Cheap tyres from USA

[Spoon]

Had an email back today from Jake Wilson saying they can no longer freight tyres into Australia because of an agreement between the tyre manufacturers and the Australian importers. Was after Michelins but a couple of other brands were mentioned also.

If your OS supplier isn't affected, let me know which one so I can grab some. Could be the start of the end of the cheap tyres

[Bradlze]

mother $%^&#$@

[I Fancy Holidays]

There's more then Jake wilsons. The Internet is a big place.

[conscuba]

could always try Price USA or similar where they order it and ship it to a US address and then fwd to u.

[Phildo]

There's more then Jake wilsons. The Internet is a big place.

He'll be the first one that the tyre companies shut down. The rest will get told pretty soon.

The same thing is going on with Harley Davidson dealers in the US. They're being told that all mail order sales must only be paid for on US-based credit cards, where the postal address matches what's on the card.

We'll start to see a lot of this. Local retailers will push Australian distributors, which will then have discussions with head companies. You can't stop the stuff coming into the country, but you can wave a big stick at the US shops that sell via mail order to Australian buyers. That will be the next game plan.

Places like USA Address & Mail Forwarding and www.priceusa.com.au will be doing a roaring trade soon, but the condition of having a credit card with a US address is going to be a pain.

[Dasha27]

Well that sucks, just got some tires from jake wilson a few months ago couldn't believe how much cheaper they were compared to the prices we pay here. I guess all good things come to an end

[Xuaxace]

Good luck with those prices,.. I sure JK gets big volume based discounts + subsidize shipping. I mean I got 2 tyres,2 bike stands, tyre changing kit (heavy as) plus some assorted items,, 1m^2 +, a lots of kilos. I payed I think 70$ and got my stuff in less than a week!.

I got my brother to roughly calculate that, and he said it that could have been 200$-300$ easy.

It comes down to shipping IMO.

[Hewie]

Not difficult to overcome.

Paypal or use US/international based banks or use telegraphic transfers .. there are other more complex arrangements that can be looked at too that would give you substantial freedoms.

As has been mentioned, freight forwarders are a good option for shipping addresses.

If all else fails ... find a friend or 50 in the US.

Importers have been trying this shit for years .. you just need to do some research into the various possibilities.

[HPM]

If the local market was reasonable then I would buy local as well. But we are talking $120 per tyre difference (that's landed). If it was $50, I'd buy local without question.

[Rooboy]

Just ordered my front tyre from Jake Wilson and will be here Thurs 6/10.

[Stoneville]

yeh, Michelin, Pirelli and Metzlers are no goers now from JW, but you can still get the other brands for now, when these get shut down as well we will be doing the intermediate shipper.

[Dasha27]

If the local market was reasonable then I would buy local as well. But we are talking $120 per tyre difference (that's landed). If it was $50, I'd buy local without question.

Totally agree, i would prefer to buy local but there prices have massive profit margins attached which push people to buy overseas cause we all like to save a bit on anything we buy.

[Brougham]

It's not generally the shop that has the profit margin, it's the importer/distributor.

[filbert]

Totally agree, i would prefer to buy local but there prices have massive profit margins attached which push people to buy overseas cause we all like to save a bit on anything we buy.

the profit margin isn't all at the shop either, tyres are cheaper from jake wilson than they are from the state distributor, bridgestone should be safe from any protectionism type behaviour for a little while since our state distributor has closed.

[Dasha27]

the profit margin isn't all at the shop either, tyres are cheaper from jake wilson than they are from the state distributor, bridgestone should be safe from any protectionism type behaviour for a little while since our state distributor has closed.

See thats where everything starts to get messed up, distributors are forcing people to still look for loop holes to get tires from the states. Like HPM said if they were only slightly more expensive people would buy local more. I understand everyone has to make a dollar but they would make more by selling more local then selling less with higher costs.

[DTee]

The same thing happened with running shoes a few years ago. (The Australian Asics distributor cracked the shits because everyone on coolrunning.com.au was posting about buying Kayanos from the US for half price - so Asics told the US websites they couldn't ship to Australia).

To cut a long story short, we found ways around it and can still buy Asics from the US (although it is a harder), and the shoes also became cheaper in Australian shops (like Jim Kidds) so worked out in the end.

[Veefore]

A friend in the Golf industry said that manufacturers and distributors were basically forced to start price matching to stop the gray-market imports in order to protect the local industry. For the most part now, you can get equipment for no more than about 10-15% more than via the US.
Other industries have to follow suit soon rather than just continuing to try to protect their 20th century business models.