Our site sponsor is in a bit of a pickle with the North American heads of GT Spirit. As the article states there is pressure to increase pricing north to align to suggested retail ($99.95US to $139.95). The only miss, the increase doesn’t correlate to the European pricing when comparing both. Thumbs up to American Excellence on taking a stance. What are your thoughts folks?
On a lighter note the team at American Excellence is offering 20% of their entire lineup until June 30th.
American-Excellence.com
www.American-Excellence.com
American Excellence Trading Corporation
2217-D Distribution Center Drive
Charlotte, NC 28269
USA
Phone: 1-980-335-2701
E-Mail: info [at] american-excellence [dot] com
Disappointing that GTS want to stifle competition. If American Excellence are able to sell at those prices and stay in business, then what does it matter to GTS?
One thing American Excellence have got wrong is that models are generally more expensive in the US. Some of that is probably due to import duties from European manufacturers and can’t be avoided, but what’s completely inexplicable is the European price of AA models – they are so much cheaper in the US it’s beyond a joke.
Very true, sometimes you could buy an AA model in the US and it would be cheaper including shipping costs than buying them in the EU from the beginning. If it wasn’t for the damn customs fees that is…
But yea, 170$ against 220 Euros or something is a hefty difference.
Pathetic tactic by GT Spirit. How much greedy for money can you be !
This needs to be taken up via litigation as there might already have been other model suppliers in NA that gave way to such draconian demands.
Btw, has American Excellence explored supply from distributors instead of directly from GTS ? There might even be some incentives when from small distributors.
GT Spirit are a French company. Litigation under those circumstances would be virtually impossible. Trust me, as a European I can assure you we pay more for many
model items (and others) than you do in the US…..
Cudos to American Excellence for fighting for fair prices on GT Spirit models to their US customers. Funny thing is, American Excellence’s prices on AutoArt models is OUTRAGEOUS! Way higher than in Europe.
Honestly, I doubt we have all the necessary information to take a side. Klaus Kiunke, owner of american excellence, modelcarword, and a whole bunch of modelcarbrands (bos, whitebox, premium x, neo, mcg), might also be fighting some petty war with z-models (gt spirit). Lots of bos-models are basically produced via z-models, so I wonder what Mr. Kiunke is really after. His pathetic statement (lower prices due to his deep love for the american people?!? Come on!) which even comes with an e-mail-address to invite everybody to take part in a shit storm has a very sour taste to me.
Over the years I have been told by several local retailers that they discontinued business with “Klaus” for good reasons. So I guess his perspective on the current issue is not the whole truth. Which, by the way, I would love to know, but I am not sure z-models will join the kindergarten publicly.
I’m with the above if he really cares about the America people then why hasn’t he also taken the fight to autoart given what he charges. Feels more like a case of him throwing his teddy out of the cot over something bigger. Poor effort!!
Any company that takes advantage of the American market is no company I will buy from again.
I am sure the situation is much more complex than this Klaus is leading you to believe (Deep love for America and the American people… Huuummm)
There is certainly a lot to all of this, most of it not public knowledge. Only seeing just a little bit from one side, and that side from Klaus is VERY slanted. He is definitely NOT the great guy, all for the American collector that he is trying make collectors believe. What a load of BS. Good grief, how stupid does he think people are? I’m also not a big fan of GT Spirit and some of their practices. As the saying often goes….. There are 2 sides to the story, plus the truth…. somewhere in between both sides!
As a GT Spirit distributor I can confirm that there is no pricing minimum imposed by Z Models. This is strictly between the distributor and himself not GT Spirit and Klaus.
Reminiscent of the bad old days of “fair trade” price fixing. While there is a logical reason for a manufacturer to strong arm a retailer to impose a MSRP (think Sony from the ’60s into the ’80s), what benefit does a distributor gain from this practice?
The distributor may be pressured by other stores to increase the price or risk losing sales. The giveaway was the fact that the email is a non-company email address which is not used by GT Spirit.
It may be a petty one but it’s a war alright. I’m a bit surprised MCW went this low. It may not be a company email address but it’s below the belt all the same. I’m even more surprised that DCS decides to jump on this chariot without getting the facts first. Not a great piece of journalism.
They probably see people paying $150+ for their models on Ebay and figure they are leaving money on the table. I get it.
I have been involved in the Hobby Industry for more than 45 years and have seen these “dueling egos” before.. Alfred Kager and Paul Lang a very good example in years past… one tries to outdo the other… It is unfortunate that Mr. Frederick does not understand that once product is sold to a distributor, what they do with it is their business….
I had always wondered why in Europe, we had to pay more for US cars – nearly double the standard USA prices. If I want to buy a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, I must pay around $120,000 instead of $60,000. It is the same case for GT Spirit Models, but the other way around!
Why? We both using a local distributor to handle all the marketing and administrative work necessary to develop our brand in each country. We are working with exclusive distributors, in all countries outside of Europe and we are linked by contracts with them. Distributors are fixing the marketing strategy and pricing policy for their own country and we must make our best to ensure nothing will disturb their market. Mr Klaus Kiunke from model car world is also using such kind of distributors for his own brands (Neo, Premium Classicxxx, Whiteboxes, etc…), that is normal in all businesses.
Can you imagine the Dodge dealer from Orlando starts to sell cars to Germany at $60,000? You can be sure the Dodge head office will call him and ask him to stop immediately because he is violating the sales territory and taking advantage from all marketing efforts made by the local distributor (who is doing the promotion, ensure the after-sales-service, etc..) This is what I did with Model Car World. I asked them to stop selling models trough their subsidiary company American Excellence (which we never have any business relation, ever!), or at least respect the local selling price policy. That’s simple.
I hope this explanation is clarifies the situation.
PS: I won’t give out Klaus Kink email address, we are better than that…
Thanks for the feedback. From a Canadian perspective it is cheaper buy models at retail in Europe than purchasing them through an authorized distributor. Food for thought.
Well, I guess Klause’s bluff got called, or he decided he couldn’t stand his ground. All the regular priced ($89.95-$99.95) GT Spirit models on American Excellence are now up to $129.95-$139.95.
I had a feeling time would prove Klaus’ story to be bunk. The latest two offerings on the American Excellence site for GT Spirit are at $169.95. They’ve lost me as a customer.