Why such a big diference in price for Roland digital accordions between Europe and USA?

[gerardo1000]

The "small" Roland digital frx1 costs, in Europe, $1555.00 for the piano version and $1750.00 for the button version. In Usa prices are respectively $2599.00 and 2699.00. I base this info on a comparison between Thomann, the biggest European music retailer, and Musiciansfriend and Sweetwater in USA. By the way, Thomann ships the Roland to USA for $75.00 with UPS Express. I wonder why there is such a big difference in prices? Is it a Roland policy? If so, which is the reason for that?

 

[JIM D.]

Are you converting British Pound to US Dollar or vice versa ??

 

[gerardo1000]

Are you converting British Pound to US Dollar or vice versa ??

Actually I did not do any conversion. These are the prices in dollars listed on Thomann's web site if you buy from the United States... (www.thomannmusic.com)

 

[Siegmund]

That's quite a shocking difference -- especially as much of Europe has a high VAT that we don't have in the US.

 

[gerardo1000]

That's quite a shocking difference -- especially as much of Europe has a high VAT that we don't have in the US.

When you buy from a retailer in Europe, from the United States, you do not pay VAT.

 

[dunlustin]

Add 20% for internal to EU buyers.
Add your country's import/local taxes or
Add approx 20+5% (VAT/Import and handling charges) for UK purchasers.
That said Thomann always were v competitive + good support before Brexit - no reason to suppose they changed.

 

[jozz]

something ain't right

the fr1x is listed on the EU site as € 1499 <--> $ 1740, so I guess the $ 1555 is on point

nb. I saw once that German ip adresses would get a discount when visiting Thomann

 

[gerardo1000]

The price that I show in my post is the price that a US customer pays if he buys from Thomann. 1550, no VAT because you pay VAT only if you are a european union citizen. So it is 1550 plus 95 shipping for a total of 1645.00. While in US you also have to add taxes to the price of 2599.00 so at the end you pay over 2700.00. This is a difference of over 1000 dollars for the same accordion!

 

[Scuromondo]

The price that I show in my post is the price that a US customer pays if he buys from Thomann. 1550, no VAT because you pay VAT only if you are a european union citizen. So it is 1550 plus 95 shipping for a total of 1645.00. While in US you also have to add taxes to the price of 2599.00 so at the end you pay over 2700.00. This is a difference of over 1000 dollars for the same accordion!

With acoustic accordions from Italy, it seems the opposite is true: when I have checked in the past, prices in the US are at least 20-30% less than Europe.

 

[debra]

Prices are different everywhere and are based on expectations what customers are willing to pay. All manufacturers use such expectations and sale predictions (guesses) to ensure they can make enough of a profit overall on the global sales volume. As a result customers in a country like India (or China) can expect to often pay a lot less for the exact same product as customers in Europe. Add to this the same type of guestimates that vendors do (maximizing overall profit by either expecting to make a bit of money on each of a large number of sales, or expecting to make a lot of money on each of only a small number of sales).
Internet and global sales have simply made the differences more visible.

 

[gerardo1000]

At this point, if someone here in US wants a Roland digital accordion, I do not see a good reason to buy from a US retailer rather than from Thomann, and spend at least 1000 dollars more. Yes, a return of the instrument would be more expensive and complicated, but does this justify a 1000 dollars difference ? Or, I wonder, maybe because many US on line retailers have a price match policy, it would be interesting to see if they are willing to reduce their price in order to match the one from Thomann?

 

[Valski]

Before the pandemic I used to travel to Europe regularly and found the prices for Roland accordions to be variable when compared to North American prices. Some of this was the result of current exchange rates and most importantly the VAT, which can be as high as 22%. There are no import duties on accordions brought into Canada, you would however have to pay sales taxes between 6% and 13%, so your savings might be elusive. There is also a lot of value in purchasing locally because of warranties and easy support. I guess that it all boils down to personal preference and your desire to get the best deal. Many years ago I was advised by someone older and wiser, not to exploit a deal to the point where the other party would not profit because you could not expect to do business with them in the future. There aren't many accordion dealers out there and if we want them to survive we need to support the local guy.

 

[JeffJetton]

Maybe the prices are set by the same guy that figures out US prescription drug prices.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

At this point, if someone here in US wants a Roland digital accordion, I do not see a good reason to buy from a US retailer rather than from Thomann, and spend at least 1000 dollars more. Yes, a return of the instrument would be more expensive and complicated, but does this justify a 1000 dollars difference ? Or, I wonder, maybe because many US on line retailers have a price match policy, it would be interesting to see if they are willing to reduce their price in order to match the one from Thomann?

Some US dealers (and I suspect European dealers as well) offer more after-purchase support than others. How do you put a price on that?

 

[Valski]

Some US dealers offer more after-purchase support than others. How do you put a price on that?

Also while some dealers, especially the largest sell at list prices many of the specialty accordion dealers often discount significantly from the posted price. An accordion dealer knows that you will continue coming back and values the relationship. That's worth quite a bit in my opinion.

 

[oldbayan]

In Canada a FR-1xb costs CAD $3,500 which converts to about USD 2,840 on today's rate, which is close to the US price.