Predator overseas shipping policy wtf??

worriedbeef said:

According to an email i just recieved from Shane Sinnott of Platinum Billiards, predator are now banning the sale of any of it's products, Poison included, to all of these countries:

Austria
Netherlands
Portugal
Belgium
Italy
Singapore
Caribbean (Southern)
Korea
Spain
China (Mainland)
Kuwait
Sweden
Finland
Japan
Taiwan
France
Malaysia
United Arab Emirates
Germany
Norway
United Kingdom
Indonesia
Philippines

WTF???

this has got to be illegal or something surely??

In most of these countries including the UK there is only one licensed dealer including the UK, and with no competition there's no limit to the potential price increases. It's just creating monopoly's.

Anybody got any more information? Are Predator the new world order?

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That is some Funny $hit,:grin: they are made in China but they can't be sold there:shocked2:

worriedbeef said:

According to an email i just recieved from Shane Sinnott of Platinum Billiards, predator are now banning the sale of any of it's products, Poison included, to all of these countries:

Austria
Netherlands
Portugal
Belgium
Italy
Singapore
Caribbean (Southern)
Korea
Spain
China (Mainland)
Kuwait
Sweden
Finland
Japan
Taiwan
France
Malaysia
United Arab Emirates
Germany
Norway
United Kingdom
Indonesia
Philippines

WTF???

this has got to be illegal or something surely??

In most of these countries including the UK there is only one licensed dealer including the UK, and with no competition there's no limit to the potential price increases. It's just creating monopoly's.

Anybody got any more information? Are Predator the new world order?

Click to expand...

Yep, sounds like they have worldwide distributors that are going to be raking it in. Cue dealers over here do that shit all the time. Get a deal with a cue maker and then that maker can't sell directly to the customer over here. Gulyassey comes to mind. He's got a deal with Lucky and I wouldn't piss on Lucky if he was on fire. I really want a Gulyassey break cue but I refuse to give that tight ass any of my money.
MULLY

I guess that Predator wants to protect the local dealers in those countries. In some countries buying from the US and paying the shipment and taxes will still be cheaper then buying locally.

This will hurt a lot of the on-line stores and the customers.
Thumbs down for Predator....

You will find mor HERE

Personally, I will not buy Predator products anymore. The price are overrated. The quality don't worth the price. Overall, I hate their politics.

One thing us foreign customers need to remember, we may not be able to buy direct after July 1st but I'm sure you've got someone on here in the US that you trust enough to pick something up for you and send it over.
MULLY

skor said:

I guess that Predator wants to protect the local dealers in those countries. In some countries buying from the US and paying the shipment and taxes will still be cheaper then buying locally.

This will hurt a lot of the on-line stores and the customers.
Thumbs down for Predator....

Click to expand...

In my country there is only one official Predator seller. If I buy a 314-2 shaft from him it will cost me about 150% of the price I will pay (shipped) if I buy it from an online shop in the USA :bash:

Predator shipping

Hi,

I think you can check with www.seyberts.com

They have a forum also on their website on which a predator rep frequently answers any questions.

I think predator might not sell themselves in these countries but i dont think they can stop seyberts or other resellers from doing so.
But may be.who knows.

I agree to fact that if it can be sometiimes cheaper to order online than to buy from a dealer.like for me there is no predator dealer in thailand and the nearest is singapore.it cost me less to order from seyberts than to order from singapore.

Nielsen's still has shipping listed to pretty much anywhere outside the US for $29 per cue.

gobrian77 said:

Nielsen's still has shipping listed to pretty much anywhere outside the US for $29 per cue.

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Just read the post I've linked in my precedant post. You will find more informations.

billbOK said:

In my country there is only one official Predator seller. If I buy a 314-2 shaft from him it will cost me about 150% of the price I will pay (shipped) if I buy it from an online shop in the USA :bash:

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That's exactly what I'm saying... Not to mention that the selection is larger with the big on-line stores like Seybert's. Most small local dealers don't have all the models and they do not sell only shafts and most likely you can't get all joint types especially if it needs to be custom fitted.

Realistically I don't see this decree being implemented for a long time.... there will always be workarounds

I used to resell cues over here and with the price I would get from the dealer + shipment and taxes I was still able to sell the cues at the retail price and make a nice profit...

Local dealers oversea that get even better prices (then i did as a reseller) from the vendors can definitely compete with the on-line stores and profit enough but they choose to be greedy and not to.
It's a shame that Predator play along with these greedy dealers

gobrian77 said:

Nielsen's still has shipping listed to pretty much anywhere outside the US for $29 per cue.

Click to expand...

Joe still has it listed now as he is allowed to ship until July 1st.......

The new predator shafts if you look at them have a serial number on the joint which predator will know which dealer has recieved which shafts, if a customer in the UK for example was then to send a shaft back to predator say for a warranty repair cracked ferrule then they would know Joe had sold out of the US and he could lose his dealership.

If you look on the predator site now there is a page where you register your cues and shafts for the warranty.

Seybert and Platinum to the best of my knowledge are sister companies and together were the largest predator dealers, Neilsens were the second these companies are going to be hit massively and while it might not force them out of business its going to be a massive financial loss and will no doubt have a knock on effect on other prices.

After all the higher the volume of sales the lower the price a dealer can justify.

In the UK i'm expecting to see a standard 314-2 shaft retailing for around $400-$450 probably more looking at their pricing structure, and amazingly i emailed them 2 weeks ago with an enquiry about buying two and they did not reply.

Its a shame such a good product is going this way. Personally now i imagine i will be changing to the OB-1 shafts.

(by the way i'm PC on Pro9)


:bash: Predator :bash:

Dave Mackay said:

The new predator shafts if you look at them have a serial number on the joint which predator will know which dealer has recieved which shafts, if a customer in the UK for example was then to send a shaft back to predator say for a warranty repair cracked ferrule then they would know Joe had sold out of the US and he could lose his dealership.

Click to expand...

Realistically, the shipment costs from Europe to the US and back for repair will not be worth it and you might want to just buy a new shaft instead....

Dave Mackay said:

Joe still has it listed now as he is allowed to ship until July 1st.......

The new predator shafts if you look at them have a serial number on the joint which predator will know which dealer has recieved which shafts, if a customer in the UK for example was then to send a shaft back to predator say for a warranty repair cracked ferrule then they would know Joe had sold out of the US and he could lose his dealership.

Click to expand...

Yeah, but the customer could say he bought it second hand from someone on a forum like this for example. That kind of stuff can be worked around. The problem is that after July 1st places like Seybert's are going to send a letter to you stating that they can not ship overseas.

Only way around the system is, for example I want a Predator shaft, I send you the money and have you pick it up and send it to me. If people are willing to do that little bit of leg work then it shouldn't be too much of a hassle.
MULLY

skor said:

Realistically, the shipment costs from Europe to the US and back for repair will not be worth it and you might want to just buy a new shaft instead....

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Another great point. I've found that with high end cues it's a lot cheaper to buy directly from the maker but with things under 500 bucks once you toss shipping and import duties into the equation you're better off buying where you're at.

I don't know if I told this story but I was thumbing through a pool magazine here a few months back and there was a big write up about Poison cues. I was really interested in the jump/break cue. They had the retail price in the magazine listed at $350.00 (roughly). So I looked online at one of the places that has a banner on this forum that was advertising the Poison line and found the J/B cue for 159.99. So, I jumped on it. Hell, that's less than half of what the Japanese price is. Anyway, shipping and import duties I ended up paying around 300 for it. I was still happy because I still saved about 50 bucks. A few days later I was looking for something on the web page of one of the places I buy from here (tips etc...) and they had the Poison line. I shouldn't have clicked on it but I did. The retail price of the J/B cue was $350.00 as it was advertised in the magazine but the store price was $230.00. I ended up paying roughly 70 dollars more than if I would have just ordered it here.
MULLY

Dave Mackay said:

In the UK i'm expecting to see a standard 314-2 shaft retailing for around $400-$450 probably more looking at their pricing structure, and amazingly i emailed them 2 weeks ago with an enquiry about buying two and they did not reply.

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If that's the case there are people in the States who will make good money by ordering Predator shafts for ~$200 and reselling them for $300 to Europeans through this site or other places (shipping overseas is only about $9 for a shaft- I'm basing that on a shaft I had shipped to Thailand last year).

Sounds like Predator is trying to protect it's Dealers from being undercut by online retailers. Not surprising. If the prices on their shafts go as high as some here say I dont think they will have much to protect because OB-1 will eat their lunch as long as they can get in the market.

I can see this from both sides. I didnt know they serial numbered their shafts. Normally I would say this wouldnt work but that changes everything. Glad I don't live abroad and like Predator

consumers might lose out, but nothing's wrong business-wise for predator, they are just trying to stop parrallel imports..

There is always a way around things.

BlowFish said:

There is always a way around things.

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For the near future...but it will be like gray market camera lenses....you can buy them cheaper but you can't have them serviced under warranty.

But I agree with you. There is always a way around this stuff.