Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: thebass on October 07, 2003, 03:03:16 AM
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Hi Mica,
there's a discussion in progress on a german bass news group which assumes that the brand name Alembic is protected in Germany to be only used from an Alembic distributor near Munich. Is this true ?
Werner
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They own the internet domain www.alembic.de (http://www.alembic.de), which takes you staight to their site. I seem to remember that Alembic used to own the bass.com domain, and then sold that to the Bass brewery.
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Hi Adriaan,
yes it is Station Music, the german distributor of Alembic. I think that they own the rights on the name in Germany as other dealers are not allowed to name the name. In ads of other dealers you mainly see A.....c printed i.e.
Oliver
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If you're selling a product, surely there is no way anyone can forbid you to state the true brand name. And I'm sure there are rules about advertising that require you to clearly state the product that you're selling. Or is it that Station Music is the only store in Germany where you can officially buy a new Alembic?
Dealers who print A.....c are probably just trying to let us impress ourselves with our secret knowledge of magical instruments (Geheimtip is a word that comes to mind).
Hey, I just want to play my Alembic.
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Adriaan,
yes I think they are the one and only official selling point/distributor in Germany.
But anyway, I also haven?t bought my two Spyders in Germany because they had been much more expensive than the way I bought them.
And we don?t speak about EUR 50. So this money I can invest in another instrument....
Oliver
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(Message edited by adriaan on October 07, 2003)
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I bought my Epic in 94 for 2700 guilders, and now they sell for more euros. Knowing that the same amount in euros would already be about 2.2 times as expensive, plus inflation - I don't think I can afford another one.
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Of course the question to Oliver is...where did you buy them from then Oliver? We demand to be told! :-)
Cheers,
Roger
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Oliver bought his basses from Bass Central, you can still see pictures of them on the website.
Valentino
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Hi Val, hi guys,
yep, I bought mine at Bass Central.
What can I say: great guys and a great service!
Oliver
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Forgive my ignorance - where are Bass Central?
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Bass Central is in Winter Park in Florida. Great site to see many Alembics (most of 'em sold however, these guys rock) http://basscentral.com/ (http://basscentral.com/)
Valentino
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Oliver, what happens when you import into Europe? Doesn't the German system insist you pay import duty and sales tax?
Rog
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Hi Rog,
of course I have to pay for the freight, the duty (3,7% of selling price and freight) plus 16% taxes
(based on selling price + freight + duty). But even with this the prices are much more interesting than here.
Oliver
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If I may add something to that.
In Germany the VAT is 16 % for musical instruments.
Let me give you a quick break-down of us poor EU's buying an Alembic.
Salesprice: 5000$
Transport & Insurance: (estimate) 100$
Import tax: 10% = 500$
VAT (21% Belgium) = 1155$
Total = 6755$
Now there WAS (not that much anymore alas) 1 tiny light in this dark tunnel that the EU-currency was 20% higher in value than a US-dollar. SO you got to pay 1,20 dollar for 1 Euro.
That means that what you bought in the US was AUTOMATICALLY 20% sheaper.
Alas -as I said- I don't think that that is the case anymore. I don't follow it closely.
Paul the bad one
There ARE stores in EU who try to manage (with discounts and so) to get a guitar here simply at VAT difference, or lsightly lower, but that's the best you can get
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Whenever you buy an instrument in a foreign country you should not pay for their taxes. Otherwise you pay taxes twice! Taxes paid in your 'home-country' are deductable. (Perhaps that is tiny bit more light in the tunnel...)
Mattheus
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Yeah Mattheus, I forgot that.
If I'm well informed the Alembicians deduct the Californian salestax off their sales price going abroad (Well it's how Roscoe works I got that info from them which is not a Californian company but from North Carolina). Although when the guitar is imported in EU their is an IMPORT-tax and THAN the VAT on top of that.
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The exchange rate for us in Holland was excellent in 1994: something like 1.50 Guilders to a US Dollar, instead of 2.00 Guilders like it used to be in the 1980s (like Clinton said to Bush Sr.: It's the economy, stupid).
Ignoring inflation, 1.50 Guilders translates to 0.68 Euros, while these days the exchange rate is something like 0.90 Euro to a US Dollar. So wait another ten years until the exchange rate drops again, lowering those self-import prices by 20%.
I won't predict if we'll have another Clinton in the White House by then, though.
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But guys,
believe me, it still makes sense.....
1500 Euro saved on one bass is much money, or?
Oliver
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Actually these days the Euro is as strong as ever. Today's exchange rate lists the Euro as being worth over 1.17$ US; or to look at it the other way 1$US = .84 Euro.
Valentino
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Watch out California ...we're coming! Actually: you got a EU governor already!!!
Well you got out muscles already ...now our money LOL
Paul the bad one
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I bought my used 1976 Sereis 1 from a bassplayer from USA. I never would get a used Series bass here in Germany for that price I paid. But it's a shame IMHO that one can buy an new Alembic cheaper from a dealer in USA, including all the shipping costs, taxes and custom fees, than from the German distributor. What the hell is the German distributor for? Their prices are out of real. Does anybody know if their prices are negotiable? Oliver: Did you try?
Harald