Chinese LED Group Buy

[kam]

I was actually just going to order a pair... so if the price is right, im down

[mess7777]

alright, sounds good. I am well aware of reefbreeders and reefsupplycanada selling these, but hey is there's a way to save some $$ to spend on something else why not. I'll check around and get back to here, there does seem to be some interest.

[mess7777]

OK, I did a little legwork.

The minimum order is 12 units of any one type.

I was able to get an initial price on the IT2060 units(24" fully controllable with moonlights) for $250/each shipping included. There will be duties on this to be sure, I did see a group buy in the states and they were charged $80 brokerage fees. We could expect the same or a bit more plus of course our government wanting their GST cut as well. I am thinking it will be about $40 less a unit than other sites are offering. Of course then we have to think about getting it out to individuals, probably around $15-$25 more shipping in Canada per unit.

The price quoted was for all units with the same color configuration. I am pretty confident that I could negotiate some changes here if we can't agree on a color scheme.

For the D120 units, again it would need to be a minimum order of 12 units. I wasn't able to secure pricing, but I am pretty sure I could get them between $140-150 each shipped.

When it comes down to it, I will be trying to negotiate even better pricing, but wanted to provide a ballpark figure....without knowing I have enough interested parties I don't have very much leverage!

[Coasting]

I think you better find out what shipping from the receivers ends to each individual person will be. These lights are heavy.
With tacking on shipping, i dont see it being any cheaper.
I paid 15$ at the door when my light arrived.
D120 - 175 + duties = 190-ish directly to your house
Group Buy d120 - 150 + Duties + shipping = 210-ish
Looking at the d120's weight, size, adding inches for packaging.
UPS site is estimating about $46-$103 for shipping.
And thats not the IT model which will weigh more.

I think everyones better off buying them on their own.
If there were a bunch of people in 1 area that wanted them, this could probably work great. But shipping, especially from a place like quebec is just going to get more expensive.
When you buy a single light, they declare it as a low value sample, when you buy many, that doesn't work. This companys willing to help you out. Dont make it more difficult then it has to be.

[mess7777]

What do you mean a "place like Quebec"

As I was writing this up I realized that you are pretty much right that it would need to be a bunch of people from the same area. That said, I don't consider $600 cheap for a bunch of lights, even if that is much less than other name brand fixtures.

Shipping canadapost Quebec to Toronto is about $15, considering the packed weight is 7.5kg. It'd be more to BC.

I am a bit concerned with the duties and brokerage fees that tend to be unknown until it arrives at the door. It's probably not worth it to save $30.

You can consider this closed, I'll see if there's any interest on a local forum because I am a big time cheapskate.

[Coasting]

Originally Posted by mess7777

What do you mean a "place like Quebec"

Nothing bad LOL
Just every time I've looked into it, it cost more to ship to/from a place in quebec then Ontario or even Nova Scotia.


I can see it being that cheap to ship to Toronto, it is Toronto after all but it will probably be expensive to ship anywhere else, including most large cities like Vancouver, edmonton, regina, etc.

There is the weight of the cords, the weight for the hanging items, size of the packaging, the light may be 8" one way, but if theres an inch or 2 of foam on either side that 12 x 8 x 2 just went to 16 x 12 x 5.

Heck I wish I had another tank so I could have a group order in the area and buy another like from them.

[mseepman]

I bought my IT2040 from reefsupplycanada and it was painless. If all your suggesting was that someone could save "maybe" $15 it would seem worth it to support a Canadian Vendor. Especially since they probably have a "working" relationship with the manufacturer and may get a better response if a problem should arise.

Just my experience though...YMMV

[oyf709]

Originally Posted by mess7777

What do you mean a "place like Quebec"

As I was writing this up I realized that you are pretty much right that it would need to be a bunch of people from the same area. That said, I don't consider $600 cheap for a bunch of lights, even if that is much less than other name brand fixtures.

Shipping canadapost Quebec to Toronto is about $15, considering the packed weight is 7.5kg. It'd be more to BC.

I am a bit concerned with the duties and brokerage fees that tend to be unknown until it arrives at the door. It's probably not worth it to save $30.

You can consider this closed, I'll see if there's any interest on a local forum because I am a big time cheapskate.

As I mentioned before Duties and tax are all depend on how much they claim the value when they ship those units. Most of the time you can ask them tag a 0.1 CAD value on each fixtures, however, unless the CBSA officer is having a really good day, they will very likely to return the shipment for false claim on value. My suggestion is to claim each unit at a price between $30 to $40, so with DHL/FEDEX proessing fee and tax a dn duties, you are looking at about extra $10.00 for each unit.

As far as shipping cost within Canada, it is a very valid point that you should not ignore or just "think" it is going to be certain amount. You will need the size of packaging and also the actual weight with all the extra items in the box.
For shipping a 36" unit, that is about 5kg can cost between $20 to $40 just within BC and I have the Venture One Business account which suppose to give me discount on shipping already.
Another thing you should consider is most of them ship their units in a large package. Which means you will need to spend some more money to get boxes for each person.