E-Bay the way for the grey market?

Goedemorgen Euro Sceptics, I bet you are enjoying watching your cousins-across-the-channel squirm under the potential collapse of the AirOh (€)?

It must be a mild distraction to your own financial woes which are still as fragile as the fontanelle of a new born baby.

I’m sure it would be funnier for you all if Chancellor Data (George Osborne) was not diverting your already ramped up taxes to countries that will ultimately steal the rest of your fish and never repay the money you will give out in loans.

What do I mean they will never be paid back?

Well I see that if Geir Haarde, the EX PM of Iceland can get away with sending his banks into meltdown and UK creditors into never, never repayment land, what is the chance of the UK getting money back from throwing more good sterling after bad Yo Yos (€s)? Nothing!

You have as much chance of getting the rest of the war-time reparations paid back from Angela “of mercy” Merkle.

Even if you do give us some of your fishless, rainy, miserable Sterling, we will still give you nil poins in the Eurovision and sell all your Olympic tickets to touts and gambling syndicates from Malaysia.

At least Moaning Merkel got something out of the Germans’ bail-out cash, a summer holiday home called Greece.

To compound matters further for your economic recovery, your supposed special relationship with the US has for many years relied on a special pricing arrangement for high tech products.

This is why the Apple stores in New York are full of salivating, sweaty Brits pawing over the new I’ve-been Had (ipad) 3 or kashing in on Kindles, as the Dollar price and sterling price seem to be the same figures but with a different currency symbol.

The same is true for B2B kit, $3999,99 in the US becomes £3999,99 in the UK, so it’s small wonder that resellers are no strangers to the grey market, especially if they can pick up the same kit cheaper on E-bay or Reseller Bay (Ree-bay) as my new venture will be called. (watch this space Channel Biz)

There are already thousands of SKUs on EBAY and if applied in the right way as B2B storefronts for resellers, it could be something worth looking at from a legitimate distribution standpoint.

Although I will probably get a few calls this afternoon from my vendor partners calling for me to denounce worshipping the grey arts, I will encourage that they look to legitimise these emerging markets or adopt some of their attributes as new ways to help partners and customers find new ways to improve margins and new routes to market.

And for the UK who has been somewhat at the sharp end of technology pricing, resellers could find some excellent deals from European counterparts right now by applying currency arbitrage between the weaker Euro (Air-ho) and the relatively stronger Sterling and I don’t mean an extra pint of San Miguel down at the Rule Britannia Bar in Magaluf!

Who said the Aero (€) was all bad?
Danke Vell

(This week’s column is dedicated to my Vietnamese cousin, Lt. Nguyen Manh Phan, (he’ll jump on your Van) Apparently Charlie does surf!)