I have been looking for a tent recently, when looking for a northface tadpole 23 I found that in the US they are $239 and in the UK £250 a difference of more than £100. Are the tents different in any way? or are we (in the UK) just being ripped off?

Strange sense of deja view coming along here.

The debate is going to run along the lines of

exchange rate movement

sales taxes

import duties

shipping

in country distribution costs

what they can get away with.

depsite the great exchange rate on US dollars, import tax - shipping costs and other Uk taxes certainly add up to a pretty penny or two, but still for a single purchase like this it should pay off. as long as you don't need to return it for any reason.

Therehas been another thread along these lines recently where one of the exporters justified their pricing. I've not been able to find it yet but I think it may have been RAB.

I think though John covers most of the points.

Thanks for that, I was just really wondering wether they were actually different spec.

For what it's worth my mother-in-law just bought some Teva snadals from the states for less than half the price they are here and didn't pay any import tax. Of course I can't give you her address (mr revenue and customs guy snooping our forum).

£250 is the RRP and you can definately get it a lot cheaper than that.