In reading the post "MP10 or CN43" by gnembon, he says that the same kawai CN43 that sells for $2700 here is only $1700 at Thomann.de (I believe that is a uk dealer). DOes anyone know if it is possible to purchase a piano from them if one lives in the us? Would shipping and taxes be cost prohibitive? Just a thought--I really would like the CN43, but the cost is so high....

As a rule of thumb prices are always cheaper in the US, it's a big country with low taxes and as far as I'm aware there's no interstate tax charge for out of state purchases.

Thomann.de is a German based company that sells to anyone in the world. That 'de' denotes Duitsland.

Also, you don't state were 'here' is though I'm assuming the US?

Voltage differences exist, right? The US is 115 VAC 60 hz and Europe is 230 VAC 50 hz.

I used to buy textbooks at the UK amazon site because it was so much cheaper than the American one, even after shipping to the US. Not sure if it was a subsidy situation or what. Anyway, I occasionally still buy stuff on amazon.co.uk. It takes a while but the shipping is low and some items are just cheaper there for some crazy reason or are only available there.

Never bought any Canadian drugs but that's probably just because I don't need any. I think it's the responsibility of people who can to take advantage of price arbitrage. It helps reduce producers' incentive to gouge certain markets when they have enough market clout to do so (unusual in the US because it is large, but it does happen).

The voltage thing may be an issue, though, based on the experience of the dude in Australia that fried his MP10. Be sure to figure out an electrical solution.

Prices are NOT always cheaper in the US. Prices in Asia are usually lower.

But if we're restricting the discussion to UK/Europe vs US ... Thomann frequently has better prices than US stores. But they'll only ship to Europe.

What state are you in?

Not only would you pay shipping, but also duty tax.

The box is HUGE! And I mean HUGE. You could put a couple of dead bodies in that box.

My CN43 was $2495. No tax. $150 platinum delivery up two flights of stairs. Oh, and I live 127 miles away from my dealer.

Things that use external AC-DC power supplies should work no problem if it can take the proper NA input voltage and frequencies. For example, if a device has an adapter that says 100-240V and 50-60Hz, it should work anywhere.

Devices with internal power supplies are a little more tricky and you would need to look at specs or open them up to find out.

I checked Thomann on just the CP5, it's €2,300. That coverts to $3,000 (with current exchange rates). (I paid €2,150 from my local dealer.)

At American Musical Supply I see $2,150 to $2,600.

Could you give one example where items are cheaper here in Europe when compared to US prices?

You can easily convert currencies here ... http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Google also provide currency conversions:

https://www.google.com/webhp?q=2300+euros+in+usd

James
x

Some of the console pianos are cheaper at Thomann.
(I don't look at stage pianos.)

... excluding shipping and duty, right?

Thanks, everyone. I forgot about the electrical differences. Thomann is selling the dp of my daughter's dreams, the Kawai CN 43 for what converts to about $1800 us dollars. One local Kawai shop her in Maryland has it on "sale" for $2700! (and then we have to add a whopping 6% sales tax! )
We are back looking for cheaper DP's again, though, since my husband brought me back to reality, price-wise. I was getting a serious case of the "Mayswells" ("we may as well spend a little more", and,then later, "we may as well spend a little more"-)-until we were double what we were originally grudgingly agreed to spend!
Back to the drawing board, as they say!

I had exactly the same problem - don't forget that thomann prices already include 20% tax and if you are buying from a different country - they deduct this tax.
That's why I am goung with MP10 - maybe doesn't look like a cabinet piano, but at least prices are more uniform.

I would not venture a gray market order for that kind of big-ticket item but when initially shopping digital pianos locally I was quite put off by what I saw as the ridiculously poor value-for-money proposition involved in "cabinet" style digital pianos. And the local dealer had like 20 of the furniture ones on display versus two or three stage pianos.

The real off-putting thing was the prices they were charging for not particularly good keyboards in lightweight, rather toy-like cabinets. If you're going to charge half as much as an acoustic upright piano (or more) you ought to at least do better than sub-Ikea grade "furniture" appearance.

I could not try the MP-series but for the price of a $2,000+ Roland FP-7F (very fine stage piano) they didn't have any Roland or Yamaha cabinet styles that were even passable IMO.

I you want a nice looking console, skip the music stores. They're only found at piano dealers.

I haven't seen this with any Internet-available pianos, but I'm confident it happens with console-style pianos. In the US, console-style pianos are seldom available online and this allows local piano shops to charge whatever they want for them. This is one reason people are always recommending going with stage pianos (in the US). We often say it's because you pay a terrible premium for the cabinetry of console pianos, but the truth is you pay a terrible premium to compensate the local piano shop for carrying it. Anything sold on the internet in the US will be rock bottom prices because those retailers are very efficient and aggressive, and additionally you don't pay sales tax.