Do what everyone on this forum does. Just buy now , then buy again, then buy again and so on. It is a serious problem, with no therapy available( my wife has tried to get help for me)
Haven't you or your dw not realised yet that there is no help available for you lol. And if you really need help then this forum is not going to help as everyone on here just feeds your addiction with those links for even more goodies that you just have to have lol.
I would have a really good look around the internet now get loads of prices, visit you local camping shop and check out their prices too. Read web sites that offer to price match as some price match and do an extra 10% off (think it's Go Outdoors) but make sure of this by phoning and asking. Then it's up to you to decide where to buy. Come end of Feb onwards prices could be going up for the 2009 models - some say as much as by 30%.
We did this and then went to our local independant shop. He did us a really good deal.Could have got it al little cheaper on the net but we decided to stay local as we would be returning to buy other things and could get help and advice should we need any.
Also remember they may not price match exactly but they may throw in carpets or footprints to sway you and the prices of these can add up when bough seperatley
------------- Keely :-))
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I bought just recently and got a very good deal, I found it better to phone round, although I started with the internet first, the problem I found was finding stock, only one shop in the country had stock left of the model I was after and I got the last one, except for the display model, which someone else bagged after me, from the same store, I am very happy with the end result, even though it took 9 weeks for the additional Sun Canopy to arrive from France, but I have all my kit now ready for 2009, roll on spring and summer, can't wait!.
I don't believe that tent prices will go up in the current climate. Perhaps the RRP will be up but retailers can only sell products at high prices if people are prepared to pay. I somehow don't think this is going to happen.
I can confirm prices for tents and camping equipment and most things coming out of China will be going up. The dollar and euro have added 25% to the cost of purchasing in the far east. When you work this back for the brands like outwell, vango etc it cuts their profit margin buy 50% at least. New employment laws in China have increase the costs. The Chinese goverment have taken away some nice export tax breaks for Chinese exporters. The fabrics for tents (polyester) are made out of oil and when the fabric for the 2009 tents was made the price of oil was through the roof. So all in all we will see price rises.
Ok the goverment are saying that next year there will be deflation but thats based on everything such as food, fuel and house prices. Even if the camping trade / products go up by 25% this will make no impact on the inflation figures as the camping trade is so small compared with the above products.
Now if people this year were willing to pay £300 for a tent and that tent is £400 next year i do not know if you the camper will be willing to pay the £400. It might be you still pay £300 but buy a lower spec tent ?
I hope this gives some insight into what will happen in 2009 in my humble opinion.
I think Gary makes a very good point, a tent that was on my wish list untill I got the Cabanon a few weeks back, was the Outwell Wolf Lake 5, very nice Polycotton tent, Outdoorworld have the 2008 tent on offer, but list the RRP as £820, having said that they are out of stock having sold out on offer, they also list the 2009 model at a RRP of £1000 but not yet available, now that 2009 RRP is up by over 20%, which I will guess means whatever offer price comes along will be at best up by the same amount against 2008 model prices, but of course the gap colud get bigger, if the retailers margins are squeezed for 2009 against 2008, who kows, maybe Gary does, after all he does know his onion's as he is in the trade.
Don't forget to leave a review of all tents you've used, for a chance to win fantastic prizes
I follow what you are saying about the price of oil making the materials more expensive to produce etc. So presumably the manufacturers will want to pass these costs on to the consumer but if the potential purchaser is holding off, which during a recession will happen as people wait for prices to fall even further, then how does the retailer make his sale? People also tend to spend less and save more during a recession as they are worried about their jobs etc. I would have thought that manufacturers/retailers might be seriously worried that with the added costs of production and people not spending money that they may go out of business.
Think mumshadenough may be right bout the good price at Yeomans-have just been on SK Leisure website and they're selling 2009 Bear Lake 6 at over £800!!! and thats with 10% off!!
You may be better purchasing now-its hard to see many cheap prices next year-think Gary was spot on!
Everything you say is right, but and this is the saving grace for the camping trade.
When times are good a lot of people have holidays in Florida, spain, Greece etc, but some of them also go camping which is great for the camping trade. When times are bad the families who normally have the above two styles of holidays may cut the villa style holiday out and just go camping. People who have never camped may see it as a good way of saving money and spend £1000-£1500 on kit etc and still save on the £4000-£5000 they would normally spend on going to Florida. I know a number of people who are staying in the UK next year and have never camped but they will in 2009.
Camping is not always the holiday people take just because its cheap (sorry cheaper) which is great but when times are bad the cost can come into it and even if you spend £1000 on kit and two weeks site fees its still pretty good.
So what im going on about is the camping trade tends to do ok when times are hard. Im not saying 2009 will be a record year but we should keep going when other retailers might go under.
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Topic: When to buy a tent
