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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 17, 2007 18:13:04 GMT 12
With the NZ dollar doing so well against the US greenback right now, I have to wonder has there ever been a better time for importing a US-based warbird in the past 20-30 years?
If I had any money I'd be considering it.
Does anyone know if maybe anything might be coming this way soon? Anyone heard news of the Bollingbroke and the B-25 that are supposed to be crossing the Pacific in this direction?
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Post by lesterpk on Jul 17, 2007 21:34:36 GMT 12
Dunno about warbirds but I'm about to spend $1200US on radio control models very shortly, couldn't even think of it a few years back.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 17, 2007 21:41:47 GMT 12
Phew! Must be some good gear.
What sort of r/c stuff do you dabble in? Do you do scale aircraft?
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Post by corsair67 on Jul 18, 2007 10:53:01 GMT 12
It's not good for exporters though and will affect the balance of trade: but I'm sure Cullen will have everything in hand!  |
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Post by Bruce on Jul 18, 2007 11:02:25 GMT 12
but I'm sure Cullen will have everything in hand! Yeah, he'll tell us off for being naughty children and spending our money, rather than investing it.... |
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Post by tempestwulf on Jul 18, 2007 21:52:06 GMT 12
That I don't doubt. But you're right it is good to buy from the US. www.squadron.com is my haunt of late, great selection of pretty much everything (no r/c though - don't think so anyway). Pricing is cheaper too. I've brought decals only at excellent prices, works out cheaper then retail. |
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Post by phas3e on Jul 18, 2007 22:06:36 GMT 12
Just ordered vol 2 of JG300 and saved quite a few dollars  |
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Post by corsair67 on Jul 18, 2007 23:00:22 GMT 12
I've been having a field day on Ebay recently, but the credit card isn't looking so crash hot anymore.  Postage is still a killer at times though. |
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Post by lumpy on Jul 18, 2007 23:40:40 GMT 12
Just landed a kit from the States . Started out as a cheap $160 kit . Add " vital " accessories , plus a few " nice to have " ones , then freight ( $148 ouch ) , then convert to NZ dollars , THEN get stung with gst . Nearly $800 total ! Lucky I have an engine and radio to suit . Still thats a once a year spend , I have mates who spend that every month on their interests , I still consider rc planes cheap ( but the sky IS the limit ) ! :-)
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 19, 2007 8:15:17 GMT 12
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Post by corsair67 on Jul 19, 2007 15:13:36 GMT 12
Dave, I hate looking at Provenance's website - it nearly makes me cry looking at all those beautiful aircraft I'll never be able to fly - even if I did have a licence!
I do like that Bearcat they've got for sale at the moment.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Jul 19, 2007 21:53:44 GMT 12
When I was in the retail/tourist trade in the early 1970s, US tourists would get around 72 cents NZ for each US dollar. That's right, the NZ dollar was worth well above the US dollar. It makes me laugh when so-called experts now talk of 'historically high values for the kiwi dollar'; we seemed to get by in those days at much higher values. I have never accepted that the way for our economic success is to make ourselves poorer in international monetary terms.
Look at the age of the majority of light aircraft still operational in this country - a significant number of them were imported new in the 1970s - early 1980s. We could afford to buy new aircraft then, when our money was actually worth something overseas.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 19, 2007 22:45:38 GMT 12
I do agree with you there Peter. My Mum used to do a lot of mail ordering to the UK in the early 1970's because - she reckons - we were getting 2 Pounds to our dollar! When i last went to the UK in 1996 I got 1 pound to almost $4.
Sadly this country is one that is run by the exporters. 90% of all our food produce and wool and all that goes offshore so keeping our dollar crap is good for them. But I do wonder why people refer to the golden age of NZ being postwar through to the 1960's - our pound was apparently very good then too. Farmers had more sheep then than there are today, and again most of it went offshore - so, if the pound was so good and everyone was so rich, why the hell did they screw it?
Also, I rememebr the days of the 1970's when Muldoon and Birch were going headfirst into their 'Think Big' projects and everyone said "Ooh it's a lot of money and they're borrowing too much and do we really need it, after all we';re a tiny nation of less than 3 million people...".
Today we see the dams they built are worth their weight in gold in terms of being useful and quite frankly they didn't build enough. The oil industry that they set up was also a brilliant idea, sadly Labour dismantled it and sold it off. And since Roger Dougles screwed NZ all the rest of our assets that were built up over generations have been sold to foreign interests and now the taxpayer gets nothing for it. If they'd had the brains to keep Telecom the profits alone from mobile phones could run the country!
I think the best investment right now would be bullets for firing squads for all past and present Labour MP's.
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Post by Parrotfish on Jul 19, 2007 23:50:53 GMT 12
When I was in the retail/tourist trade in the early 1970s, US tourists would get around 72 cents NZ for each US dollar. That's right, the NZ dollar was worth well above the US dollar. It makes me laugh when so-called experts now talk of 'historically high values for the kiwi dollar'; we seemed to get by in those days at much higher values. Only because of artificially high currency values set by govt- no market floating rate in those high inflation times. Remember the '84/'85 crisis? Just fixed currency rates, subsidies for political gain and restrictive currency laws that would not be accepted by the New Zealand public or business today. I'm back ;D |
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