Allstar USA

[Feanor]

Originally posted by rukovsoft
Feanor,

i don t understand,
allstar germany doesn t sell directly to us since they have an exclusive dealer in the us (in NY , blade)...

how did u order your equipments? i have man friends and students who would be interested...

Rukovsoft,

As MFP correctly stated, Uhlmann and Allstar (same company?) will not sell directly to US customers because they have distribution agreements with their authorized US distributors, but retailers within Germany will sell to US customers at exactly the same price as the factory would if they could. Think of it like Nike Inc will not sell directly to German customers, but they can buy Nike products in the US and have them shipped to Germany thru Footlocker.com...

Fechtsport-Langenkamp is one of the retailers in Germany where you can buy Uhlmann and Allstar equipment directly.

Many people will not buy international for a number of reasons; Language barrier, shipping costs, Euro Conversion, tarrifs, etc etc... I've ordered thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from F-L and have had no problems with any of these ever.

Here is the website in English:

Fechtsport-Langenkamp

Hansjoachim Langenkamp is very effecient, speaks excellent English (in emails), and is very thorough and prompt.

Icing on the cake in this situation is that the prices, even with the weakening US Dollar against the Euro, are astoundingly good! Keep in mind that the prices you see on the website are with the VAT added. Subtract 16% to get the price in Euros for US customers (multiply that by 1.19 to get USDollars)

I could go into alot of extraneous detail, but I'll let these comparisons speak for themselves:

1) Top of the line AllStar Startex FIE Jacket or Uhlmann Olympia Jacket (same exact product with different branding) from F-L is 220 Euros, subtract 16 percent VAT tax which US customers do not have to pay and that is 184.50 Euros... multiply that by 1.19 (approximately the conversion from Euros to USDollars) and you get about $219 USDollars... Now compare that to the typical price for an Olympia or Startex jacket in the US which is about $330

2) Allstar FIE BF Blue Maraging electric foil with pistol grip (top of the line) with German V2A tip in the US is about $180 and from F-L is $106

3) An Uhlmann FIE mask from F-L is $113 and in the US is $190

4) Adidas D'artagnan fencing shoes at F-L $69 in the US $135

The list goes on and on... You can start to see the money saved if you were to get full uniform kit and weapons plus tools and spare parts...

I have NO affiliation with F-L whatsoever and I simply stick with people who treat me well. Many might pipe up and say that its hurting the US economy ordering directly from Germany but if you use Prieur, Santelli, Uhlmann, Allstar, Leon Paul, Vniti, France-Lames etc etc, no matter where you got it, you'd be a hypocrit

My only concern is that Fencers get the most bang for their buck, How many potential competitors were turned off to fencing because of high prices for equipment? and why would you ever settle for the "World Cup" Jacket purchased in the US when for less money you could have the "Olympia" jacket by ordering from Germany? and chances are you'd even get it quicker from Germany since the German retailers are close to the source and always have excellent stock on hand...

The reason the prices are so low over there is that Fencing is FAR more popular in Europe, and markups for equipment in the US are outrageously high.

Shipping cost is 0-6Kg ~$46 and 6-10Kg ~ $71 as a reference, full kit and two weapons weighs about 7-8Kg so look at adding about 80 dollars to the overall order. Because of this, its better to order as much as you can in one shot rather than do a whole bunch of small orders, but even if you order ONE best of the best FIE jacket for $220+shipping, you'd still be saving $30 over getting that same jacket in the US (more if you got hit with sales tax for buying in your same state)

Download the PDF price list as there are many more items in that than are listed in the online ordering area. Hansjoachim says only the "essentials" were listed in the online ordering lists to make the listings less confusing. Just add a note with the stock numbers in the "comment" section of your order form for things only listed in the PDF catalog. Also, in the PDF catalog, the prices are listed "Euro Netto" or the price for customers who are exempt from the European Tax (which is anyone outside of Europe) so you only have to do the Euro conversion to find the USDollar price.

In the end I would like to say that I would love Love LOVE to buy all my equipment from US distributors and businesses, but I'm not made of money, and yet I still want the best protection possible when that broken Foil/Epee blade is headed for me... And when 30% of my paycheck goes to taxes AND they decide to triple my vehicle license fee.. well, I guess I would have to say that I'm ALREADY doing my part...

Can't say enough nice things about F-L, they are a quality outfit!

[rukovsoft]

thx for the website, feanor!

next time i won t have to go back to paris to get some stuff...

[mfp]

Originally posted by Feanor
Keep in mind that the prices you see on the website are with the VAT added. Subtract 16% to get the price in Euros for US customers (multiply that by 1.19 to get USDollars)

I could go into alot of extraneous detail, but I'll let these comparisons speak for themselves:

1) Top of the line AllStar Startex FIE Jacket or Uhlmann Olympia Jacket (same exact product with different branding) from F-L is 220 Euros, subtract 16 percent VAT tax which US customers do not have to pay and that is 184.50 Euros...

A slight correction on the math ... for the prices that include the 16% VAT, you need to subtract 13.8% (not 16%) of the listed prices to get the pre-VAT price. I.e. or just multiply the listed prices by 0.862 for the non tax price.

I've purchased from Herr Langenkamp both over the web and in person and have been very pleased with the service and prices (Though I was more pleased with the prices back when the Euro was trading under $1 US ).

Be forewarned that shipments from overseas can be delayed if they get picked out for US Customs inspection. I have yet to be hit with any duties, but have had a couple of shipments take a week or so longer than usual and finally show up with green "Inspected by US Customs" tape all over them.

[Bout ender]

Damn, I feel like the oddman out...I have been dealing with AllStar for a few years now and so far have really had no major problems with them. Other than the fact that the main guy that deals with customers has a heavy Russian accent (makes him hard as hell to understand at times!) and he always sounds like he is angry or something....my problems have been minor.
The biggest problem I have had is that they rarely have much of anything in stock...customer service isn;t top notch but it certainly hasn;t been bottom of the barrel as everyone else's...lucky i guess...oh well..its been fun reading these experiences...I will be more careful with dealing with them but so far they have been decent to me....

[veeco]

Living in NYC, where you can get to the actual store may explain your different experience. I think most people who complain about Allstar USA / Blade / ... are complaining about the mail order business side of things.

[Feanor]

MFP,

Thanks for the correction, you are right... I think that the approximation of US dollars still holds though and the price you see on the website in Euros is _very_ close to what it turns out to be ultimately in US Dollars after all the conversions...

Thanks!

[r. tissu]

Going to blade in NYC is worse than mail order, you actualy have to deal with stan. Blade/allstar usa will also rip you off big time. Just go (or order) to/from Blue Gauntlet they have uhlmann witch is the same company as allstar just blue. Also BG's generic equipment is mutch beter than blade's.


The only real differnce between allstar and uhlman is masks and blades

[mifencer]

Originally posted by r. tissu
The only real differnce between allstar and uhlman is masks and blades

I would have to disagree. I found that the jackets and knickers are different. It's been discussed before: Uhlman tends to be 'forgiving' and Allstar a little more fit. IMHO.

[r. tissu]

I guess, I don't use allstar/uhlmann uniforms. But most of the time its just the stamp and price tag.

[oiuyt]

Just a quick correction to something that Feanor said above. Allstar will not sell directly to US customers (Allstar-USA is an exclusive dealer), however Uhlmann WILL (Uhlmann doesn't have an exclusive US dealer). Yes I know they're the same company (actually they're not, they're inter-related companies owned and run by the same family). My team has been ordering directly from Uhlmann for the past couple of years. Looks like F-L gives the same prices as what Uhlmann gives, so it probably makes little difference whether or not you go directly once you're ordering from Germany. I would like to add that the Uhlmann customer service is also top notch. That includes after a switch in who was handling our account there. Both of the people that we've dealt with have handled things wonderfully.

As with MFP, I've been VERY pleased with both service and prices ordering from Germany (and I, also, was even more pleased back when the Euro was at $0.88 rather than $1.15, also before the price changes on 1/1/03).

I would guess that with shipping it's a slight win for an individual to order from abroad (assuming that the individual is getting a significant amount of equipment). For a team (or a large number of individuals that can combine shipping costs) it can be a HUGE win.

-B :)