Beedster

That was indeed what I was asking, thank you Luke

Baby and bath water

And we won't realise what a seriously bad thing that is until it's too late.

Mmmm, that's not really what I was asking though is it? I love Mesa gear, but I worry that the very very high prices, plus the discontinuation of all-tube bass heads to compete in an already very overcrowded Class-D marketplace, is a very bad strategy (excuse the pun). I hope I'm wrong

This link is informative, if a little odd (not often one hears conspiracy theories about bass guitars after all) https://www.talkbass.com/threads/has-anybody-tried-bassurgery.189605/

Interesting that, for example, list price of a DB-751 here is £2,400 and in the USA it's $2,395 (£1,804). That's approx a 33% mark up on what is a bloody heavy and large unit to ship compared to the WD800. You also have to factor the higher VAT/import duty on account of the higher price into the DB-751 price here. That seems quite reasonable. However, the mark-up on the WD-800 is massive by comparison at around 75%, that with lower VAT/import duty to pay due to the lower unit cost? OK, crude analysis (if you can call it an analysis at all), but my argument has nothing to do with the quality of the amp per se, which I'm sure is amazing, just that despite what has been proposed above, we probably are not getting £1,300 of value if it sells for a little over half that in real terms in the US? I may have missed a few details here, my apologies if so.

Did we miss something John?

I don't disagree with either point, I think it's the differential between US and UK prices that's the issue, which appears to be an $800 mark-up on a $999 unit in this case. Mesa gear always appears disproportionately more expensive in this context?

Sorry, make that £7,000, missed the £999

It's something of a Prog Rock dream, 70's aesthetic with 6 strings, but it would have to be one hell of an instrument to justify the well-known luthier boutique price tag of £6,000. A a tenth of that I might have been interested

What's the score with the tuners? And the price?

If price is set by the dealer, are you suggesting a conspiracy among dealers in Europe who all agree to set the price at around £500 above the USA level?

I think that's the crux of it

Stores have them for $999, so I assume they're taking their cut http://www.basssandiego.com/bassampscabs/mesaboogiebassampscab.html

Exactly, in the days when different US and UK power voltages needed to be taken into account fair enough, but a £300 mark up? I love Mesa gear, but at times think they must be pissing themselves at the prices they get away with over here

Why is UK retailer's cut higher than US retailer's cut?

Likewise, I simply do not understand Mesa’s pricing in Europe, it’s like they don’t want us to buy their gear?

Yep, $999 in the USA, it’s a pretty big difference

Great demo

Mate, a courier lost my Mesa 1516EV a few years back, it's the size of a small building. Never underestimate couriers

Did you send the parcel to a home address or was it address to one of the eBay collection points? There is a big problem with the latter, as whilst buyers can indicate that they want items delivered to one, it seems that only items sent through eBay's courier service can be delivered to them, whilst several couriers explicitly won't (UPS being one of them as I found out after I'd sent the same item three times and it had be returned to me three times!). On a more optimistic note, I wouldn't panic just yet as Parcelforce's tracking is bloody awful, and it might still show up with the buyer.