While spending nearly $600 after its all said and done for any pair of glasses makes my stomach turn, I'm having a hard time saying no to them.

Prices of X-metals in Europe are:

Juliet: € 355 - 370 (Ducati € 390)
Juliet Polarized: € 425 - 440
Penny: € 395
X-metal XX: € 355
Romeo 2.0: € 419 - 429
Romeo 2.0 Polarized: € 489

To put it in Dollars:

Juliet: $ 483 - 504 (Ducati $ 531)
Juliet Polarized: $ 579 - 599
Penny: $ 538
X-metal XX: $ 483
Romeo 2.0: $ 570 - 584
Romeo 2.0 Polarized: $ 666

Thanks Peter! thats what I thought, its not just gascans that are high!

official listing ;


Romeo II



04-137 Carbon Black Iridium 419,00
04-138 Plasma Gold Iridium 419,00
04-139 Polished Titanium Iridium 429,00
12-687 X Metal Black Iridium Polarized 499,00

Juliet


04-110 Grey Black Iridium 355,00
04-114 Plasma Ice Special Iridium 370,00
04-119 Polished Fire Special Iridium Polarized 440,00
04-123 Plasma Ice Special Iridium Polarized 440,00
04-128 Carbon Black Iridium 355,00
12-673 DUCATI Carbon Black Iridium 390,00
12-835 Carbon Black Iridium Polarized 425,00

XX X-Metal


04-120 Grey Black Iridium 355,00

all the prices he posted are in EURO

-to the forum we have...it's for newbies. peoples who want to know how wide a gascan and a gascan s will be. every second question is about replacement parts of vintage glasses...kind a bit of boring for collectors.

The run of the C100 is still 500, due to this there are these horrible costs. I talked to somebody who got them in his own hands and he told me that the price will be worth it.

$450 is a lot to pay for 8 square inches of paint! Why does it not feel like Jim is spearheading this particular effort?

I hope our European members will correct me if I'm wrong but aren't most US made products noticably more expensive over there? I know from friends and colleagues who live in Europe that high end products are more expensive because of duties, taxes, tariffs etc.

I've even offered to bring people things from the states but they declined because some countries will make you pay duty on goods that you bring into the country and can't prove were bought in that country.

What I'm saying is that I don't think the high cost is Oakleys fault at all.

completely right

Thanks

Sure, but the 'Oakley products are all more expensive outside USA' argument just doesn't really hold up in this case. I would imagine your Gascan in Europe probably runs a premium cost of $170-200USD? So the C100 running $530USD represents a price point a good deal higher than just the international price adjustment. I can always forgive a bit of a premium for the limited run - and just cool frame design. But the stated cost of 400 Euro does strike me as excessive.

I just want to say thank you to the overseas members such has FRED, SANDER, and TOM for this info :) Much appreciated gents, without you guys, we would be in the dark.

Ducati Juliet is retailed at around US$540 in Singapore! So yes, been to a few countries and US has the best retail price for Oakleys.

US has the best retail price for Oakleys

You should see our collections if we lived in the US

I hope our European members will correct me if I'm wrong but aren't most US made products noticably more expensive over there? I know from friends and colleagues who live in Europe that high end products are more expensive because of duties, taxes, tariffs etc.

You are so right!

The prices in Europe are higher because:
1. Import costs
2. Taxes are already included
3. Taxes are way higher.

To take Holland for instance:
A pair or X-metal - Black Iridium Juliets cost € 355 including VAT (19%)---> $ 480 excluding taxes: $403
In the US its $ 300 excluding 7,25 % VAT (California)---> effective cost: $321,75

403 / 300 = 1,343

So for Europeans you have to pay about 34% more thanks to customs and import.

And thanks to taxes:
480 / 321,75 = 1,49

Almost 50% more....

Ebay is wallmart international. We take for granted how fortunate we are. All my oversea buyers are so grateful for the chance to get something they will never have the opportunity for. Hell they are more than happy just to pay our retail cost.

We get mad because we think collecters are running up the price. In understanding this we come to understand the reason things happen the way they do. There is a cause and effect. I pay sales tax in California. When I buy something from Total O I have to factor in the extra cost. So the bigger the item the more I have to dig into my pockets. When I visit my father in Montana, it takes every ounce of myself from not screaming like a little girl when I am in a retail store, because there is no sales tax. Same with the state of Oregon. In my situation with any Total O bid I am usually out bid by my own California tax margin.I am not bitter about it, it just means I have to look elsewhere for my oakley needs. The same goes for our oversea brothers and sisters. If you are looking from their perspective and you have Ebay USA to buy from.....well lets just say I can here the screams from here.

However the same does not hold true for them. I have watched tribal monster dogs go by without so much as a sniff for a fair European price, but most of us Americans think they are over the top with the asking price. Figure out the math and you will find that sellers there do not have the same opportuniy in making a reasonable profit for their efforts.

In the end most of us have learned to be a little creative in gathering our coveted collection. O-Review gives us a unique chance to bridge this gap.

Most recently with an exchange I had with fin7, a european member and gentleman of o-review. (Which by the way I cannot thank you enough!!) How many of us have benefited from knowing our nieghbors. I know Rick, as well as others have brought this connection to some of us. How about O-Whores and their generousity in bringing the Hawaiian Gascan to us all. When we think something is a little outragous like the C100, remember the people who make the effort and time, to bring us some of these little goodies. Thank you Frankie for giving us a chance to get something rare without the cost of an airline ticket. The leg work Tony and Josh had to do for the chance for some O-Reviewers to have the DF2, cannot be measured with money alone. With help from these folks and others we have everything to be thankful for. I for one, am grateful to have the chance to know you all.

It's about perspective!!

well said.

Very Well said indeed, George!

All the auctions on eBay tell the whole story... now we see who the REAL collectors are... No, I'm not the judge... but ultimately, one cannot argue that SO many o-review members are ALL rushing to sell their DF Gascans because they "truly" need the money that badly... not a chance! For some, the O takes precedence... others will simply bow to the almighty dollar. And I'm not one of them. Mine are going NOWHERE but locked safely in my triple-wide. End of story.

Kudos Nike! Same here bro.

If you're referring to me, it's "Nike" (yes, like the athletic company).

I gotcha, cant wait to see the c100.

What is the cool thing! No matter what happens, all glasses find their final resting places to the one who appreciate them the most. You can love oakley and not like all oakley stuff. I would never buy a blade. I think they are just plain ugly. But my knees go week for a first gen m-frame. What is worth more? That's easy!!! The one I like, because it is the one i spend the most for...lol!! If oakley only made blades, I would have never been a collector. What makes oakley unique is it's variety. Even with my m-frame obsession I am the minority in an Oakley collectors forum....Ask this question. If you didn't have the money and you had to trade for something you wanted more, would you pull the trigger on something else from your collection for it. The answer to that question determines every pair of glasses worth. 10 years from now the $1000 dollars people pay for the gascan DF2 will seem a steal to the buyer who doesn't have it in his collection. Our judgment doesn't determine it's reality. Supply + Demand + Emotional Addiction = Price. If you ever paid more than retail for any pair of oakley glasses, then it makes you just as guilty as the one who sold it to you. Ultimately we become part of the equation. Loyality is the exscuse of all obsession. You cannot piss in a lake and not have an effect in the measure of it!

Guilty! In fact I paid more than retail for scratched glasses!

Here's a poll question I'd love to hear the results of: How many people actually believe it's due to an Oakley obsession (ie. completing a collection) rather than profit motivation when someone buys multiple examples of sunglasses for $900+ when it originally retailed for $140?

$450 is a lot to pay for 8 square inches of paint! Why does it not feel like Jim is spearheading this particular effort?

Maybe they need to makeup for all the $$ (and paint) lost in re-calling the Flores Gascans.

Ok, that was stupid. I'll shut up now...