70sSanO

I imagine some of the people who would never buy anything from China and everything is fake junk haven’t ever bought anything from China.

There are some structural things such as a frame, fork, handlebars, stem, or seatpost that I might have some concern, but a lot of components have not be a problem. I’ve bought off eBay from overseas sellers for years and just haven’t had any issues. None.

Recently components that are a generation older can only be found overseas. The pandemic has dried up a lot of parts domestically. If you are looking for a part, it is either overseas or you go without as most online sites show many parts as out of stock or backordered.

John

base2 

There are places on Earth where Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price is unenforceable & actual market derived price is what an item sells for.

I, for one am hard pressed to buy anything from Shimano because Shimano (Japan) won't allow Shimano (Europe) to undercut Shimano (America.)

If the free market principals we all know & love weren't being violated, Shimano (Europe) would be happy to sell to America as with cheap global shipping infrastructure there really isn't a distinction between markets any more. Shimano Japan's rules regarding product distribution are arbitrary & capricious. The consumer is harmed by Shimano's business practices. (However legal they may be.)

So, Chinese sellers, re-sellers, distributors, etc... can sell whatever product they want to whomever they want; It doesn't necessarily mean anything neferious. It means they can disregard unenforcable MSRP, source an item locally & ship it to wherever the market presents itself.

Maybe Shimano should think about the actual market value of their products & price it accordingly instead of artificially forcing an inflated price. Who knows? Maybe it'd provide less space for the likes of Microshift, Micronew, Box, SunRace, etc...

Seriously, this is ECON101.

AdkMtnMonster

There are a lot more fake cyclists on BF than there are fake components on fake bikes.

Maelochs

Well .... The market in the U.S. will tolerate a lot higher prices for components than the UK apparently .... and the emphasis in the U.S. used to be on getting people to buy complete bikes from bike shops, which shops needed to attract repeat business .... upgrades, accessories, then n+1 and n+2 bikes, etc.

Apparently the much smaller market and slower economy in the UK meant that U.S. prices were unsupportable.

Then online shopping came to the fore and suddenly bike shops started closing up ..... which meant manufacturers were more interested than ever in selling complete bikes, which meant that bike manufacturers Definitely didn't want people to buy bikes and upgrade them .... the manufacturers wanted people to buy whole new bikes every season or two, when the manufacturers came out with the "latest. greatest, must-have" technology.

Shimano probably got pressured to stop the flow of overseas parts into the U.S. because whatever bike shops were still in business couldn't compete (they were paying, wholesale, pretty much same prices the UK was charging for retail) and the manufacturers, which are far and away the most important customers, couldn't compete.

It's a global market. Shimano has to respond to a wider variety of "market forces" than just local supply and demand. They are a global business and need to have long-term plans for stability and profitability.

The "invisible hand" of the free market is BS anyway. In a true free market we'd be afraid to buy Anything we didn't see first because Everything would be fake and real manufacturers would be selling Only to manufacturers. I am not a fan of regulation, but a lot of regulations were formulated because people tried to corner markets, flood markets with counterfeits, and in whatever way game the system to sell minimum cost and quality for maximum short-term profit.

I used to build bikes and the rise in prices for Shimano parts killed that hobby. It is almost cheaper to buy stuff from Bikes Direct and strip the frames to get parts than it is to buy real Shimano groupsets from anywhere, nowadays. But every company has to act to protect its own survival.

What I see here isn't greed from Shimano, it is a company realizing that the global business environment has changed and making changes to stay viable.

Shimano doesn't Want to compete with Microshift or Micronew. Shimano want to make sure that "Genuine Shimano parts" has some meaning around the world. Shimano knows that people will reverse-engineer its stuff, make a few minor changes to avoid patent infringement, and market cheaper alternatives. Shimano doesn't care. If people are too cheap to pony up for Tourney or Claris, Shimano doesn't care.

When Microshift tries to compete with Ultegra and Dura-Ace .... it will find that it cannot undercut Shimano prices buy all that much since the people who buy Dura-Ace and Ultegra have high expectations, based on a long history of excellence. When Microshift tries to release a line which will displace 105 in the market, it will again find itself having to charge Shimano-type prices, because the parts will have to be absolutely bulletproof and work excellently---and that kind of precision manufacturing cannot be done on the cheap, even in China. And further, the company would have to spend hugely on promotion, which Shimano really doesn't need to do (when you are the industry standard, you can spend a lot less trying to get people to buy your stuff ... they already want it (unless they can afford Sram Red.)

Further, if Microshift Did produce 105, Ultegra, and Dura-ace level components and seriously intended to compete with Shimano, they would be foolish to sell for much less .... why leave money on the table? Microshift can undercut Shimano on Claris-level stuff, but the market and the profit margins are small. When they try to get more upper-class corporate contracts (OEM contracts) and start trying to compete at the upper end of the range, they would find that low prices can even be a drawback---people would be afraid they weren't getting Shimano quality for such low prices. After all, high-end groupsets are in fact luxury items .... and most bike parts in most markets are at the very least discretionary spending, not necessities.

And seriously, Shimano doesn't need to legally enforce MSRP. They can merely stop selling to markets where the distributors don't play nice. But in the end, it all comes down to globalization and planning. Shimano was hurting its biggest customers by selling at radically different prices in markets which, due to the internet, were no longer distinct.