Whats with Canadian vs US price gap

[eric_legare 0]

There are a lot of good ideas in your post. This one point though, got me to thinking so I found some numbers. In Canada there are 574,125 registered hockey players(men, women, children)= 1.76% of the population. In the US, there are 485,018 registered players = 0.16% of the population. So, actually there is more demand in Canada than the US since they have more players. Geographic size is not relative at all. I will say, as a hockey equipment buyer for a shop for over 30 years, that volume $ purchasing power is everything to the mega online US sellers. They will eventually destroy the smaller LHS in the US. The playing field is not level at all and will continue to favor them. As for the Canadians, maybe the higher expense in gear is offset by the cheap price of ice rentals at the rink. In the US, hourly ice time is extremely expensive while in Canada, ice can be rented for a lot less. Before the Torontonians go crazy, I do know that ice in GTA is still at a premium price. So, while it costs more to gear up Canadians, once they have their gear it is less expensive to get on the ice.

Where did you get your numbers for Canadian and American registered hockey players? These are the statistics I've found:

Canadian registered hockey players (2005) = 1 298 000 (Statistics Canada) - Page 30 of the report

American registered hockey players (2008) = 1 911 000 (US Census) - Page 2 of the report

[DarkStar50 679]

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/spo_ice_hoc_num_of_reg_pla_pla-ice-hockey-number-registered-players

I know at the bottom it says wikipedia but ...........

Junkyard's #s look accurate and not that far off what I found. There are not as many players as we would like to think.

[Beflar 53]

Big question would be would you buy say an S19 retail stick for $150 but without a Warranty on it at all? Few reasons for the price ticket on the S19 aside from design and such is from what I have heard is warranty fraud which is why many of the big boys have gone to a direct warranty policy and had retailers put stickers on the receipt at time of purchase.

I would take a 30-50% reduction of price in exchange for no warranty. I would guess most would. We would just research more before buying.

I'm not that hard on my sticks. They mostly break from old age and people stepping on them.

[IniNew 53]

I would take a 30-50% reduction of price in exchange for no warranty. I would guess most would. We would just research more before buying.

I'm not that hard on my sticks. They mostly break from old age and people stepping on them.

At this point, because of the consumers being used to paying top dollar for top sticks, regardless if the warranty gets dropped you will not see a significant price drop on the sticks. No where NEAR %50.

[Beflar 53]

At this point, because of the consumers being used to paying top dollar for top sticks, regardless if the warranty gets dropped you will not see a significant price drop on the sticks. No where NEAR %50.

I agree no where near %50. One of the problems is that they are always making new sticks every year. I would be happy if they made the SE16 for a few years and dropped the price over time...

[eric_legare 0]

Source: USA Hockey

Year = 2009-10

Players = 474,592

Coaches = 55,460

Officials = 28,424

Total = 558,476

I am not familiar with the USA Hockey Registration program (I'm from Canada). The statistics come from the USA Hockey website, where there is a section to register. Their numbers come directly from their website registrations. I assume many beer league players, for example, don't register to USA Hockey. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Far from the idea of creating a debate, I am interested in knowing what is the accurate number of registered and unregistered hockey players in both countries (USA & Canada). To my understanding, your source doesn't include all of them...

[DarkStar50 679]

How do you tally the unregistered players in Canada?

[raganblink 82]

There are a ton of unregistered hockey players. I can think of 500 off the top of my head. Plenty of adult leagues that don't make you register.

[Seven6 0]

I would take a 30-50% reduction of price in exchange for no warranty. I would guess most would. We would just research more before buying.

I'm not that hard on my sticks. They mostly break from old age and people stepping on them.

Some ball companies have started doing it on high end bats this year so I could see it possibly making its way into the hockey industry at some point.

Approximately a 30% savings so far. A $329 bat with warranty and you can get the equivalent quality with no warranty for $199. (Canadian retails)

[Chadd 916]

First of all, you can't tally the number of unregistered players.

Second, that isn't the point of the topic, nor is it really related. Get back on topic.

[kerrigan 1]

Thanks to all for covering various elements that affect pricing. I'll recount my experience from the US from the 1970's on, which will perhaps will add a bit of history. During the early 1970's, yes - that 1970, Koho & Titan sticks, Jofa gear and GRAF skates became available in the US. While Koho / Titans and Jofa were on par concerning pricing with Canadian prices; Graf skates, however, were approximately 25-30% less in the US. Now at that time, Canadian - US currencies were within 5% of each other, but Canada exercised a 28% import duty on foreign skates (Grafs came from Switzerland at the time) that caused that price differential. The US, as part of a mid-1970's trade agreement with Canada, included a provision that matched Canada's import duty of skates and Grafs disappeared from the US market.

During the mid-1980's and thru to the late 1990's, the principal price difference was driven by the exchange rate difference of US-Canada dollars. Though in the mid-1990's, a number of events reorganized international trade - NAFTA and the EU particularly - that resulted in a refocus; that is, geo-economic areas, rather than countries should contribute more to price disparity. Accordingly, one would think that US-Canada would be on par under NAFTA; however, the continued disparity in the exchange rate continued until a few years ago, which meant that prices in the US should have continued to stay well below Canadian prices, which did happen but only to a degree. Canada, during the early 1990's instituted a VAT tax on top the relatively high provisional HST/GST tax rate, which combined had the effect of bring Canada-US more in line with each other. Over the last few years, with the Canadian-US exchange rate quite equal, the differential on the macro level should primarily be VAT, retail distribution agreements/restrictions, regional demand differences and internet restrictions, as summarized:

As to exchange rates? Not a factor with the rates approximately equal.

As to Canada VAT? Adds to Canadian price but NOT charged on exports to the US since VAT is a consumption, not sales or transfer, tax.

As to demand (number of Canadian players versus number of Americans as a%)? Increases the price.

As to Internet restrictions? Greatly increases the cost because it allows manufacturers and the Canadian retail market to go unchecked. Internet restriction result from manufacturer restrictions and internet retailers not wanting the administrative burden of collecting VAT. Also, manufacturers view the Canadian market is a given, whereas the US is a growth opportunity and this results in Canada being taken for granted.

Start adding this all up and you're looking at 20-30%.

Final note: Perhaps it's best to label 'manufacturers' as 'distributors' to get a sense of what is going on. Distributors will always maximize the opportunity to take advantage of trade agreements, regional tax difference, import-export laws (yes, your headquarters in a tax-free zone could be nothing more than a small store front and a server), and also continually attempt to stop the market from achieving price equilibrium, as with 'No shipping to Canada'.