A week ago I decided to buy myself a 5" Hold and fold. I clicked on the link to the right and got to thesmallshop.com.
Selected what I wanted and went to the checkout... Sweden was no alternative and I was advised to go th the european site, ok no problem.
But the thing is that the european prices was almost as the US but in £ instead of $!
So I wrote a mail to thesmallshop.com and asked why? Why is it so much more expensive? Why don´t you ship to EU?
The answer was that they had an agreement with Cammet NOT to ship to EU, but they didn´t know why the price difference was so big.
Hmmm we live in a modern world there must be a way! So I found IRMODELS.COM an Australian shop with Hold and folds willing to ship to the EU and the price was again almost as in the Smallshop.com, but in AU$!
I ordered a 5" Hold and fold and a cut kit. The total was 2/3 of the price (EU price) and that was INCLUDING shipping.
So if you are looking for hold and folds my advise if you live in EU is to order it from irmodels and save some money... maybe for a new kit?

Hi Ronnie,
I had the same story!. Lucky model of japan stock the small shop hold & folds at half the uk price & free shipping. I actually spoke to the guys who own the small shop at the IPMS Telford show & got the same anwser as you. (Smacks of monopolisation as a sole supplier!) So in consequence, half the money, shipped halfway around the world in less time to send from british post boxes, & one happy modeller.
mark

Damn! Thats even cheaper! Just went there and looked. But they didn´t seem to have the PE cut kit... at least that is a consolation since I wanted it to.
Another thing, is it allowed by EU laws to have monopoly on items in this manner? Seems a bit strange.

there could have been an "Agreement" signed when they became distributor......... It's not uncoomon for distributors to want to be the Exclusive one....................

The best suggestion I can give to anyone in these days of "ship and click", is the old adage of "It pays to shop around" taking into account any shipping and duties/taxes added to the posted prices according to your local policies, and how they are handled in each country.