Author: BuyingABuffet
Date: 2019-04-13 00:46
Hello Everyone!
I’m in the market for a new Buffet A clarinet. I currently live on the East coast in the States. After doing considerable research on how to best go about purchasing an instrument at a reasonable price, i.e. looking at all the different models, looking for open box or lightly used instruments, etc. I discovered that American pricing is significantly higher across the board than in most of Europe. So much so, that it appears as though it would be significantly cheaper to fly to, let’s say London, pick out an instrument there and then bring it back to the States, than to travel internally and pick one out here. So that brings me to this post, does anyone have experience flying to a European country to buy a new instrument? Are there some hidden costs that I am not accounting for that would make the trip not worth it? I will lay out my plan below, with approximate costs; I would love to get some input on it to see if there is something I am missing. Thanks for reading!
I think it’s best to start with instrument pricing. Let’s look at the costs for four different Buffet models. All U.S. prices are taken from the Wesley Rice Clarinet site, which appears to have the standard U.S. prices. https://www.clarinet-repairs.com/buffetclarinets.html
All UK prices are taken from Howarth of London’s website. https://www.howarth.uk.com/clarinets.html. I have converted the price from Pounds to U.S.D. so these numbers will obviously fluctuate day to day. It is also important to note that I have not included the cost of VAT.
Base Cost
A Festival: U.S. Price $5557 UK Price $4,348
A R-13 Prestige: U.S. Price $7074 UK Price $4,348
A RC Prestige: U.S. Price $7416 UK Price $4,348
A Tosca: U.S. Price $8241 UK Price $5,896
So here are our base prices. We obviously haven’t factored in travel, lodging, taxes, or anything else on either side of the equation
Let’s look at tax and duty now. If I purchased any of these instruments in America, I would most likely be doing so in NYC, the combined rate of sales tax in NYC is about 8.875%. Purchasing in London is a little more complicated. If I travel without a card that allows free International Transactions, I will have to add 3% to the total cost of the instrument. After that is added, I will have to pay an additional 2.9% in duty tax (this appears to be the duty rate on Clarinets, can anyone confirm this?) I will add both of these figures to the instrument totals now. Feel free to check my math! Everything is rounded to the nearest dollar.
Cost with tax/duty
A Festival: U.S. Price $6050 UK Price $4605
A R-13 Prestige: U.S Price $7702 UK Price $4605
A RC Prestige: U.S. Price $8074 UK Price $4605
A Tosca: U.S. Price $8972 UK Price $6244
Now let’s add in the cost of travel. I live close enough to NYC that I could go into the city, select an instrument and be home later that evening. The cost of travel, parking, food etc I estimate to be about $100. I will add that to the U.S. Prices. Obviously for the UK it's going to be significantly more expensive. Currently a ticket to London, for a four day round trip would cost me approximately $504 dollars. If you add in getting to and from the airport we can round it up to $550. It looks like it would be very easy to find a hotel for about $120 a night in the part of town I would like to stay in. I would stay 3 nights, so $360. Add in food and other transportation, sightseeing and touristy costs, $200.
Total of about $1,110. Realistically this number could be several hundreds of dollars lower or higher depending on how cheaply (or expensively) you want to do it.
Cost with Taxes And Travel
A Festival: U.S. Price $6150 UK Price $5715
A R-13 Prestige: U.S. Price $7802 UK Price $5715
A RC Prestige: U.S. Price $8174 UK Price $5715
A Tosca: U.S. Price $9072 UK Price $7354
So that leaves us with the above cost table. It appears that no matter what instrument you buy, it would be cheaper to fly to Europe, buy it there and bring it back, rather than buying that same instrument in the states. I realize there is a cost of convenience that we are paying for when buying in the U.S. and not everyone wants to leave the country to get their next instrument, but for me, if I could get some traveling in while buying an instrument for cheaper, it seems like a fun experience. BUT, please look over my numbers and tear this apart. Show me why this is a bad idea, or if there is something I am missing. I should note that this post is in part inspired by Michael Lowenstern’s guide on how to buy a Bass Clarinet in France which you can read here: https://www.earspasm.com/blog/buying-a-bass-clarinet-in-2014
Also, I am adding this footnote in the hopes that this post doesn’t get derailed by some overzealous commenters. I have tried nearly every other brand of instrument at one point or another. I have played exclusively on Yamaha’s for the last seven years. So, before you comment saying, “Why don’t you just buy a ______ and avoid all the headache,” please know that I have already done my due diligence.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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