First & foremost, I have nothing against 35 Guitar Avenue. In fact, they are one of the most welcoming guitar stores here & I can attest to this personally, especially the Peninsula outlet (now permanently closed). Since they are currently the recognised Gibson distributor here, I would like to highlight the prices of some of the models in store against a popular guitar store in the USA. Prices at both ends are regular listings & not subjected to seasonal / blowout discounts. Starting off, the Gibson LP Studio Smokehouse Satin model depicted above is more than SGD3K here, State side, it's USD1,999 (SGD2,695). Here are others:
- SG Standard '61 (vintage cherry): SGD3,090 / USD1,999 (SGD2,695)
- LP Standard '50s (gold top): SGD4,590 / USD2,799 (SGD3,774)
- LP Standard '69s (bourbon burst): SGD4,590 / USD2,799 (SGD3,774)
- Slash LP Standard (november burst): SGD4,890 / USD2,999 (SGD4,044)
Note: SGD prices are in red, USA prices are in blue
We note prices are not on par with the listings in the USA. You can visit the official Gibson webpage & note that the US store is listing Gibsons according to the manufacturer's recommended figures. Are all Gibson distributors obliged to comply? It depends if the distributor has a good business plan to cut profits & offer them on parity. While we applaud the return of Gibson to our shores, does this equal to letting stores here screw us up with prices? You & I know the answer. We are not privy to the business formula of product pricing. Whatever prices stores wish to list their guitars for, they know better. We can always choose to not buy from them.
Pic: Sweetwater
1 comment:
First, comparing (in highlights) your local selling price in SG dollars with US domestic selling price in US dollars creates an initial false impression since your currency is worth only about 3/4 US currency as shown by your unhighlighted conversion price listed of SG $2695. Second, that price of $2695 does not include your tariff on imported guitars which is currently 8% which brings the price up to $2910 nor the cost of shipping the guitar overseas to SG which if you add any reasonable estimate for that cost (the US does not subsidize shipping of exports like the Chinese do) shows that your local store seems really not much out of line at all. Your biggest problem(s) are the value of your dollar versus US dollar, your government's import tariffs (which I see is going up another 1% in January), and the fact that you are half way around the world from us here in the US and the costs to deal with that.
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