RealTraps now selling directly to Europe

[Ethan Winer]

Effective immediately, RealTraps is selling directly throughout Europe. After receiving numerous complaints from potential customers about the excessively high cost of our products in Europe, we have arranged with a local courier to provide international shipping at very attractive rates. This allows customers to buy directly from us with no importer's markup, though import duty and local taxes still apply.

Most orders are sent via Air Freight, and the shipping company charges you for shipping, duty, and any other applicable taxes when they deliver. Air shipping is surprisingly affordable to most locations. For example, sending four MiniTraps by air to England costs about $40 per trap if you pick them up at the airport, or about $50 per trap for delivery to your door. Orders of four or more traps can optionally be sent by boat. Boat shipping to most locations takes about three weeks, but it costs even less than going by air.

For more information on our products please visit www.realtraps.com.

[krid]

AWESOME news !

Thank you Ethan.

[steins]

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

Effective immediately, RealTraps is selling directly throughout Europe. After receiving numerous complaints from potential customers about the excessively high cost of our products in Europe, we have arranged with a local courier to provide international shipping at very attractive rates. This allows customers to buy directly from us with no importer's markup, though import duty and local taxes still apply.

Most orders are sent via Air Freight, and the shipping company charges you for shipping, duty, and any other applicable taxes when they deliver. Air shipping is surprisingly affordable to most locations. For example, sending four MiniTraps by air to England costs about $40 per trap if you pick them up at the airport, or about $50 per trap for delivery to your door. Orders of four or more traps can optionally be sent by boat. Boat shipping to most locations takes about three weeks, but it costs even less than going by air.

For more information on our products please visit www.realtraps.com.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! And thank you again!

Stein Tore

[deft_bonz]

great news. this way acoustical treatment of our studio is closer.

[Glamdring]

Ethan,

This is really some of the best news i have heard in the last six months - this is really going to make a difference.

thank you

E

[Ziggy!!]

Hi Ethan!

Do you think something similar will happen for Australia? I don't mean to complain, but Minitraps here are almost double the retail price of the ones selling in the US. Shipping within Australia is quite cheap in comparison to the rest of the world too...

It is probably cheaper to order them from Nathan at atlas audio and pay shipping then to get them from within Australia.

[TheSweetener]

can't you just find someone like Bo from Golden Age Music to distribute your stuff in Europe?
Taxes and Customs still suck!

[Ol' Betsey]

HAH! That's brilliant!

Really, that's great news...

Just picked up the keys to my new room yesterday and really wanted RealTraps but they were WAY too expensive and was gonna go DIY.

I think you just did yourself a HUGE favour.

I'm placing my order next week!

R.

[Ol' Betsey]

Originally Posted by TheSweetener

can't you just find someone like Bo from Golden Age Music to distribute your stuff in Europe?
Taxes and Customs still suck!

You still pay the import duty when you buy from Bo but he's VERY cool about only charging the REAL tax (ie. 3-4%) as opposed to the normal UK/Europe ''blah blah blah taxes blah blah blah so high blah blah" bullsh*t.

Also, not saying it isn't a good idea to have someone cool like Golden Age working RealTraps but then you'd have to pay for twice the shipping (once to Sweden (I'm sure they can't NOT pass that on to the customer) and then again to wherever your based) and miss out on the 'direct' aspect.

Just a little food for thought....

R.

[TheSweetener]

Originally Posted by Ol' Betsey

You still pay the import duty when you buy from Bo but he's VERY cool about only charging the REAL tax (ie. 3-4%) as opposed to the normal UK/Europe ''blah blah blah taxes blah blah blah so high blah blah" bullsh*t.

R.

Thanks!
The VAT in the different EU countries goes from 15% to 25%. That's a lot!

[Ethan Winer]

Sweets,

> can't you just find someone like Bo from Golden Age Music to distribute your stuff in Europe? Taxes and Customs still suck! <

I assume you have to pay taxes no matter who imports them, no?

The problem with distributors is they expect to double the price. Here in the states we sell direct, with only the occasional order from a reseller. Even though it's more work for us, in the end it keeps the price much lower to customers. Now we can do the same in Europe.

--Ethan

[Ethan Winer]

Ziggy,

> Do you think something similar will happen for Australia? <

Not at the moment. Air shipping to Australia is a lot more expensive than to Europe. So for now we ship relatively large amounts by boat to our agent there.

--Ethan

[Ziggy!!]

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

Ziggy,

> Do you think something similar will happen for Australia? <

Not at the moment. Air shipping to Australia is a lot more expensive than to Europe. So for now we ship relatively large amounts by boat to our agent there.

--Ethan

valid point...

[GoldenAgeMusic]

Hi everyone,
I am flattered to be mentioned here so please allow me to respond:

Yes, our policy is to follow the best US street prices on all the brands and products that we do. Great prices and a great local service is what we work for.
We would of course be happy to service European customers with RealTraps.

As mentioned, there are a few potential problems.
The different VAT levels in Europe can affect customers that do not have a VAT no. In such cases, we must add VAT at the swedish level which is 25%, but we then always try to discount further to compensate for that.
Shipping twice is a problem that can be solved. Shipping containers = big quantities by sea is very cheap. Local shipping within Europe is not expensive. So I don´t think the total shipping cost would be higher in most cases. It could even be lower in many cases.

So, having a European master distributor (with a sensible price policy) could be a good idea giving customers:
- quick deliveries
- no customs handling
- no need to pick-up stuff at airports
- cheaper payment within Europe (with IBAN no´s, the cost is nearly zero. Wire transfers is quite expensive and using credit cards usually results in less favorable exchange rates)
- AND US style prices apart from the inevitable import costs.

If Eathan agrees and would be interested in having us doing this, I will be happy to discuss with him.

Best,
Bo

[TheSweetener]

Hej Bo,
now you just need the € to make it really cool!

kristian

[Ethan Winer]

Hi Bo,

> If Ethan agrees and would be interested in having us doing this, I will be happy to discuss with him. <

I might be interested. The vast majority of our sales are direct, which is a policy my partner and I decided on in the beginning. But any reseller who can bring in new sales, or makes things noticeably easier for us, is welcome too. Part of the problem we've had with resellers is they expect to get things for half price (or less). While that kind of business model works well enough for microphones made in China, it's impossible for us to offer that kind of discount. (We already have our prices about as low as we can to be able to compete with foam.) But if you'd like to discuss this, by all means send me an email.

--Ethan