Why are Nottingham Analogue Studio turntables so expensive in USA?

It seems most British items are overpriced here. It may have to do with the VAT tax in Europe. Prices are much higher there do to the tax. American importers see that as a reason to price gouge here not to mention the addition of another middleman.

I try to by European products in Europe and have them shipped. Sometimes this is blocked by the manufacturer in which case I will not by whatever it is. 

There is only one work around and that if you go to Europe you buy the item there, ship it back yourself and go through the hassle of getting a tax refund. 

I think the 3300 pounds is without arm. Price with arm in US dollars is about $5233 US.

$6950 is the U.S. price. Typical markup for imported high end audio.

It’s the US distributor who most often causes such a pricing distortion. Not meaning to condemn the particular distributor of NA. I owned a Hyperspace. It was a great performer made greater by the addition of a motor controller. But $7000 used to get you a Dais.

VAT is not applied to exports. 

+1 for whitefish. Forgot to mention it.

When I compared the UK vs USA prices, the table I looked at was a 76% mark up here in the USA. That seems excessive to me.

If you buy in Europe you do not get the VAT tax back until you prove that the unit has left the country and sometimes that can be quite the argument. No, the VAT tax is not applicable to Americans but it make European prices seem much higher than they really are. The VAT tax is 20%. The American importer lops off 10% making the American product look cheap even though the importer is making an additional 10% minus whatever the shipping costs are.

Thanks all for the input! Had no idea about the VAT exemption for exports to US. Found some interesting used options and ebay sellers but they are all out of my price range either. Maybe I should do more research especially on the Pear Audio Blue ones. They are basically designed with the same philosophy of Nottingham and the same person involved in development, just a more modern and highend sound variation imo, but not quite the same sonic signature.

@yggy1 I would definitely speak to the distributor for Pear Audio. Michael seemed like a good dude when I traded emails with him. The table seemed quite nice as well.

https://www.pearaudio-analogue.com/contact-dealer-info.html

It's a long story, but I ended up on another path.

My experience with Pear Audio was not good; not with one but two of their turntables.

@vinylvalet Did you not like the sound? or just overall experience? For me Pear TTs seem to be a little bright, very high resolution like SACD, really solid bass. I like something more musical with just ever so slight hint of darkness. 

@bigslacker Thanks for leaving me the contact info. I'd consider pear's lower price models, but probably try a NTA one first. Sounded very clean and powrful to me, which isn't bad at all. Just a little taste difference. I also realized those prices for NTA turntable without the arm isn't too bad bc the arm is the one set overpriced.

Now that the UK is out of the EU, is there a disparity in VAT between the two economic entities? I’d bet there is. In Japan, if you present your passport at time of purchase you don’t pay their local sales tax, call it VAT or whatever.

Just looked it up. VAT in the UK and in EU countries was lowered temporarily in connection with Brexit. It’s between 5 and 10% in most countries, returning to 20% in the UK in April. Now’s the time to buy if you’re a citizen of one of those countries. But VAT can’t figure much in this discussion of UK vs USA prices for the same item.

@yggy1 Build quality, quality control and customer support were substandard.

Many much better alternatives at every Pear price point.