You are probably the only one believing you can but the real thing from Alibaba. A Jupiter Bari at this price is as real as a Yanagisawa alto for a few hundred bucks from Alibaba.
As I see it as a possible hoax you are stating that nobody believes you can buy the real thing from Alibaba.
I never paid much attention to Alibaba. What I have read of it, my impressions which are subjective (and I could be wrong), are that they are more interested in dealing with distributors and manufacturers rather than the consumer.
It is difficult to find the real saxophone prices in China. A Belgian saxophone trader once fed some Chinees saxophone makers drunk to find out the factory prices, but they announced prices so low that he couldn't believe them.
Here, Norway charges import and vat. If the vendor isn't set-up to collect that the courier will and will charge a good-old handling fee. I'm pretty sure it's a good little earner for DHL etc. although, I guess there's some risk.
Some retailers may still be selling existing inventory. Or maybe their markup allowed enough room for tariffs to not be such an issue as we imagine.
I think very few people might believe how low the Chinese factory prices can be, possible retail markups not far from 1000%
And if you buy when on a China holiday, you can eat the tariffs and make a profit.
Didn't the same Belgian once fed some American saxophone distributors drunk to find factory prices, but they announced prices so high that he couldn't believe them? 😉
He wasn't old enough for that. Can you believe I bought a silver eagle alto below 200 euro?
In france, if you want importe, you will pay approximatively 30%-35% in more with the price.
This was originally for checking if the price of the American saxophone increased after the introduction of the tariff. It didn't. The Thomann Germany/the Netherlands price was added to see if the difference in price for this saxophone between buying in Europe and US changed. The European price is therefore without tariffs and transport over the pond. It is bad that you couldn't find out the country of origin before buying. Was that on the Thomann US or the Thomann Germany site? I guess it is a must know for the US site.
It's the tariff I had to pay here in the US when I received my $3,000 Saxophone from Japan.
Yes. As I said earlier, I was charged $150 tariff for a $35 item from Thomann. That would not have happened with de minimus.
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