Echo 1 Price Increases

According to their home page they play to have a 10% price increase as of May first, take a look:

http://www.echo1usa.com/English/

Wow, that really sucks a lot. The main reason people buy echo's is because they are great guns for an affordable price (duh)...start jacking the price up and you are going to lose customers. Now, a 10% price increase is not going to make them lose a ton of customers. 10 percent of 100 is just 10. So, most people will only be paying around 15 more bucks....but hey, I could have bought an extra battery or mag...:/...I actually predict in a year or two that all aeg's are going to meet the $200 mark...

another reason to go JG

Their AEGs are good quality, so people might even pay the extra 10% anyways.

I am not sure if this is really going to help them. Before it was worth an extra $20-$30 to have reliability. (I trust Echo1 more than JG) But now, If your JG breaks you can get it repaired and still only cost as much as an Echo1. If Echo 1 wants to charge more, they should start making high end guns.

Agreed! and when they hit the $200 range with their plastic series, TM and CA are going to have a boom market, pay 20 more dollars and have a high end. We dont see those Highends pricing up!

Thats because of the huge profit they make, it doesnt cost that much more to maufacter a TM then an Echo 1.

Well at least E1 is honest about how they are going to rip people off even more now.

Quote :

.I actually predict in a year or two that all aeg's are going to meet the $200 mark..

I severely doubt that. Just because Echo 1 raises their prices doesn't mean all other Chinese manufacturers will charge more to retailers.

What you are going to see by the end of this year, by my estimation, mostly full MPEGs that retailer for 100-150$.

Tm has much better quality internals compared to echo 1, BOT

It is true, that the not all chinese brands are raising their price. E1 is just going to be soon be concidered either a High end or a High Priced Mid End AEG

Guys, they are most likely raising the price because the value of the dollar sucks right now, combined with outrageously high oil prices forcing shipper price raises.

With the value of the dollar at the lowest that it's been in pretty much the last decade, it costs US companies more money to buy from overseas companies.

This is a rough example to show you what I'm talking about. THe numbers are just for example:
Early last year, E1 could buy their guns from JG at $50 each, ship them from China to US for $10 and sell them for $100, giving them a $40 profit.

Well, since the US dollar sucks now, JG wants $60 now, and the shipper wants $20 since the oil that the ship runs off of costs more now. Now, if E1 only sells the gun for $100, they literally cut their profit in half now, to only $20. They can't run a business like that, so they are forced to raise their price to $120, in order to keep their $40 profit margin.

This is going to be an expensive year for EVERYTHING, because the devaluation of the USD. Food, cars, everything will cost more. The US used to be the standard currency for trade, as the value was so high, but now it's so low, that it's pretty much the joke of the Foreign Currency Market. When the Euro was launched, the value was $1USD = 1.5 Euro. Now, it's switched, and it's 1 Euro = $1.5USD. That sucks for us, especially since this happened in the last year or so.

Sorry for my long and probably confusing explanation of the current s#*thole our economy is in, but I figure if I can impart a little more than airsoft knowledge on you guys, the better you'll be

BTW, I do foreign currency trading as a bit of a hobby, and have yet to lose major money, because I didn't put any money into the USD... Shoot, not one dollar of my personal savings is in the USD... I'm happy I invested in the Euro though!

EDIT: lol, I hadn't looked at the Echo 1 link until after I posted this. Sure enough, why do they say that they are raising prices? Crappy dollar value, and high shipping prices... lol
Expect pretty much EVERY company, airsoft or not, to be doing similar raises.

Booligan, that is exactly right and it sucks that it is.

lets all move to europe then:P

lol
I don't think so, i kinda like the good ol USA.

I can say that, after the crisis in Iraq, the US dollar will rise up again. I am not against the war since, we are LIBERATING a country from a dictatorship. And since at the time the war first started, all our sources said that they have "nuclear weapons of mass destruction"

Although you were trying to post about the topic, please try to keep away from political discussion. Thanks.

For what you get, It's not really that much a big deal (Well to the consumer, it may not seem as if anything had even happened).
Think about it really though: A gun normally costing $150 US with a 10 percent increase, would cost $165. Not that big of a difference. (Given that they only increase the cost %10 as explained on the website.)

Still, that little cost adds up, but the way I see it, the average buyer is hardly effected to the point of seeking other options.