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bigway

New jumpers- Kit Hire

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Okay, I know some jumpers in Australia, when they start jumping they have to hire kit, and a jump with gear hire can cost about $120 Australian dollars.

So they probably do about 20 jumps with kit hire and then try to buy gear. Straight away that would be about $1000 Australian dollars in kit hire for 20 jumps approx.?

Then they buy gear and wait up to 3 months on average for their kit to arrive. Maybe they do a total of 50 jumps with kit hire, making them spend about $2500 Australian dollars on kit hire.

So I know some dropzones in the states when you buy a rig give you an option that you can use their kit hire for free saving a fortune. It seems something like this in Australia would save MEGA dollars.

My business Karnage Krew has been dealing with alot of newbies in the sport for a few years now and I have just formed a company with a backer. What I am trying to find out here by general response by new jumpers is if there is a market for a company that offers you a rig to loan straight away off AFF all for the price of comitting to buying a rig within your first 100 jumps.

I am not asking this so much for americans opinions because gear is cheaper in the states than anywhere and there is more of it and there are already places that do this, but i am still interested to hear by result of poll what you spend on gear rental.

What I am thinking is a person comes off AFF and does about 10 jumps on the rigs at the club, then they get a loaner rig either while they wait for their new rig to be made or they get a loaner rig with the commitment of a down payment towards a new rig when they have got in the groove and know what rig will be financially vaible as in sizing to purchase outright. If they were to buy a brand new rig, then it seems like it would make it very viable and it would get more good quality second hand gear on the market as buying a second hand rig and paying for gear hire could be the same price as buying a brand new rig with free gear rental.

I get the feeling that in Australia you would save thousands as $50 to hire gear per jump is huge from my understanding.
My prices are already pretty damn cheap and i get good steady business but i am trying to find out from this pole if the system that companies like Square 1 do in America would be something worth doing in other countries.

yes I know there would be lots of expenses in maintaining the rigs but as a dealer it would be cheaper and I am also sure that there are a couple of companies that would want their rigs to be the loaner rigs exclusively, meaning that maintaining the rigs could be alot cheaper than you would first think, especially if you had a rigger on the books.

I understand there will be people quick to put the idea down, there will also be people who love the idea and some that might feel threatened by it, but I would ideally like to hear good and bad criticism towards it and not just from the regulars that are on the 'always buy second hand' bandwagon as new jumper do buy brand new gear, even after spending three months telling a certain customer that buying a brand new 190 rig is not a great choice as it will not be financially viable as they will downsize very quickly. But hey, some just dont believe you.

I am asking this for business research, I am not trying to conduct business in the forums, I am using the gear section for research and as a resource so I do hope this thread is not breaking the rules of professional adverts as it is purely research and I am grateful there is a site like this that can help make decision as such.

God I get nervous posting threads like this, always think I am going to get purely attacked and flamed. I am scared, i should just delete this now.

I would really like to hear from uk, Australian, NZ, and european jumpers who have high tax costs and expensive currency exchanges to buy gear from the USA. The ideal group of responses would be people who have around 100-200 jumps in the past 18 months who know the cost of gear and the amount they spent on gear rental and what they wish they could have done. At the end of the day, I want my business to make money, and I believe a good business makes money by giving the people what they want, not telling them what they have to do. So in away I think this could help skydiving keep people in the sport at the newly qualified stage and also put alot of good condition second hand rigs on the market if it makes it alot more affordable to buy brand new in the bigger sizes knowing you saved a couple of grand on gear rental and you will get more money back when you sell your brand new rig as it may only have a couple of hundred jumps on it, rather than your first 190 rig having 1500 jumps on it when you buy it and 1800 jumps on it when you sell it.


.Karnage Krew Gear Store
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What I am trying to find out here by general response by new jumpers is if there is a market for a company that offers you a rig to loan straight away off AFF all for the price of comitting to buying a rig within your first 100 jumps.



That sounds familiar :P

Smartrigs will already do this for new jumpers plus we have program where you can plan your first downsize for a fixed price :)

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My original DZO at gave free rentals once you put a down payment on on used or new gear. If you were buying used, you could pay it off while you jumped it and it was your rig. You just couldn't take it off the DZ. For new gear you could jump any rental rig you wanted while waiting for your gear. (And usually anything you wanted from the rental rack after you had bought something too.)
"Damn you Gravity, you win again"

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buying a second hand rig and paying for gear hire could be the same price as buying a brand new rig with free gear rental.



Buying second hand gear normally means the gear is available very quickly (just shipping time if it is not local, could be immediately if it is local), so you don't need to rent gear for long. I don't see how second hand gear plus gear rental could possibly cost more than new gear without rental.

It does sound like a great idea for those who choose to buy new gear.

Question: what exactly is the poll asking? How much was spent on gear rental prior to acquiring a rig? Or something else? I didn't see an actual question in there anywhere (well, lots of good questions, but none that explained the poll itself).
"It's amazing what you can learn while you're not talking." - Skydivesg

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buying a second hand rig and paying for gear hire could be the same price as buying a brand new rig with free gear rental.



Buying second hand gear normally means the gear is available very quickly (just shipping time if it is not local, could be immediately if it is local), so you don't need to rent gear for long. I don't see how second hand gear plus gear rental could possibly cost more than new gear without rental.

It does sound like a great idea for those who choose to buy new gear.

Question: what exactly is the poll asking? How much was spent on gear rental prior to acquiring a rig? Or something else? I didn't see an actual question in there anywhere (well, lots of good questions, but none that explained the poll itself).



How much was spent on gear rental prior to getting your own first rig, for whatever reason. So many reasons someone needs to rent a rig before they are able to buy a rig, new or second hand.


At the moment we have a couple of rigs that we send out to customers who are desperate to save on gear rental while their rig is being ordered at no charge.


We have some customers who are jumping hard out straight from AFF, Before they buy anything or after they buy something (sometimes they just want to see if the XXX is better suited to them than the XXX) we send them out one of our rigs to use at no cost depending on their situation while they wait for their other gear or decide on what to buy. I dont make them and will not make them pay anything for that as they might 'use' me but really, I find they stick around for their next purchase because of the help and support we showed to begin with.

I am looking at, well actually, what I will be doing is buying eight more rigs and letting jumpers use them as that quick 30-50 jump rig to downsize from the 210 to the 190 they want to purchase, or use it as a rig to jump while they wait for their gear to be made.

I am not and will not be charging people to use our gear. We are currently working with a manufacturer and university skydiving clubs in the uk to get demo rigs out to be shared amongst the clubs, without any commitment of purchase. At the moment we have two demo rigs that will be shared around UK universities for special events and just to try that certain rig and canopy. These rigs are being used by a couple of newbies at the moment and will then be in the UK for the university trail, so with those over there I am looking at buying another half dozen or so to help out those who need something to jump while they wait for their kit to be built or while they try to get through that oversized canopy stage until they can purchase a rig that would be a more appropriate purchase.

Again, not really a USA thing because in the USA you have loads of kit. I see kit being sold here in Australia second hand at prices that are equivalent to me making $1000 profit on a brand new kit. (up until next month, I have stayed away from selling gear in Australia because I thought I would be stepping on toes-But i get alot of instructors calling me latley to see how I can help them out as prices here are insane)
The USA is flooded with gear, not the same as the UK, Australia, ASia, Australia, New Zealand. Good second gear is not as easily found and if it is it is expensive.

A customer cam and purchased a rig off me last week in Oz because the second hand rig he was looking at with 400 jumps on it was being sold for $6000 USD. A Icon, pilot, smart with a cypres 2.
I would sell that for $6500 USD brand new at the highest pricing.


I just couldn't believe the amount of money people are paying to jump gear here in Australia. Experienced jumpers who stop over and dont have their gear with them were paying well over $100 AUD per jump.


.Karnage Krew Gear Store
.

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