I like to call it the “Burton Embargo”… OK, so it’s not really an “embargo” and it’s not only Burton. It’s Burton, Ride, K2, Salomon, Lib Technologies and Gnu.Maybe there are more, but these are the big boys of snowboarding, but you can’t buy their stuff internationally.
I was reminded of this because @ThatFunnyJew really wants to buy a new Ride Yukon, or possibly a new Ride Machete. The price on these boards is significantly higher in Canada, due in part to taxes and to the exchange rate. Currently, USD trades almost at par with CDN. But the Ride Yukon is a $550 board in the US, and a $699 board in Canada. He was also looking for a last-season Burton Custom on the cheap. I was able to find some decent prices, but none of the retailers can ship Burton internationally.
Unfortunately if you live in Canada (or Austria, or New Zealand, etc) and want to buy a Burton snowboard, you can’t buy it from Sierra Snowboards (where I got that sick deal on the Burton X8 a few weeks ago) or DogFunk.com (which has an excellent return policy, btw).
Retailers in the U.S. who carry these brands (hard goods and soft goods) can’t ship the products internationally because the manufacturers forbid their products from being shipped internationally in much the same way that they mandate MSRP and forbid discounting the goods until after a specified time.
Other times, it’s the retailer that opts not to ship anything internationally. There are a number of reasons for this.
When goods cross borders, many countries levy a tax or duty. The amount levied generally depends on the country of origin (where the product was principally manufactured). The tax is levied after the product arrives, it is an additional (and often unforseen) amount that the buyer must pay in order for the product to leave customs; and the buyer can always refuse to pay, in which case the shipment is returned.
Additionally, the customs clearing process can significantly delay the time in transit, which although it is not the e-tailer’s fault, may reflect poorly on them.
This is a major pain in the ass for the retailers.
Now, I don’t know why the manufacturer gives a shit who sells the product to whom and from where—unless something unscrupulous is happening. My guess is that the manufacturers are leveraging their brand names in order to rake some extra profit from international buyers.
And that’s shady.
