Jem 20th price in Australia OMG !!!

[IbanezFreak777]

Not sure if this has been disscussed at all but I have to bring it up.

I went to my local guitar shop. I asked the guy if he could get me a Jem 20th and how much it would be.

Of course I knew it would be expensive, but I wanted to find out any how. So he called the rep, the response he got was, they had 10 come into Australia, and they were all sold instantly at the list price of

........Drum roll please ......



$9995 AUS

9,995.00 AUD = 8,351.48 USD
Australia Dollars United States Dollars
1 AUD = 0.835566 USD 1 USD = 1.19679 AUD


I just don't know how to put into words what im feeling. I love the Jem and Vai and it does deserve a high price tage, but its just crazy....

For 10 grand I could have flown to LA and purchased one and still got change left over. This is the truth

[David McCarroll]

Hey, that's actually LESS than I expected!
There are a couple on the *Bay at the moment for about $5000 - which translates to : $6100AUD, plus about $440 AUD shipping, plus about 15% on top of that combined total for Duty and GST which is about $7520, plus you might as well chuck in at least anothr $150 for various things (for example quarantine checking and x-raying which, yes, you pay for!) and you'll have paid about $7670 AUD for an instrument which will probably arrive in one piece....... (both of the guitars imported by friends in recent months arrived slightly damaged - I have been VERY lucky so far in this respect).

Technically, you would have to pay that 15% duty and GST on a guitar you carried back to Australia as baggage, although in most cases the airport customs people will ignore a guitar which is obviously a personal item.

Maybe you should get a quote from Rich before buying one locally, but, trust me, even though the notion of buying an axe from the US looks really good, it costs more than you think!

Cheers

David

[JJEMMER777]

Ever consider moving??

[David McCarroll]

For me, occasionally, but then again, this is just up the road from where I live:



so I stay.......

[wilch]

Cheaper than I expected too.

Same list as my Jem 2KDNA that I bought...brand new...in Australia...but not at list price

[IbanezFreak777]

Well I have bought a guitar from the US. I paid $699 for a RG2 Giger and $50 for an sbk case, plus $100 for shipping and I eneded up paying $200 for tax and xray etc...

List price in the shop is $2000. So its way cheaper to buy from the US.

And you will never get taxed on any guitar your carry with you, because, no one can prove that it wasn't yours before you went travelling.

Anyways cheap or not, 10 grand is still 10 grand, and that is not cheap by anyones standards.

[Eco]

Originally Posted by David McCarroll

For me, occasionally, but then again, this is just up the road from where I live:



so I stay.......

What about sharks :$!

Yea thats pretty steep, when you convert the prices into pounds they dont seem as bad lol.

Unfortunately we pays almost the same in pounds as everyone else does in USD.

[ibz_SA]

I live in aus and i wanted a an rg550 20th there were 10 in aus with a price tag of $2,200au so yeah its a little cheaper then i thought i thought it would of been about $12,000

[David McCarroll]

Originally Posted by Eco

What about sharks :$!

Much higher chance of getting hit by a bus ........

I guess the only point I'm making is that you sit down here in Australia trawling through *Bay looking at guitars thinking "Gawd that's so cheap!", but so far I have bought four or five guitars directly from overseas sellers, and it is never as cheap as you think it's going to be!

For what it's worth, my wife brought me back a Dan Armstrong Plexiglass reissue from New York recently, and she DID get stopped at Sydney airport by customs, who wanted to have a look at what was in the case - the result? One customs inspector saying; "Wow, what a cool guitar!" - and no taxes or import duty! BUT, they could easily have imposed a book value on the instrument (which is about $4000AUD!!!!) and charged her duty on that!

You just have to pick your instrument carefully and be realistic about what it is really likely to cost - secondhand PRS's are a case in point - they are frighteningly expensive here in Australia, but even including duty and taxes you can save a LOT of money if you are willing to take the risk in international shipping. An RG 550, well, y'know, unless you pick it up on a trip that you are already doing, you'll pay almost as much to ship the thing as what you pay to buy it!

Cheers

David

[David McCarroll]

Originally Posted by ibz_SA

I live in aus and i wanted a an rg550 20th there were 10 in aus with a price tag of $2,200au so yeah its a little cheaper then i thought i thought it would of been about $12,000

Now THAT is insane!

[DavyH]

Same gripe out here.

I don't think the dealers are out to rip me off, but they don't get the same deals from the suppliers because the volumes are so low. Depending on what the exchange rate was doing when the guitar was first imported you might get lucky, but between shipping and VAT the prices can be pretty high.

VG Strat was more or less USD 3 000.

Ouch.

On the other hand, my Jem7VWH came to the equivalent of around USD 2 000, so not too much difference there.

Maybe substitute "Any Southern Hemisphere country" for "Australia" in the thread title..... why this should apply to South America is beyond me, but it seems to happen there as well.

Cross the equator in a ship, you pay for the ticket. Cross the equator with a guitar, you pay for everyone's ticket.

[eviltwin]

it's 6666 eur list over here that's

4,523.59 GBP
9,022.00 USD
10,776.13 AUD
or
1,094,555.05 JPY

and were not even on the wrong hemisphere

[Dutchie]

I actually thought they would be around $15,000, so I guess $9995 isn't as bad as I thought they would be.

As stated above, the DNA's were the same price when they were released a few years back and the last DNA I saw in a shop was $15,000 (about a year or so ago). Personally, I wouldn't pay anymore than 4 or 5 grand for either, but that just me. At the same time, I wish I was in a position to send 10k on a guitar.

Like all quality guitars in Australia, we pay way way too much for them in this country

[wilch]

Originally Posted by Dutchie

I actually thought they would be around $15,000, so I guess $9995 isn't as bad as I thought they would be.

As stated above, the DNA's were the same price when they were released a few years back and the last DNA I saw in a shop was $15,000 (about a year or so ago). Personally, I wouldn't pay anymore than 4 or 5 grand for either, but that just me. At the same time, I wish I was in a position to send 10k on a guitar.

Like all quality guitars in Australia, we pay way way too much for them in this country

I managed to buy the last new one left at Australis (Ibanez distributor here)...well that's what the Ibanez rep told me. Mine was on display in a glass case in their foyer apparently.

That one you saw, did it look like this?

#285
my dna

[Lord Lemons]

Wow. Thats worth more than my first born.