Global Scale Modeller

AlexBB wrote: Thu Aug 23, 2018 2:52 pm

Well looking for panel line wash these came up on Amazon!! Must be something wrong here!! or is a trap to catch out the late night drunken shoppers!!!



If anyone knows of a reasonably priced source for the black I would be grateful of a heads up?

Cymru wrote: Fri Aug 24, 2018 12:15 am I spoke to eModels about this some time ago and they told me that they can't be imported in to the EU as they allegedly contain nasties that are banned by the EU.

Paul wrote: Thu Aug 23, 2018 5:12 pm They put the price up as it’s easier to edit a sales ad than take it down and put it back up

Cymru wrote: Fri Aug 24, 2018 12:15 am I spoke to eModels about this some time ago and they told me that they can't be imported in to the EU as they allegedly contain nasties that are banned by the EU.

AlexBB wrote: Fri Aug 24, 2018 11:31 am Thanks for the pointers guys, I did not know they did what @Paul said about making the price silly so as not having to re-list the add's from scratch! Will keep an eye out for that in future...

Cymru wrote: Fri Aug 24, 2018 12:15 am I spoke to eModels about this some time ago and they told me that they can't be imported in to the EU as they allegedly contain nasties that are banned by the EU.

From what I understand this is part right but not quite fully... The panel line washes are available in the USA and their rules about 'nasties' are in most cases stricter than the EU, the msrp there is $7 (£5.46), the EU vendors are selling at around £3.50... The Japanese Yen list price is = £2.72 so there seems to be a big difference in price globally...

Over the last year or so I have got to know the guy in my LMS quite well, I guess twice weekly visits and spending £30 to £50 a time helps lol.... Anyway I had a detailed conversation with him about this and other Tamiya products and found out they are quite upset they cannot stock lots of stuff as they lose business when people are forced to buy online and my understanding cut down from the conversation is as follows;

The UK importer for Tamiya is minted (very wealthy) and also now quite old (these were not the exact words used, but you get the picture!!) and does not need the money (apparently has had the franchise for 30/40 years as well as many other well known brands) so thus refuses to import any items they have to do any work with, apparently he is very opinionated and thinks he knows best about everything!
Since the start of the increase in popularity of RC stuff they focus on that as the profit margins are far greater than what they call "old fashioned" plastic kits and things that are not designed to get the customer going back to the shop every 5 mins for replacement parts, hop up items, new batteries etc etc...

I was told the main issue with this (the panel line wash) and others is not the contents but the details of the label, I was advised it took 2 years for them to stock the Tamiya extra thin glue due to a similar issue and only gave way due to significant pressure from UK hobby stores.... the stuff is still exactly the same, they just stick an extra label on the bottle!

(I was told it cost them £2K to have the stuff tested, I think TBH that this is BS though and just sales talk as I have had stuff done at work to produce MSDS and the full Chem breakdown tests inc GCMS only cost about £340 including a full report..)

The importer refuses to acknowledge the level of 'Grey' imports and for many of the Tamiya products (head in the sand!!). This also being the case with certain RC items which in the UK for some abstract reason have to be sold with a controller, but elsewhere are sold without, apparently certain shops buy in a small amount from the UK importer but also others from elsewhere without the controllers as there must be a big price diff (I guess!) they do this so they can still return anything faulty to the importer under warranty.... My LMS get annoyed by this as they get undercut by others selling the grey imports which they can't / won't buy...

I was told the issues have been compounded over the last few years as the older sales reps who I am told were some of the best in the business and were 'proper hobby people' and knew everything about the products they sold have retired and been replaced by people who are just 'sales reps' with little or no knowledge of the products and just do a job... The old guys would feedback to Tamiya Co about issues, market trends, customer feedback etc... my LMS says the new ones don't have clue and are not interested... not sure if they mean all of them or just theirs...

I have to say personally that having come back to modelling after many years this is not the first time I have come across this with Non Customer focussed business models of "sole importer" businesses treating the customers as 'cash cows' and not listening to customer feedback and also manipulation of the (current) EU free trade laws. It seems that at the low end of modelling supplies it is not worth the authorities pursuing breaches in EU trading & competition laws.....

The following is an interesting read!!

https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/s ... dex_en.htm

It is a shame these big companies have so much weight and throw it around, restricting what we can and can't buy as adults with our own minds and a now with the internet a Global market place when there are many small enterprises such as Ultimate with great customer focus and customer service (and Haribo's )

Anyway enough Grumping from a frustrated & Grumpy old modeller with all his stuff packed in boxes........ I have now found some for £3.47 in an online store with a UK warehouse, the fact I now need to spend £40 to get free shipping is not a problem lol...