planetf1.com

It costs a gagillion dollars to buy official, authorized F1 souvenirs, apparel, etc. in this country! I was asked to put together a list of things I might like for Christmas and after shopping around a bit I came to the conclusion that it might actually be cheaper to fly to a grand prix (not Austin because that costs more than going overseas) to buy the stuff than order it online from either the team shop or the F1 store after VAT and international shipping. There ARE free shipping offers, but only if you're spending enough to outfit a small family. As I sat here trying to find a combination of items that would qualify for free shipping without being too much over it, I was repeatedly confronted with "you need to spend 21 cents more to qualify" or similar, and kept imagining Bernie in green in my head as the Grinch.

I know this stuff isn't cheap anywhere, but it seems prohibitively expensive for Americans. I'll have to ask Santa instead. Sadface.

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Business 101.

Supply and demand.

I feel your pain, friend.
I paid $80 for a BMW Sauber shirt a few years ago, and then paid another $60 to have it shipped to Virginia.
Then I paid $200 for an official Renault 2008 team jacket, and then another $60 to have it shipped to Virginia.
I also bought one of the limited edition FAster alonso T-shirts than Fernando sold on his site a few years ago. That damn t-shirt was about $140...again with $60 to ship it here from Spain. But it's probably one of only a few dozen in the US.
At least I got my Red Bull Racing team shirt at the Canadian GP and didn't have to pay shipping.

At least BMW dealerships carried almost the entire team line. My ex worked in the parts department, so I have enough BMW Sauber stuff for an entire team. Infiniti only carries the RBR basics, and at ridiculous prices.

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So you start a company offering F1 gear in the States. You buy the gear at wholesale prices because lord knows a Ferrari shirt is made by Puma and made in Puma factories in China, along with everyone else. Then you sell it to American consumers, the teams make money selling the gear to Americans and we get to buy stuff that's not god awful expensive.

Just gave you a $1 million idea...I'll take 2% of your net profit.

Your welcome.

You've never sold retail goods eh? Buying at wholesale price doesn't mean anything - you still have to sell it at msrp, or within an extremely close %.

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The Kimi t-shirt at the Lotus stand was $90.00. I laughed and didn't buy it, cool as it was.
In fact, everything in Austin was pretty steep. I got a Williams hat, some COTA merchandise, and spent the rest of my money on food and drink. For some reason, it didn't bother me to spend a lot of money eating and drinking. But I wasn't going to pay the prices they were charging for team stuff. Its obscene, and I'm not a cheapskate by any measure.

About the same price cost vs. Indy

I'm kind of wondering based on price comparison from what I remember of the pricing in Austin at COTA and online, but it seemed like most of the official F1 store items were higher priced on site.

As taxes didn't seem to be added to the prices at most of the stands, I'm assuming some of the increase was for local sales taxes.

But I would also be curious to hear from fans who have attended other GPs elsewhere in other countries, if its not common practice to raise the prices at the GP stands simply because of the fact that so many fans feel they "HAVE" to buy something when they are in the GP setting. It would make wise business sense although a bit frustrating to realize you could order the same items online for about 10-20% less (if you get enough for free shipping). But anyone who has attended events knows, its just sort of a natural instinct that you need to buy something when you are at the concert, show, game, race, etc. (I know everything at a Rangers or Stars game seems higher than at one of the local sporting good stores, and I recall it being the same at Cowboys games.)

(What I have noticed is that there were some items at the stands in COTA that I haven't seen online, even listed, but shown as 'out-of-stock.'... I really counted myself lucky on that count in that I got one shirt as a blind buy for a 'difficult to buy for' teenage niece that she absolutely loved, much to my surprise and happiness. When I decided to check for similar items for possible Christmas gifts, I noticed that I couldn't find anything of that style online at any of the shops through the official F1 site or elsewhere.)