I've had orders where USD to AUD + fast
shipping + GST/Duty was still around 3x cheaper than
buying from local dealers. I'm quite certain that many Aussie
marine companies simply order from the US (at US retail pricing), then add their own huge mark-up on top of whatever their total cost was.
Here's a recent, though less extreme example:
I need a new
Westerbeke heat exchanger, local
Brisbane guy (who will remain nameless) says it's $895AUD, and one of his workers manages to tell me "he gets them from the US".
The same aftermarket exchanger from inetmarine.com is $315USD + $134.28USD
shipping via UPS (less than 1 week wait!). Total cost to my door: $489.73AUD (with todays exchange rate).
So, why mess around with the local who is
charging nearly double? I'd also be waiting at least an extra week while he places the order, gets his *#$! together, sends it out once it arrives, etc. Why bother? It's just a scam.
I was recently investigating
purchasing wind generators locally, assume the shipping from N. America would be huge. It turns out the locals are gouging so badly, it's still far cheaper to ship a fairly bulky
wind generator from the US, even with the exchange rate, duty, GST.
Defender seems pretty good with shipping rates to
Australia when you factor in your savings. I pass out their catalogs to everyone here. They should be giving me affiliate bonuses!