If you're in the US sometimes you find a piece of gear significantly lower priced from an overseas dive shop but often times the shipping kills the deal. The dollar has been on a steady uptrend lately which has made things in little more interesting. Couple that with the fact that some overseas shops are not subject to some of the price fixing restraints we see from manufacturers in the states, and you end up with even more leverage. If you're looking at a $50-100 dollar item, maybe not worth playing this leverage game. But if you can save $1,000 on a $3,000 drysuit and it costs $100 in shipping, well, that's a bit different lately. The exact example is something I'm an keeping my eye on, especially if it's a situation where, if something goes wrong with the gear, it would normally be handled by the manufacturer vs the shop itself.
Example of a transaction I just made as an experiment... looking at some premium masks. Found one that would normally retail and be subject to US price fixing at around $190. Found it on sale, and with the exchange rate, for $50 at an overseas shop. Even with $23 in shipping it was $73 out the door or about a $117 discount. I won't mention particular shops but did a quick search here and some of our overseas friends said they had good experience with the shop. I already got an email from them saying it was shipped in less than 24 hours.
Any thoughts?
