Law Stud Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 I trust that you did notify HMRC by going through the Red "Something to Declare" channel and pay the required Import Duty as you appear to have broken the limit of £145 worth of all other goods including gifts and souvenirs as a result of these purchases which total $312. You thick b*****d....it's £145 per person. There were FOUR of us.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H_B Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 British football fans get the best deals on kits Really? Do you have any justification for this very dubious claim? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T_S_A_R Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 £40 for a fitba' top? A top you can wear to the games, you can wear on holiday, you can wear while out with your mates, and you can wear while actually playing five a side fitba'.An extremely versatile piece of clothing. I cannot think of one other piece of clothing in my wardrobe at the £40 mark that I can get so much use out of, in so many different places. Fitba' tops are a bargain. B) aye and if you're a 100% grade a pleb you can use it for weddings and funerals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Law Stud Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 :lol: The bit I like the best isn't the fact that we're discussing the old 'things are dearer here than in the US' but the "exclusive" restaurant in all this isn't the Bentley Kimpinski in Knightsbridge, Le Meurice in gay Paree or even Alain Ducasse's in the Essex House in good ol'NYC but the 5 star California Grill in the Disney Resort Michelin have really missed a trick there, I hear the Cheeseburger a la Chili Salsa is to die for... Oh dear....now I know you can't have been there.... Don't worry, stop wasting money on a St Mirren season ticket, and stop letting the b*****ds rip you off for your football tops and soon you'll discover you too can afford a trip to some of the better eating places in Florida instead of just hanging out around the Ponderosa.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Jeremy Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Oh dear....now I know you can't have been there....Don't worry, stop wasting money on a St Mirren season ticket, and stop letting the b*****ds rip you off for your football tops and soon you'll discover you too can afford a trip to some of the better eating places in Florida instead of just hanging out around the Ponderosa.... You're not going on holiday again anytime soon are you? I'm bored of you already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Football Nation Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 How can UK kit prices be the best in Europe when you can buy official licenced football shirts right across Europe, and indeed in the US, for a great deal less than we get charged at home? How can you claim the best value for money when the kits are generally made by poorer quality brands. Look at the brand names making the products - Hummell, Bukta, Errea, Umbro, or even Killie's apparently unbranded effort. You've got a shop full of the things, compare them with the quality of an Adidas kit. Sorry but you are wrong. Please check the official websites of Real Madrid (Spain), Lyon (France), Bayern Munich (Germany), AC Milan (Italy) and Ajax (Holland). Search for an adult home shirt for this season or the original price of last season's kit. In EVERY case they are at least £11 more expensive than the equivalent in the UK. I think you are either looking at childrens shirts and comparing those prices with adults or indeed special offers on last years kits. How do you explain childrens prices not getting the full VAT discount from adult prices, when childrens clothing is VAT free? Not sure I am with you there. Kids shirts cost less than adult shirts before the VAT is added to the adults price. Kids shorts are in most cases only slightly cheaper than adult shorts before the VAT is added. Please also note that some manufacturers play quite loose with the VAT laws and do add VAT to certain sizes such as Extra Large Boys sizes. And finally, do you agree that the sole reason for a kit that normally sells unbadged at less than £20 costing upwards of £70 and £80 is because these lovely little community clubs are massively inflating prices? Who sells them at £70-£80? If I did I wouldn't be at work 6 days a week from 8-6. I would be smoking cigars on the beach. Nobody will argue that unbadged items are cheaper. But take your £15 unbadged top, add the badge embroidery and then the sponsors print and you up to £20. Add VAT to that and it's £23.50. Then you sell it for £40 and you have to give £5.97 back to the government for VAT. That would give the retailer £14.03 in gross profit (a bit more when the VAT on the original price is reclaimed). Then divide out from that your rates, rent, wages, utilities and the rest and you're not left with much. And should that "much" be profit at the end of the year, the government will knock off another 20% of that in corporation tax. I might then add that NONE of the kit suppliers charge £20 for a shirt. It is considerably more. The problem is as I said in the original post is that this is not a supplier/retailer operation but a supplier/club/retailer operation. It's the whole "middleman" thing and that is why you will find football tops more expensive than an average item of clothing. You will find that the club retail outlets are charged a very similair price to retailers such as myself. I appreciate your angst over this but as I have said, Britain gets a good deal and clubs get their cut to help fund them. I can't make it any clearer than that and don't want to argue this anymore, I do after all have a business to run!! Oh, did I mention that the new Scotland kit comes out in August, pre-orders now being taken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H_B Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 I appreciate your angst over this but as I have said, Britain gets a good deal Again, do you have any evidence to support how good a deal Britain gets? The price of replica football tops is an utter disgrace. The quality is desperately bad. I notice also the "the best" deal, has now been downgraded to a "good" deal. In your next post, will we be shooting for "average deal"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Football Nation Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Again, do you have any evidence to support how good a deal Britain gets?The price of replica football tops is an utter disgrace. The quality is desperately bad. I notice also the "the best" deal, has now been downgraded to a "good" deal. In your next post, will we be shooting for "average deal"? H_B, I am not saying that football shirts are cheap, I am pointing out why they are the price they are. In my posts I point out five clubs from the main leagues around Europe who through their official shops charge between £11 and £15 more than you will be charged in the UK. The evidence is on their official websites if you care to look. As for quality, we sell all the brands that supply the UK clubs and I can say, hand on my heart that we have very few problems with regards to quality. So yes, replicas are expensive per se but this is due to the involvemnet of the clubs effectively selling their brand to the suppliers and no, in the UK, shirts are cheaper than abroad and as a whole, the quality of the shirts is up there with any other product of a similair type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Svensen Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Oh dear....now I know you can't have been there....Don't worry, stop wasting money on a St Mirren season ticket, and stop letting the b*****ds rip you off for your football tops and soon you'll discover you too can afford a trip to some of the better eating places in Florida instead of just hanging out around the Ponderosa.... Know I can't have been where Dickson? OXO Tower in Southwark, Claridges in Mayfair or McDonalds in Orlando? Firstly, don't have a season ticket, haven't bought the Saints shirt in about two years (only really wear football tops for playing in) plus if I'm spending my hard earned Mulla to experience anywhere in the World, it definitely isn't going to be the cultural arseh*le of the Western World that is Florida(where the US' elderly go to die) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Law Stud Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 Know I can't have been where Dickson? OXO Tower in Southwark, Claridges in Mayfair or McDonalds in Orlando? Firstly, don't have a season ticket, haven't bought the Saints shirt in about two years (only really wear football tops for playing in) plus if I'm spending my hard earned Mulla to experience anywhere in the World, it definitely isn't going to be the cultural arseh*le of the Western World that is Florida(where the US' elderly go to die) I'm delighted to hear that. It means I can continue to enjoy my paradise without it being tainted by arseholes like you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AirdrieAreAmazing Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Football tops are a rip off, end of Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Agree that tops are a rip-off everywhere but if you are finding an MLS shirt for $30 it is either a knock-off or likely old stock from last season !!! mlsgear.com (the official league source) has them for most teams ranging from $65 to $100 (plus tax). There are some exceptions but for the most part $65 gets you a "replica" shirt which is not actually the same as worn on the field [may not have sponsor logo or mls badges etc]. $80 gets you an "authentic" shirt which has all the MLS badges and is the same as match shirts and $100 gets you a personalised shirt with name/number on the back. I paid just under $90 Canadian dollars for my Toronto FC shirt ("authentic") which would make it somewhere around £45 ... the same as most SPL tops. I could have gone to a less reputable dealer or to a market and got it for half the price but the quality is terrible. I do however score better on season tickets at Toronto ... $250 dollars for the season (£125) and this gets me 15 home games in MLS, 2 international friendlies (Pachuca [MEX] and Independiente [ARG] this season, Benfica and Aston Villa last season), a couple of other low profile friendly games usually or u20 Canada games as well as the "All-Star" Game later this month ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Law Stud Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 Football Nation let's try and different tact on this. Have a look here... Nike Teamwear Do you recognised this unbadged shirt? Cost per unit is £15.99. Put Carling and a badge on it and Football Nation sells it for £39.99. Now this clubline retailer will have his tax bills, rate, rents and Corporation Tax bill too yet clearly he can make a profit selling the unbadged Nike top for £15.99. Now this suggests one of two things, either Football Nation have a much higher profit margin on these tops than this other company, or Celtic are raking in somewhere in the order of £24.00 per shirt. A whopping 150% mark up. I've found unbadged Umbro teamware kits too that are very similar to the ones being worn this season by some SPL clubs. They retail at £10.00 per top and if you want shorts, socks and a free bag as well, all printed with your Sunday League clubs logos you can pick up the full kit for £26.00. Try pricing up the Hearts top, shorts and socks and let me know how you get on. I did a bit of shopping online too. The latest Adidas Ajax home shirt can be bought online for $49.99 (£25.00 in Sterling). The new official Nike Barcelona yellow away jersey can be bought online for as little £15.00. And BTW note the brands making those shirts....not an 1867, Hummel, Errea or Bukta in sight. Oh and finally I don't believe you with regard to quality. My sons both owned a number of SPL club strips over the last few years. The quality was absolutely shocking. Within two or three washes the stitching would start to come apart, colours would fade, shorts would become bobbled and mishapen. Often the advert on the front of the strip would wear like a piece of carboard sewn onto the top. Like I said before you've got a shop full of the stuff, take a look for yourself. Are you honestly saying that there is no difference in the quality between say last years Chelsea kit, made by Adidas, and last years St Mirren kit made by Hummel? At the end of the day Scottish Football customers are being fleeced for ridiculous sums of money financing businesses that have absolutely no interest whatsoever in servicing their local community. On the VAT issue - just to clarify here is an example again taken from the St Mirren website. Look at the shorts on there. Adult shorts cost £20.00. Adult clothing has VAT charged at 17.5%. Childrens clothing has no VAT applied. Therefore you would assume that shorts for kids as young as 5 years old would cost £16.99 since that is a figure close to what it would be if VAT wasn't applied. However instead St Mirren FC charge £18.00 for a pair of shorts for a 5 year old child - so someone, somewhere, is putting a higher mark up on kids clothing and hiding it in the VAT figure. You've said that kids shorts are cheaper to buy in than adult shorts anyway so taking all of that information on board, why are parents being fleeced even more when they buy their VAT free kids kits. I notice on your website that prices are more closely linked with VAT discount prices, however again you must have a larger profit mark up on kids shorts than adult shorts if you can buy them in cheaper, so why not pass on the discount? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Law Stud Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 Agree that tops are a rip-off everywhere but if you are finding an MLS shirt for $30 it is either a knock-off or likely old stock from last season !!!mlsgear.com (the official league source) has them for most teams ranging from $65 to $100 (plus tax). There are some exceptions but for the most part $65 gets you a "replica" shirt which is not actually the same as worn on the field [may not have sponsor logo or mls badges etc]. $80 gets you an "authentic" shirt which has all the MLS badges and is the same as match shirts and $100 gets you a personalised shirt with name/number on the back. I paid just under $90 Canadian dollars for my Toronto FC shirt ("authentic") which would make it somewhere around £45 ... the same as most SPL tops. I could have gone to a less reputable dealer or to a market and got it for half the price but the quality is terrible. I do however score better on season tickets at Toronto ... $250 dollars for the season (£125) and this gets me 15 home games in MLS, 2 international friendlies (Pachuca [MEX] and Independiente [ARG] this season, Benfica and Aston Villa last season), a couple of other low profile friendly games usually or u20 Canada games as well as the "All-Star" Game later this month ! Scotty, they are definately not knock offs. The store United World Soccer is based in the Festival Bay Mall in Orlando. These kits are official kits, and they are current and new. Prices in the store ranged from $30 to $55 for kits. The LA Galaxy one being the one retailing at the highest price for fairly obvious reasons. You did have to add on the 6% Florida Sales Tax which isn't applied till you get to the till but all the same the prices are massively different to what we pay in the UK and the quality of these Adidas kits are far superior to the likes of the Hummel strip or the Errea strips being offered over here. We had used the same retailer last year when we visited Orlando and we knew we'd be buying the kids shirts and football boots when we were out there. We did our homework on the shirts the kids wanted and pre ordered them so the store would have them in stock when we arrived because we know that they have problems getting kits distributed to them at this time of year. BTW the Toronto shirt was available in the store too, at $45.00. I know because my eldest son very nearly went for that one instead of his Colorado Away shirt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 hope their store is better than their website ! http://www.unitedworldsoccer.com/index.php Agree on quality though ... my 2XL Adidas TFC top is far far far far superior to my 4XL Errea ICT top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Law Stud Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 hope their store is better than their website !http://www.unitedworldsoccer.com/index.php Agree on quality though ... my 2XL Adidas TFC top is far far far far superior to my 4XL Errea ICT top. Yeah their website was hopeless. We landed up using the MLS gear site to identify the tops the kids wanted and then e-mailed the outlet to order them and get prices. The store is excellent though. Used by loads of British tourists buying up their kits for next season. Last year we met a couple of Everton youngsters who were buying their Nike Laser boots in there for 50% less than they pay in the UK. We actually found an even cheaper outlet for football boots in the Florida Mall though where my youngest son picked up a pair of the latest Puma boots for $25.00 - they are kids size but since we came home we've priced them here at £40. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Football Nation Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Football Nation let's try and different tact on this. Have a look here...Nike Teamwear Do you recognised this unbadged shirt? Cost per unit is £15.99. Put Carling and a badge on it and Football Nation sells it for £39.99. Now this clubline retailer will have his tax bills, rate, rents and Corporation Tax bill too yet clearly he can make a profit selling the unbadged Nike top for £15.99. Now this suggests one of two things, either Football Nation have a much higher profit margin on these tops than this other company, or Celtic are raking in somewhere in the order of £24.00 per shirt. A whopping 150% mark up. I've found unbadged Umbro teamware kits too that are very similar to the ones being worn this season by some SPL clubs. They retail at £10.00 per top and if you want shorts, socks and a free bag as well, all printed with your Sunday League clubs logos you can pick up the full kit for £26.00. Try pricing up the Hearts top, shorts and socks and let me know how you get on. I did a bit of shopping online too. The latest Adidas Ajax home shirt can be bought online for $49.99 (£25.00 in Sterling). The new official Nike Barcelona yellow away jersey can be bought online for as little £15.00. And BTW note the brands making those shirts....not an 1867, Hummel, Errea or Bukta in sight. Oh and finally I don't believe you with regard to quality. My sons both owned a number of SPL club strips over the last few years. The quality was absolutely shocking. Within two or three washes the stitching would start to come apart, colours would fade, shorts would become bobbled and mishapen. Often the advert on the front of the strip would wear like a piece of carboard sewn onto the top. Like I said before you've got a shop full of the stuff, take a look for yourself. Are you honestly saying that there is no difference in the quality between say last years Chelsea kit, made by Adidas, and last years St Mirren kit made by Hummel? At the end of the day Scottish Football customers are being fleeced for ridiculous sums of money financing businesses that have absolutely no interest whatsoever in servicing their local community. On the VAT issue - just to clarify here is an example again taken from the St Mirren website. Look at the shorts on there. Adult shorts cost £20.00. Adult clothing has VAT charged at 17.5%. Childrens clothing has no VAT applied. Therefore you would assume that shorts for kids as young as 5 years old would cost £16.99 since that is a figure close to what it would be if VAT wasn't applied. However instead St Mirren FC charge £18.00 for a pair of shorts for a 5 year old child - so someone, somewhere, is putting a higher mark up on kids clothing and hiding it in the VAT figure. You've said that kids shorts are cheaper to buy in than adult shorts anyway so taking all of that information on board, why are parents being fleeced even more when they buy their VAT free kids kits. I notice on your website that prices are more closely linked with VAT discount prices, however again you must have a larger profit mark up on kids shorts than adult shorts if you can buy them in cheaper, so why not pass on the discount? Stuart, this is one pub table debate that could probably go on for ever. The un-badged shirt is always going to be cheaper. I also could buy them in at that price but I can't put the badge on it. I buy from Nike, who have paid Celtic £xmillion a year to put the badge on the shirt. That cost is passed down the line to me and thus to the fan. No choice in the matter. This is where the disparity exists. It's also why a Star Wars t-shirt costs twice the price of a plain white t-shirt. You the consumer are paying for that choice. Quality. I still disagree with you. I know of times in the past that Rangers shirts have been of poor quality and were recalled but hand on my heart, we do not get any significant return of faulty shirts. I will agree though that Adidas produce by far and away the best quality of shirts currently on the market. On VAT, many suppliers as I mentioned charge VAT on XL boys sizes. Retailers have different ways of dealing with this. For us in the case of the shorts, we absorb that extra charge within the other shorts. If these suppliers didn't charge the VAT on these sizes, they would be marginally lower. When I said that kids shorts were cheaper, I am talking less than £1 cheaper. Licensed products whether football, film or music will always carry a premium. That's life. If you are ever in Edinburgh, pop into the shop. I would be delighted to get you a coffee and tell you all about it. Incidentally, I would be very interested to know which website is selling the current Barca Away shirt at £15. Nike would also be very interested as they like to close these sites down. Please PM me with the details as I can guarantee, they are fake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Real Zippy Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 I'm delighted to hear that. It means I can continue to enjoy my paradise without it being tainted by arseholes like you... If you like your 'paradise' that much then, then why don't you f**k off over to that over-rated shithole then, and give us all peace. The pish you are spouting reminds me of a spoilt brat schoolboy who can't wait to boast to his pals in the playground how he got to visit Disneyland, and how Mickey Mouse came up and shook his hand. Grow up FFS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Duck Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Football Nation let's try and different tact on this. It's "tack" you moron. You must fit in well in the US, especially Florida. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swampy Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Two of my family are currently in Orlando on holiday, and as I have a keen collection of football tops I was considering deploying them to this United World Soccer shop to buy me some strips to take home. However as Dickson is a noted psycho I decided first of all to email the shop to ask for the prices. Here is the list of items that I asked the prices for: "Colorado Rapids adult medium shirt Chicago Fire adult medium home shirt Chicago Fire adult medium away shirt Real Salt Lake adult medium home shirt Real Salt Lake adult medium away shirt New England Revo adult medium home shirt All for current season and just one of each." And here is the reply I got: Ewan,Looking forward to having you visit our store when you arrive in Florida. All of the tops you mention below are $70.00us. Hope to see you when you stop in. Tom Traxler General Manager United World Soccer Yeah. edit: For the record I am an XL and not a Medium, but I figured that I could add $5 on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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