[boxhead]

As stated early in this thread, I am not sure if it is all mark up?

I recently purchased (well ordered still awaiting delivery) of a 1/8 scale race truggy.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXYUN3
Listed price is $579us, well I also had a "discount voucher" (they send you these just for creating a user account) that entitled me to $125us off the retail price, with freight included and credit card charges it has cost me $539au delivered.

Before I hit the buy button I did contact a local guy who runs a hobby shop from home but is an agent for this brand (I went this brand so parts back up is not hard) and when I showed him the price he would need to get close to he said that was about $300 less than it would cost for him to buy through Australian warehouse.
Now I am not saying he told me the truth 100% but he did not even try to get a price as he knew his supplier could not match it.
Sadly he is thinking about closing up as he just can not compete with online prices.

Still 10% GST on my online buy price would still be no where near enough to "make" me buy local though.