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Good places to buy strings in the UK


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38 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

Amazon are often cheaper than most. Not always so it pays to check each time. As long as they are purchased from Amazon themselves and not a reseller there is no trouble with fakes.

No delivery fee if you have Prime.
 

 

Jeff Bezos can do one!

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Strings direct are good.

I actually found it cheaper to buy DR strings directly from the US from a store called bassspecialities on EBay. I last bought one set in December, no duty, about £27 including UPS I think.

I once ordered 2 sets and got hit for duty and courier service charge, possibly over the limit ?.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 27/01/2021 at 15:07, lonestar said:

Strings direct are good.

I actually found it cheaper to buy DR strings directly from the US from a store called bassspecialities on EBay. I last bought one set in December, no duty, about £27 including UPS I think.

I once ordered 2 sets and got hit for duty and courier service charge, possibly over the limit ?.

 

I’ve used Strings and Beyond quite a few times. Really good US company, and their prices , whilst not quite so good as in recent years, still mean that if you’re buying a few sets it’s cheaper than most even after the delivery charge. I’ve always found it a bit of a lottery whether you have to pay duty on them, but again they are priced so well it still may be worth a punt.

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  • 8 months later...
1 hour ago, whave said:

I try to avoid ordering on Amazon when anything is available anywhere else, but stringsdirect charging £59 for a short scale tapewound D'addario... No thanks, same thing is £48 on Amazon.

 

 

As a society that have access to so many retail outlets, it still surprises me that people maintain this stance and would happily pay 20% extra for something simply because they don't like to use the cheaper retailer.  If Strings Direct went out of business today, nothing would change for the end customer, there wouldn't be any dip in demand and the manufacturers would just push more through Amazon (and Andertons and Thomann and and and..).

 

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2 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

As a society that have access to so many retail outlets, it still surprises me that people maintain this stance and would happily pay 20% extra for something simply because they don't like to use the cheaper retailer.  If Strings Direct went out of business today, nothing would change for the end customer, there wouldn't be any dip in demand and the manufacturers would just push more through Amazon (and Andertons and Thomann and and and..).

 

 

If we continue this train of thought, this ends when all small retailers are out of business, only Amazon remains, and then they can decide the price (which they pretty much already do). I'm sure Jeff needs another space rocket to be able to continue the spacefaring epeen-comparison game with his ultrabillionaire buddies, but I still try to support smaller retailers whenever I can, when the price difference is 5-10% or so. But the 20% extra plus shipping is a little bit out there, my pockets aren't infinite... :) 

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9 minutes ago, whave said:

 

If we continue this train of thought, this ends when all small retailers are out of business, only Amazon remains, and then they can decide the price (which they pretty much already do). I'm sure Jeff needs another space rocket to be able to continue the spacefaring epeen-comparison game with his ultrabillionaire buddies, but I still try to support smaller retailers whenever I can, when the price difference is 5-10% or so. But the 20% extra plus shipping is a little bit out there, my pockets aren't infinite... :) 

 

Yeah, but what Bezos does with his money is his concern.  He's been shrewd and if he wants to fund a space programme off his salary and share options, then so be it.

 

I've dealt with Amazon at a previous employer; I know we landed product for about a quarter of the price it was retailed for on the High Street.  When we went into Amazon, they monitored the handful of retailers who were selling the same product and decreased/increased prices in line with that but only within an agreed percentage rate.  They were supplied at within agreed bulk discount rates that applied to all our customers.

 

We didn't sell any more or less product although our distribution channel changed.  It meant little or nothing to us as we were still making the same £££ per product, but we sold more. This model would (or should) apply to every manufacturer out there.

 

We're only worrying here about Amazon's impact on the small retailer and you're only focusing in one particular product line.  You have to weigh in the absolute inconvenience of having to buy other stuff up against the convenience of one click shopping.  I've heard numerous arguments about how Amazon were going to drive everyone out of business and start hiking up prices.  I've been using Amazon since December 1999 and I've seen little evidence of this in 22 years.  If nothing, this business shows customer is king and you have more availability at your fingertips than you would if they didn't exist.  The only retailers complaining are probably geared towards the ones who haven't moved with the times.

 

Forget just buying a set of strings.  When my father-in-law was gravely ill a few years back, in desperation we went onto Amazon and sorted out vast array of products for his well-being in about ten minutes and it was delivered within 24 hours.  I doubt we could have found this stuff on several trips out, without factoring in petrol, parking, shoe leather, time and availability.  For that service alone, Amazon would be my first point of call every time.

 

Right, as you were.

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1 minute ago, NancyJohnson said:

...

 

This is getting a bit off-topic here methinks, and you're making arguments against points I have never made :) Don't get me wrong, I am not blindly against Amazon, I use Prime too, I know how great it can be, etc. All I am saying is, whenever I am presented with an option to give my monies to a huge global company that worth trillions, or the local biz around here and the price difference is like £5 or <5%, I try to make a conscious choice.

That's just my approach. Especially after talking to a friend who had a nice little online retail biz but now has to sell solely through Amazon to be competitive and is making a lot less money with the same amount of work as Amazon is taking it's cut and you have to compete with the cheap priced chinese stuff too, whatever you're making.

Yeah, what Jeff does with his money is his thing (though I always find it weird that people who have the most help the world oh so little which DOES weigh in to my decision), but what I do with my own little money is my thing, and if I have the option to give my money to literally anybody else, I will do it, as Jeff will be fine without me. :) 

 

Again don't get me wrong, I am no saint, I am just about to unpack a few Prime boxes here... which just underlines that even if you're trying to make a conscious choice, sometimes you just can't avoid the convenience and price. But I do believe I have to counterbalance the Amazon monopoly whenever I can, as no matter what they're trying to make me believe, I actually DON'T need EVERYTHING the next day :) . And if I do... well Amazon is not going anywhere anyway, I will always have that option.

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On 27/01/2021 at 15:07, lonestar said:

Strings direct are good.

I actually found it cheaper to buy DR strings directly from the US from a store called bassspecialities on EBay. I last bought one set in December, no duty, about £27 including UPS I think.

I once ordered 2 sets and got hit for duty and courier service charge, possibly over the limit ?.

 

£15 declared value 

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