Spyderco Forums

toomzz wrote:Most Spyderco knives I purchase over the internet directly from the US. From reputable dealers, also on Ebay. I understand Dutch knife-sellers need to make a living but if I can get my Spyders (sometimes much) cheaper directly from the US I get them there. I am a middle man with a normal income and I am simply not willing to pay European prices in the Netherlands.

Directly from U.S.A. is a pain here for 2 main reasons:
1) Custom fees (about 28-30 %)
2) Time for shipment (real and time loose in Custom)

I hope that Europe distribution will improve to avoid this very loss of money and let us buy more knives

Jumpin'Spyder wrote:

toomzz wrote:Most Spyderco knives I purchase over the internet directly from the US. From reputable dealers, also on Ebay. I understand Dutch knife-sellers need to make a living but if I can get my Spyders (sometimes much) cheaper directly from the US I get them there. I am a middle man with a normal income and I am simply not willing to pay European prices in the Netherlands.

Directly from U.S.A. is a pain here for 2 main reasons:
1) Custom fees (about 28-30 %)
2) Time for shipment (real and time loose in Custom)

I hope that Europe distribution will improve to avoid this very loss of money and let us buy more knives

Custom fees and shipping time/waiting for customs is probably about the same in the Netherlands it's just that even then it can still be cheaper.
(mainly when ordering a few knives at a time)

Btw, customs did actually get less terrible here during the past years, I don't even remember how long it's been that I had to wait 3-4 weeks for customs, a couple years back that was standard and I once even waited 2 months.. (not counting shipping, just customs)

Dunno, over the last decade I've been buying the vast majority of my Spydies from US and I've never missed a sprint that I really wanted to get my hands on (with the notable exception of the CPM-154/S90V clad blade Para2).

Waiting time is not too bad here in Romania either, 10-14 days for the shipping plus an extra 2-3 days in customs, I can definitely live with that. On the other hand, having to pay a 30% customs fee is insane, I'm wondering where exactly are they categorizing knives? The Romanian customs officers have been perfectly happy to classify knives as camping equipment, with a 8% import duty tax (but I guess this is subject to national law, not EU's).

I would heartily concur towards the idea of setting up a kind of European SFO though

Let's make an example of the knife from page 1 for 61 Euros to Germany. Let's assume it costs the distributor 50 Euros. They have maybe 10 Euros shipping plus 19% VAT on the now 60 Euros makes 60 + 19%= 71,4 Euros. Because they buy in bulks larger than 150 Euros you gotta add I think 8,5 % customs which is 71,4 + 8,5 = 79,9 Euros. Then there are the usual costs a distributor has (housing, employees, warehouse, electricity, water, packaging, the simple pens on the table, and so fort) and his profit margin plus often normally about 7,90 Euros here in Germany for another shipping to the customer. So it's not just "They sell them here for double the price because they can", but those are most likely real costs (plus maybe another 5 Euros profit, who knows). Correct me if I'm wrong.

Pity that in Italy they charge 22% VAT on knives and the majority of items imported! Plus other not so clear postal expenses :mad: :mad: :mad:

brj wrote:I would heartily concur towards the idea of setting up a kind of European SFO though

This I would subscribe me too :D

Fritzbert wrote:Let's make an example of the knife from page 1 for 61 Euros to Germany. Let's assume it costs the distributor 50 Euros. They have maybe 10 Euros shipping plus 19% VAT on the now 60 Euros makes 60 + 19%= 71,4 Euros. Because they buy in bulks larger than 150 Euros you gotta add I think 8,5 % customs which is 71,4 + 8,5 = 79,9 Euros. Then there are the usual costs a distributor has (housing, employees, warehouse, electricity, water, packaging, the simple pens on the table, and so fort) and his profit margin plus often normally about 7,90 Euros here in Germany for another shipping to the customer. So it's not just "They sell them here for double the price because they can", but those are most likely real costs (plus maybe another 5 Euros profit, who knows). Correct me if I'm wrong.

I couldn't follow the first assumption: why would it cost 50€ to the distributor? And which distributor, the EU one or the US shop that actually sells the knife for that price?
The 61€ already include the (US) seller's profit.

I think Böker is the official German distributor for Spydies in Germany. The price would just be a guess of what it would cost them to buy directly from Spyderco factory. Or any other distributor here in the EU/Germany. I just said 50 because, of course, it has to be less than 61 for a profit to be made for the seller in the US.

Maybe 11€ is enough for the shopping costs and profit, maybe not, but anyway I think a distributor is used to make things simpler and cheaper: doesn't seem to be the case with spydies

The 50 was just a fantasy number. You'll never know how much it is because a purchaser who buys 50 per year won't get the same deal as someone who buys 5.000.

I dont know why, my local retailer is very competitive on benchmade and zero-tolerance compared to USA. I mean they are like 20% more and that is fine. But a delica is 115 euro Vs 60 euro shipped to my door from the us. Sad to say I have to buy away. I am in italy, and I would love to support more my local shop, the distributor for me is getting a too high slice.

Besides the problem is Not paying a delica 115 euro, the problem is paying a slysz bowie 500 euro i. E. 600$!!!

I've already mentioned this in another topic;

But how about a group buying NGO, exclusive to spyderco, for the european free trady area.

Think about it in a Massdrop kind of fashion.
The group deals with spyderco directly, less middlemen, us-eu shipping will be in bulk (so cheaper) and all administrative add on costs are minimalized, you can even make it sprint-models/high-end models exclusive, as to not hinder the European importers.

Bonus to spyderco themselves: they get to keep their consumerbase (and may even extend) in Europe, and their net profit stays the same.

Win - win