....

Seriously - that is an obscene level of mark up!

DanR

I'm happy with my Runt 50.

I always struggle to dial in Mesas.

webrthomson

fretmeister said:

Westside is the culprit. 

Yup - seems to be true of all their EU distributors too though.

Love Boogies but I'm not paying the mark up, Mark V 25 is ~60% over the price that Boogie can make a tidy profit from in the US - fuck that

ThePrettyDamned

Wow. I aimed that high almost as a joke. 

ennspek

Mesa prices recently have been insane. I'd love one but I'm not being held to ransom.

fretmeister

Doesn't help that used values of Mesa's are not holding well.

For example - Andertons are showing the latest Dual Rectifier head at £2750

They often sell on here for just over £1000 - that's the latest multi-watt reborn model. The older ones sometimes struggle to make £900!


EDIT - it seems the £2750 price is for a Vinyl Front version. The standard metal plate one is £2099

Because a vinyl front panel costs £650 obviously.

Twats.

octatonic

richardhomer said:

It kind of makes you happy that Westside doesn't handle Dumble....

Seriously - that is an obscene level of mark up!

Same thing happens in Australia- the Aussie distributor basically doubles the price.

english_bob

ennspek said:

Mesa prices recently have been insane. I'd love one but I'm not being held to ransom.

I wonder who the guys at Westside have pictures of Randall Smith shagging. They've been Mesa's distributor forever, and I can't imagine their ridonkulous markup does anything for Mesa's sales. I know they handle warranty repairs and suchlike, but I struggle to believe that anything they do is worth 60% over the US retail price.

Couldn't another UK distributor approach Mesa and offer to do everything Westside does for considerably less of a markup, thus generating more profits for both parties from all the players who'd quite like a Boogie without the years-long wait for a used one at a sensible price?

professorben

english_bob said:

ennspek said:

Mesa prices recently have been insane. I'd love one but I'm not being held to ransom.

I wonder who the guys at Westside have pictures of Randall Smith shagging. They've been Mesa's distributor forever, and I can't imagine their ridonkulous markup does anything for Mesa's sales. I know they handle warranty repairs and suchlike, but I struggle to believe that anything they do is worth 60% over the US retail price.

Couldn't another UK distributor approach Mesa and offer to do everything Westside does for considerably less of a markup, thus generating more profits for both parties from all the players who'd quite like a Boogie without the years-long wait for a used one at a sensible price?

Don't forget the insane amount of faulty amps that have to........... Oh yeah. 

professorben

Honestly, soundwise I'd only leave my Engl for a Mesa, and then I'd be in a happier place reliability wise. 

webrthomson

ennspek said:

Mesa prices recently have been insane. I'd love one but I'm not being held to ransom.

Honestly get a second hand one - Mesa are tantamount to indestructible – I’ve had every single mark series amp (well I-V) a 2 channel Dual recto, two DC5's and a recto reborn and the only one I bought new was the reborn, which when I got it (new) didn’t channel switch, ahem

Cacofonix

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Deijavoo

Cacofonix said:

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Totally.

Cacofonix

Glad you agree.  Took me a while to think that one through.

Deijavoo

Cacofonix said:

Glad you agree.  Took me a while to think that one through.

.

Deijavoo

  

Jez6345789

Like the sound of the amp but probably hope some one Kempers it soon don't really have use for a full blown rig.

without wanting to do Westsides PR for them I would make the following point that is sometimes missed by customers in the US v Uk pricing and one that I come up against as an importer and distributor of US products not music orientated.

the scenario I have come up with US companies do not ever think about the global market as often the US is so big they can make enough out of domestic sales.

So you end up with this scenario US manufacturer makes and distributes themselves to the US Market they fund the cost of local distribution through their manufacturing margin. So when international sales come looking they appoint a distributor but  effectively have to do one or two things sell to the foreign distributor at store price it will probably be there best store trade price or cut there margin to help fund distribution in overseas markets. If they sell at US dealer price to foreign distributor there business model continues to make sense but the over seas price then becomes far higher.

which looks like

shipping 7%
duty. 3%
distribution 20%
Uk retail will probably need a bit higher margin than US 5%
Shiiping to store
Vat 20%

all that quickly ramps up the headline US price that hobbyists see.

alternatively US manufacturer subsidies international to some degree out of his margin. From a comment by PRS in one of his talks about business he was talking about the fact that he had recently brought back his EU distribution and it was now part of PRS and for the first time the company was making money on international sales. So they to a degree obviously subsidised the International distribution cost.

Scenario 3 US company thinks global from the start and has a pricing structure to make it all work (rare in smaller niche markets)

the issue with the PRS scenario is when looking for investors they are looking for a well managed company and will frown on the idea of international being subsidised. Also it may be hard to sell into the home market if it's an established one where it would make your price higher than a competitor that only sold to the domestic market.


I have left left currency out of the equation but that is a scenario I have come up against with several US firms.

I also reckon it could be done more cost effectively as that's what we do in our market but unless you are in the market all UK consumers see is ripp off .