Hey, Mr.Z

First off I'd like to say I'm a huge fan of your designs and what you have done for the world of guitarists. Your designs truly bring some originality and flare to guitarists all over and if you do get the chance to read this I really do appreciate it more than you know.

To get to the point I have always wanted a Dean since I first saw them. They stand out and really are what I have always been looking for in a guitar. Everyone seems to be playing a strat type guitar with the typical thin neck and double locking trem and of course EMG's but Deans are perfect for guitarists like myself who want a guitar that is more unique. The main thing that has always stopped me from purchasing one of your creations is the high price which they are sold at in Canada. The typical price for a dean guitar is list price which is much higher than our US neighbors are getting their deans for. Do you plan on making your guitars more affordable for Canadian guitarists? I understand to cross the border certain extra costs must come into play but there still seems to be a bit of a price jump between Deans sold in the US and Deans sold in Canada and alot of brands seem to be closing the gap fairly quickly these days. I'm not even sure who really has say over the prices in canada but i guess my main question is will the price of DBZ guitars sold in canada be similar to those sold in the US or should we be ready for a large spike in price?

Thank you for your time.

ROCK ON MR. Z! \m/

I tend to agree about the pricings. Basing myself from stores around here, the only place that sells Dean guitars in Montreal is Steve's Music store and their prices are really over the top. They have an half-beaten HardTail Standard Silver floor demo on sale for 750$... add the taxes of around 13-14% and basically anyone who buys this paid about twice if as much as getting the guitar from a US dealer such as Blue Rock Guitars even with the duty and shipping.

Most of the USA models they have in store range from 3600-6000$ each while most could be bought from a US dealer that ships to Canada for about 2500-3500$ max on most models.

The US Dollar is not strong enough versus the Canadian Dollar to justifies such high prices. I remember however that someone once said the reason for this is the dishonest distributor of Dean Guitars in Canada who takes quite a cut of profit on each guitar thus forcing the stores to sell them at ridiculously high prices. That might be a reason why not so many stores in Canada carry Deans, because of the prices they have to sell them versus other brand who become automatically more interesting.

Still it would be very interesting to see normal and affordable prices for all the product line of DBZ guitars available in Canada when they make their way here.

Ah I see, really unfortunate. I was looking at a dean ML warbird last summer when the canadian dollar was equal to or over the american dollar and they wanted to charge me around 1350$ plus 15% tax while if I had lived in the us they cost about 750$. Very unfortunate, I am really hoping that Mr. Z can avoid distributors like this with his new line and can help out us canadians.

as a fellow canadian and a dean owner i feel your pain, when i got my first dean i looked around all the local dean dealers for a price on a 79 mlf and was being given prices over a grand. i was willing to pay this price however becuase i had the cash and had some painful ml gas and no experience with the products price through a us dealer. i did some looking around on the internets and found the prices from the us dealers to be much much cheaper even after currency conversion and making adjustments for brokerage and border fees and all that wonderful stuff.

now when considering why the prices of some guitars are so much higher in canada, or other countries for that matter, opposed to the states is that all guitars shipped across the border are subject to border fees, brokerage fees, and a whole pile of other fees that bring up the cost for the distributor, therefore they have to jack up the price above the msrp advertised in the states to make the same profit. you can see the same trend with just about every product which gets its main distibution through the states, with few exceptions.

when i toured the dean guitars facilities down in florida last february i asked about the higher prices in canada when compared to the prices that the states are paying and was told that they were not in the place to comment being charged in another country that it was more or less up to that countries distributor, which is understandable i suppose. so there is little that the head office can do outside of lower the prices overall to get prices lower in canada, but there would still be the same proportional fees added to the cost in order for the regional distributor and the dealer to make a profit.

sorry for the length so far, i just have a little bit more to say. so in short if you really want a guitar from dean or DBZ or pretty much any guitar company the cheapest way to do it may be to import it if that is an option, which it usually is, most dealers are willing to ship across borders for a shipping fee. however if you are like me and have a good relationship with local dealers that can get you what you want i would suggest going through them because going through a reputable local dealer gives you a much closer link to someone to help you should you have a warranty issue with the instrument, plus it is always nice to help out your local dealer.

again sorry for the novel, hope it helped more than it confused.

Thats very true and I had come close to doing just that but it got pricey again after all the border fees etc. I suppose your right I would just like to see some more local shops stocking them and being able to try them out before I buy etc. Just was curious about what Mr.Z and other users from around the forum thought on the subject.

Well, what a subject???? ?????derivation????? (Post # 4) apologized for the ?????novel????????? I may end up having to apologize for out-wording the author ???? this subject ????? Canadian Sales of Dean Guitars is rather close to my heart!

I am the owner of an independent music store in Ontario and my son, David, and I are very proud to be Dean Dealers - we are listed on the Dean Guitars website accordingly. We don?????t sell Dean Guitars because they have an outrageous profit margin. They don?????t ???? we would be too likely to SELL any of them if the margins were as high as mentioned in Post 4.

We sell Dean Guitars because we are absolutely passionate about them???? My own ?????pride and joy????? is a USA 30th Anniversary ML (#12) signed by THE MAN, Dean B. That?????s how passionate we are about that ?????Winged Logo????? ????? it?????s a shame that it undoubtedly belongs to ER of Armadillo Enterprises and not DBZ, but that?????s life (it?????s a great pity that I misplaced my magic wand).

Intellimix Corporation (Baie d'Urf???, Quebec) is currently the exclusive distributor for Dean Guitars in Canada. It is my understanding that Intellimix buys guitars for about the same price in US dollars as would any large US chain of music stores. They then have to pay shipping from Tampa, Florida. Then comes the border crossing???? Let?????s forget about the 5% GST because they claim that back when they re-sell to me and eventually the retail buyer pays that (plus the 8% PST in Ontario). There is a large Brokerage fee PLUS GST to pay to a Customs Broker, who is there at the border, to present documents as the container(s) cross into the country.

Then there is the duty payable on the instruments ????? typically 7% duty (PLUS 5% GST) depending upon the country of origin. ?????But, Free Trade????????? you say? NO SUCH THING EXISTS. You need a NAFTA Certificate to certify USA Origin. That involves Lawyers, Judges and on and on???? We hope that you are all getting the picture here. So, we are paying 7% Duty PLUS 5% GST on US Made instruments just like the Japanese, Korean & Chinese made Dean Guitars????? That is my clear understanding. So, as you can see, Free Trade doesn?????t really exist unless you are a huge auto manufacturer or a multi-national lumber company with an army of corporate lawyers on the payroll.

All these extra charges, that the US retail chain stores DON?????T pay, but Intellimix DOES, leads to higher prices here in Canada.

And then, of course, you have to add Intellimix operating costs, advertising, REAL dollar exchange rates, profit margin ???? and suddenly prices here, in Canada, are way out of line with aggressive online US retail prices.

And, of course, the drop ship location certainly isn?????t here in Ontario. It?????s in Quebec ???? 675km (420 miles) from our store. Shipping costs and more shipping costs.

We have had to resign ourselves to all of these irritating facts. But we will not surrender to the trap of selling what?????s profitable as opposed to what?????s great. Most passionate guitarists don?????t want to buy an online photo ????? they want to play, touch, smell and hug that new ax before they buy???? and we hand them the goods to try.

Having said all that, we still try to remain as competitive as we can vs. US online prices, which we follow closely. I have found that with most models, we remain competitive with US online prices ????? maybe you?????re just not shopping in the right store (chuckle)???? An example follows:
eBay Item : 290262141299 ????? a Dean Hardtail Select from BeatStreet Music
Buy It Now: US $649.00 (approximately C $679.44)
Shipping: US$49.00 (approximately C $51.29)
Brokerage: C$50.00 MINIMUM ????? count on it!
7% Duty (Made in Korea): C $47.56
That totals C $ 828.29 + 5% GST + 8% PST (Ontario) = C $935.97 at your front door ????? hope it?????s not damaged!
We have an identical guitar in our store that is priced at C $829 + taxes = C $ 936.77 with a CANADIAN warranty, strap, new set of D?????Addario 110 strings and a FREE AUTOGRAPHED Michael Angelo Batio CD (we buy them direct from him). So, as you can see, buying direct from the ?????Lower 48????? isn?????t necessarily such a bargain IF you shop around. We only wish that I had the same margins as our brothers to the south???? (sigh)
Now, if we can only get a DBZ dealership???? wooooo????.maybe the first in Canada ????? who knows? (dream on, Kerry)

Here endeth the Canadian Lesson ????? don?????t say I didn?????t warn ya ????? Rock On!

Ah I see. So my question would then be why do we get other brands for so much cheaper. ESP/LTD and Jackson both seem to be sold at very similar prices as in the US. What would the difference between Dean and a company like ESP be where there could be such a price difference? Im pretty sure Nafta only applies to items made in the US such as gibsons and fenders etc. That was always my reasoning of why they were priced close to equal in both countries.

Fender/Jackson ships direct to the store, not through a distributor. At least they used to. A distributor makes a profit too, so soon a customer can buy from a USA dealer, close or cheaper, then a Canadian dealer can.

I am fairly sure dean uses distributors. This works especially when the distributor can buy guitars in MASS volume and keep a stock pile of them thus giving them a discount by volume. It works the other way as well. I can see companies wanting to ship directly from production to stores. It means production is streamlined to demand and gives less room for breakage or loss.

Either way I think smaller companies like hitching on to a distributor because it makes their products more easily accessible to music shops, and the company doesn't have to worry as much about overhead costs associated with maintaining their own inventories for shipment

TO be fair though in canada BC rich guitars are actually cheaper than the ones in the US and multiple stores have told me that they have to check with the distributor then come back with a price that is way cheaper than BC rich guitars in the US. I think factory direct is the cheapest method but quality distributors are awesome when used in the correct fashion.