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Britain and binoculars (1 Viewer)

B

Binastro

Well-known member
Woke to a sunny day after much cloud recently.

Surprised and a bit shocked by the decision to leave the EU, but we are a strong democracy and we are resilient.

Don't panic regarding binocular availability and price.

Over the next year I expect prices to rise by 10%, with variation due to instability.

The choice we have is anyway enormous.

Personally, I hope that the government does not start imposing enormous volumes of rules. We are already overcome by paperwork, a lot of it from Brussels, but unfortunately masses from our recent leaders.

I have seen much change in recent years.

I expect that Europe itself has an interest in maintaining strong links with Britain, and will also respect our decision.

I don't suppose that birds will be too bothered.

All the best.
 
Having something to look at with them might be the issue if we dump all the EU environmental controls though.....
 
Well, whatever the result for Britain, from here in Oz I couldn't influence the outcome and couldn't even see that far with (German) binoculars. Yet it was a good short-term result for me. Someone offered me 3:1 on an even-money proposition. So I took that bet. Ka-Ching!

Someone else is offering nice odds that Donald Trump can't win. Can't see that far either, with or without binoculars. And yet...

Hmmm.

...Mike
 
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Hope its less painful than the French Revolution.

At the moment it just amounts to a devaluation of the pound and much squabbling.

Was it Harold Wilson who said 'The pound in your pocket is worth the same as before'?
I think that was a 14% devaluation, which is what I thought this was also.

I think that people were just fed up with politicians.

The rules from Brussels are horrendous, but so are our own.
Our governments love to tax.
One statement I think said they would tax till the pips squeaked.
It just stifles growth.
And people just avoid paying it, if necessary emigrating.

Our old house built in 1834 had windows bricked up because of the window tax.
You can't see much with binoculars through those windows.

P.S.
Yes 19 November 1967.
14.3%, which is 1/7th.

P.P.S.
Window tax 1696 to 1851.

France 1748 to 1926. I did not know that France also had it till a later date.
 
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edwincjones said:
Trump winning is no less likely than Brexit was
I doubt it , but if the odds are good..............
Click to expand...
7/2 Trump so that's around a 22% chance. On the day of the UK referendum you could have got over 5/1 or around 17% chance of Leave winning. The odds went to around 10/1 not long after the polls closed, if I remember correctly.

So Trump as POTUS is more likely than Brexit was, according to the bookies anyway
 
mathare said:
7/2 Trump so that's around a 22% chance. On the day of the UK referendum you could have got over 5/1 or around 17% chance of Leave winning. The odds went to around 10/1 not long after the polls closed, if I remember correctly.

So Trump as POTUS is more likely than Brexit was, according to the bookies anyway
Click to expand...


what % of the time are bookies right?

edj
 
edwincjones said:
what % of the time are bookies right?

edj
Click to expand...
One could argue the bookies are never right. One could argue they are never wrong. One could argue the bookies don't ever hold an opinion so are never right nor wrong as they just reflect the weight of money with which others have backed their own opinions. A bookie doesn't need to call a result correctly if they have done their job properly - all outcomes should net roughly the same profit i.e. they shouldn't be gambling on the result.

But the UK referendum the opinion polls were much closer to 50/50 than the bookies' odds suggested, leading to a solid value proposition. I don't know what the general opinion polls for the US presidential election suggest but it's something worth looking at nearer the actual election date.

Freak results happen, and are especially noticeable in one-off contests rather than events that are run many thousands of times. Based on the percentage chances of each result calculated from the bookmakers' odds one could argue the UK Leave vote was a freak result, but it was still a value bet regardless of the outcome. A Trump victory may be the same - value regardless of whether he wins or not.

And that's hugely off topic for this forum.

I hope the Brexit is nothing to do with why the Kowa scope I want is out of stock at my favoured retailers and that it doesn't affect either future stock availability or pricing levels. Almost back on topic - albeit scopes rather than binoculars
 
Britain is a paradise for suppliers as we pay higher prices than we should compared to other large countries with similar tax levels.
So some of the increased prices due to devaluation will be absorbed in the short term.

We used to buy currency 3 to 6 months ahead for our purchases when importing to the U.K. but this may not be common nowadays.
I negotiated a personal 5% reduction from suppliers when we had the 1967 devaluation. But I suspect the product was not quite as good as it was before the 1/7th cut. A 1/7th currency cut means a 1/6th increase in U.K. prices.
There is also the fact that we will become poorer, so suppliers will have to keep prices fairly low as we won't buy otherwise.

But I expect premium optics to go up with devaluation, not so much consumer optics.
 
We pay higher prices because we don't like to make a fuss.
Also traditionally trading in Britain has been gentlemanly and honest.
I am afraid to say that trading in the U.S.A has been much more cutthroat with notable exceptions.
Americans expect low prices.
This may be because you have a large land area. Houses and land are cheaper and living is lower cost.
We have little habitable land area and higher prices. With a growing population.

However, since the rise of the Internet even in Britain trading is less honest, and on average Britain and the richer countries of the world are less honest.
Most town centres in Britain are struggling to cope with this internet age.
The young welcome it. I don't like it at all.
This is despite my initial liking of technology. In the 1970s I wrote newspaper and magazine articles on Space Colonisation as per Prof. O'Neill. I expected by now space cities with 100,000 population each. We have one silly ISS with maybe 6 people.
I have changed my views on technology.
The world is in a bit of a mess. 7.5 billion people when 3 billion would be pushing the Earth's resources.
Anyway this is an aside as to prices in Britain.

When the company I worked for were the sole European importers of some Chinese lines there was 30 years of mutual trust.
I would hate to be involved with China now.

Things will be more expensive here short term, but we could surprise everyone as we are or were a nation of shopkeepers. Also many of the world's innovators were British.
I don't know what the five year future will be.
I hope less wars.
More peace.
 
In the uk imported bins and scopes are liable to vat at 20% and customs duties.

Is my understanding right that, in the USA customs duties do not apply to binoculars?
 
Binastro said:
We pay higher prices because we don't like to make a fuss.
Also traditionally trading in Britain has been gentlemanly and honest.
I am afraid to say that trading in the U.S.A has been much more cutthroat with notable exceptions.
Americans expect low prices.
This may be because you have a large land area. Houses and land are cheaper and living is lower cost.
We have little habitable land area and higher prices. With a growing population.

However, since the rise of the Internet even in Britain trading is less honest, and on average Britain and the richer countries of the world are less honest.
Most town centres in Britain are struggling to cope with this internet age.
The young welcome it. I don't like it at all.
This is despite my initial liking of technology. In the 1970s I wrote newspaper and magazine articles on Space Colonisation as per Prof. O'Neill. I expected by now space cities with 100,000 population each. We have one silly ISS with maybe 6 people.
I have changed my views on technology.
The world is in a bit of a mess. 7.5 billion people when 3 billion would be pushing the Earth's resources.
Anyway this is an aside as to prices in Britain.

When the company I worked for were the sole European importers of some Chinese lines there was 30 years of mutual trust.
I would hate to be involved with China now.

Things will be more expensive here short term, but we could surprise everyone as we are or were a nation of shopkeepers. Also many of the world's innovators were British.
I don't know what the five year future will be.
I hope less wars.
More peace.
Click to expand...


Heres hoping you are correct, we seem to have become a people who value no ones labor but our own.
 
The-Wanderer said:
In the uk imported bins and scopes are liable to vat at 20% and customs duties.
Click to expand...
One of my gripes in the UK, I bought a nice Kern Pizar from the US, paid a fair price, and high postage, all in all happy, even if a tiny bit expensive. Then on delivery I got the shock of an £88 Customs and Vat charge, made it very expensive.
 
I got a Jaegers 5 1/8inch objective, coated with cell from the U.S. 1970s?
Not only payment, but the customs left it so badly packed it came to me completely loose and unprotected.
The post office/customs were a complete shambles.
I had a custom built telescope made with metal carry handle and integrated sight. Anodised blue finish. Very nice.
It was my most used scope. Therefore the best.
No thanks to British institutions.

Mind you, I think Jaegers place burned out? A pity as a great source of optics.
Maybe Surplus Shed resulted.
 
Hi Binastro, if optics prices fluctuate wildly between EU countries and UK, do you think I could set up a lucrative yet illegal scam, smuggling high-end binos from Ireland into Northern Ireland? I've always fancied a career in crime. Although if word gets out, I fear there may be operators more ruthless than I who might get in on the action...
 
Yes.

Also maybe of interest.
Apparently a Northern Ireland person can have both Eire and U.K. passports.
A chimera. Both european and not european.

There is the supposed story of a Gibraltar resident going daily across the border with a wheelbarrow.
He did this for years and the customs found nothing illegal.
Eventually, the customs official said.
"I know you are smuggling something, but I promise not to mention it or do anything about it".
"What is it?"

The traveller said "Wheelbarrows".
 
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Maybe an old thread but I wonder what will happen now with Britain and binoculars.

We have had about a 15% devaluation, which is pretty much as I thought up to this time.

But now.

Will the U.S. and Britain negotiate freer trade or more restrictions?
How about the U.S. and the E.U.?

There has always been the U.S. attitude to commercial aircraft manufacture and supposed help in the EU.
But Boeing and others benefit vastly from military contracts to support commercial ventures.

All unknown.

But I suspect things will not change as radically as threatened.

How binocular prices will change in the U.S. I don't know.

History will judge the general changes that may come.

We live in interesting times.

The Chinese supposedly were asked what were the effects of the French Revolution.
They replied that it is too soon to know.
 
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