Price Difference in the Extreme

Wow, even with the costs associated with importing goods that seems really steep. Neat looking pipe but $301? No thanks.

That's a little ridiculous if you ask me! I'm a big Peterson fan, as many of you know, but I would never pay for a pipe with a mark up like that!

The current pounds-to-dollars rate actually puts 110 pounds at around US$180. So it's not quite twice the price. But I also didn't see any size notations on the James Fox site; unless all of the pipes in this line adhere to certain dimensions, it's possible that the SP offering is actually bigger. It also looks like the SP pipe has a beautiful flame grain; the JF pipes *might* have great grain too, but it's hard to tell from the photos they've posted.
I don't know if Peterson pipes are still actually being made in Dublin. . . but if they are, you're also talking about a pipe being sold in the country -- if not the actual city -- of its manufacture, which has to reduce costs considerably.
But I'm kind of grasping here.
Bob

Hey Six, was jamesfox after the pound to $$ conversion?

One thing I noticed are price fluctuations based on the exchange rate. For instance, I was looking at the Dublin Castle series and they had some listed at $130 (this was awhile ago) and then a new batch came in and that lot was around $20-30 cheaper. They had both prices listed for awhile and I ended up getting mine from another site. It was a couple months before they all reflected the lower price.
Not trying to justify the kind of difference Six mentions, just food for thought. I think the descriptions and pics SPC provides are worth paying a bit more, but not that much.

The prices at Fox are in euros so I agree with your first quote. In any case it's a huge difference.

Thanks for pointing this out, Six. It is a reminder to buy directly from Europe when possible. Import duty is 3 1/2%. Fedex and UPS charge about $30 to do the customs paperwork and advance the tax. So for one expensive pipe or a few less costly, there is a real savings. If you can pay by Paypal, risk is minimal.

Shopping between retailers -- online, brick and mortar, discount sales, and pipe shows, etc. -- is

revealing. Many retailers match up almost exactly, but with a particular pipe you can find huge

discrepancies. Buying my first Group 1 pipe recently, a Peterson, I found it for $79 at one online

site, and $58 at another. So I put the extra $21 toward the next pipe. Shop 'til you drop, but

don't buy until you're sure the deal is good.

Hey folks, thanks for bringing this to our attention. When I first saw this thread I was pretty confused, so we did some digging, made some calls, looked over some invoices, and came to realize we'd listed these pipes incorrectly. When Sykes was in Ireland he had the chance to pick out a set of really beautiful, premium grained Rosslares, which are the four pipes in question at SPC. They're more expensive than the Rosslare Royal Irish series, but they aren't stamped differently, and so when they came in we mistakenly listed them as equivalent to the former.
But because you guys caught this we made the necessary change to the pipe's title to reflect that it's distinguished from the Rosslare Royal Irish. Thanks for that!
As far as what Cup O' Joes is offering, you'll see that they're offering the Rosslare Classic and the Rosslare Spigot, neither of which are as nice as the Rosslare Royal Irish or the Royal Irish Premium. So that's kind of an apples and oranges thing. And as far as Fox' site? Who knows? It could be really old inventory and they haven't adjusted the price maybe?
Nevertheless, this was a mistaken and so thanks for pointing it out and giving us a chance to correct it!

They're more expensive than the Rosslare Royal Irish series

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Thanks Ted. I am a bit confused because the price of those premiums still appear to be the same as the Rosslare Royal Irish pipes, at $301.75. See, for example:
http://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/peterson/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=134158