Xm studios: European prices

[Finisher]

Hmmmm...

serious?

I still see 1000EUR here, lol.
Plus shipping^^

Ok with one single sell out they have a billionaire.
Good for them.
But not my money of course.

MEDUSA STATUE
0 Reviews
€ 1.070 including 19% VAT
plus Shipping

[Vru]

I really hope that XM EU ( and XM's bosses in HQ ) guys understand that the price for these masterpieces are too expensive.

1271$ for Medusa is too much for official distributor!

[Finisher]

Originally Posted by Vru

I really hope that XM EU ( and XM's bosses in HQ ) guys understand that the price for these masterpieces are too expensive.

1271$ for Medusa is too much for official distributor!

Costs of website: 300

Profit on selling 5 statues to idiots (which they will find!!!) ^^: 2000

So I say: Good deal for them

Honestly: If you really want to get rid of so much money for a statue, then buy from their normal website. And even with duty and worldwide shipment you pay less. Thats all.

[The Mule]

Fact is that, you can't buy from their website, or we'd gladly do it.
XM's licensing restrictions allow them to sell in Europe only through a local distributor, no direct sales.

[Finisher]

Originally Posted by The Mule

Fact is that, you can't buy from their website, or we'd gladly do it.
XM's licensing restrictions allow them to sell in Europe only through a local distributor, no direct sales.

Ok then they will find 50 guys

Thanks for hint. This way I dont think I will ever get something from this company. I dont like such behaviour and greed for money at all. So I refuse to buy there even if they do a statue I like. Do they think Euopeans are 2nd class and dumb? So I am glad there are so many other companies out there, and even more to come with great statues.

[The Mule]

Licensing restrictions are not chosen by the company, they come from the licensor, in this instance, Disney.
Disney decided that they can sell in Europe only through a local distributor, so they have to sell their statues at wholesale to a distributor that then marks up the price and sells here. And since here taxes are so high, prices end up being very high. If you check with your local shops, you'll notice that all companies' pricings increased a lot in the last year, and there are companies (like Iron Studios) that are imported in the 800-900 price range.

By the way, for what it's worth, if I were them I wouldn't have even bothered with european distribution.
Harsh but true, this is a small market and people are so slow to adapt that even I, as european, often feel annoyed at how close people are. One year ago I was an idiot for paying 800€ for an XM piece, today everyone is happy to pay 700€ for a Sideshow exclusive with a crappy switch out hand as an extra. Talk about incoherence.
Those of us smart enough were perfectly fine getting XM pieces from Singapore, now it's pretty much impossible and the european distributor is the only one carrying XM pieces here around.

[Silverine]

Originally Posted by The Mule

Licensing restrictions are not chosen by the company, they come from the licensor, in this instance, Disney.
Disney decided that they can sell in Europe only through a local distributor, so they have to sell their statues at wholesale to a distributor that then marks up the price and sells here. And since here taxes are so high, prices end up being very high. If you check with your local shops, you'll notice that all companies' pricings increased a lot in the last year, and there are companies (like Iron Studios) that are imported in the 800-900 price range.

By the way, for what it's worth, if I were them I wouldn't have even bothered with european distribution.
Harsh but true, this is a small market and people are so slow to adapt that even I, as european, often feel annoyed at how close people are. One year ago I was an idiot for paying 800€ for an XM piece, today everyone is happy to pay 700€ for a Sideshow exclusive with a crappy switch out hand as an extra. Talk about incoherence.
Those of us smart enough were perfectly fine getting XM pieces from Singapore, now it's pretty much impossible and the european distributor is the only one carrying XM pieces here around.

yeah I dont get that, XM piece is so much more then an PF with a lets say X-base. BUt also the new ARH medusa gets the same stuff about being pricey but see how big it is ofc its not 600-700euro, for me the problem is PRIME1 and XM are both so sick and feel like pokemon you know GOTTA CATCH THEMM ALL thats the problem haha

[Vru]

other point to highlight is that EU distributor doesn't have any fidelity program for their customers, even XM.com has retail and Elite prices (for customers that buy several statues from them) , SS has discount points to use for next purchase and free shipping in US.

Here (XM EU) just the retail price that is almost double of XM COM. no discount at all, even if you buy all the XM's Line...

I'm really sad that there is not alternative for us in EU.

[Bullseye]

The EU license doesn't even cover the full EU. I've never heard of a license which did not cover the full Union.

[shorudan]

Hey everyone, sorry for the long delay in updating this. I've been going through and fro with the EU distributor and also a very very helpful EU customer (I'll keep him anonymous due to his preference) to run through every single line of costings. What I can confidently say is that the EU distributor is not marking up/over profiting more than other Countries' Distributors - he has priced fairly so this part I would like to reassure the EU customers. It is also worthwhile to note that the EU distributor, unlike other distributors, is solely dedicated to XM products which means creation, maintaining of website, events, travels are all absorbed by the German Master Distributor. It has been noted that they also take care of certain defects locally which is a very good support for locals. In this regard, the EU distributor is actually charging a reasonable margin.

Due to contractual and confidential numbers I cannot reveal, I've narrowed down the reasons of the EU higher prices to the following;

1. Licensing cost is higher in EU than in SEA.
2. Shipping cost is higher due to double shipment. i.e, first to port, then to main distributor in Germany, then again to resellers in other countries.
3. VAT or EU taxes are based on the final selling retail price, which creates a significantly higher cost on higher priced items such as XM. For instance, a XM product retailing for 1,000 Euros means about 200 Euros are actually tax (the product is more like 800 Euros)
4. There is actually double mark ups, first from the Master Distributor, then the other EU countries' resellers but note that even with the combined mark ups, the amount is reasonable and not much higher than the other XM distributors with a single markup. This is what I meant by a fair markup and the higher costs not really due to EU Distributor markup.

So the only practical way to reduce EU pricing is to remove the extra 2nd tier resellers but even after working out the numbers, the savings we are looking at is about 70 euros per piece on a 1,000 euros product. And in exchange, we are talking about giving up the benefits of a wider network of local resellers who are closer and able to provide more support to customers. i.e. if a customer has issues with a piece, they can go to the local reseller rather than send it to the German Distributor.

I've been mulling over this and doing all price scenarios covering port shipping costs, license costs, various VAT costs by diffferent EU countries via 3rd party consultant (not the EU Disti) but unfortunately, it seems XM products will be pricier in EU with little options of making it cheaper. At this point I must also point out that even if you buy from say Singapore and ship it to EU, and if you add on the legally required additional costs such as increased license fee (all XM products in EU need to subject to that increase license cost or legally they are actually not allowed in that region) plus the VAT (without under declaring the value), you will find that the resulting cost is the same as what the EU distributor is retailing for (plus EU disti throws in local support & Customer Service). Remember if you are buying from another country, you aren't actually paying the licenses for that product to be in that country. The EU Distributor rightfully has to abide by the EU license fees and Taxes so please bear this in mind when comparing retail price between EU and other countries.