Price Rises at Gemini Jets

Inflation has been a serious issue for the World economy in recent times, even when you don't take into account your Prime Minister trying to tank the economy. This has led to price rises everywhere and, although inflation rates in the US have been relatively sedate compared to the UK, Gemini Jets latest releases, announced yesterday, come with a hefty price tag increase attached to them.

Inflationary Pressures

According to the BBC the annual inflation rate in the US has been 3.5% over the past 12 months up to March, which is higher than the targeted 2% rate. Compared to the UK, where the inflation rate has been slowly falling from a high of 10.5% (thanks Liz Truss) to a current 3.4%, that seems pretty low but it no doubt still has a big impact on a lot of people.

---

---

Gemini MSRP Rises

Prices in 400 scale have been charging upwards for several years now and I regularly hear people complain about them - especially targeting NG Models. In the UK NG are priced relatively reasonably and I have found that is often the case in the US too so a lot of the noise around pricing is an industry wide issue and not brand specific. Nonetheless, I noticed that the latest Gemini Jets releases incorporate a significant price rise so thought it worth having a look. 

Gemini have pretty much across the board implemented a $4 price increase between March and April's releases. You can see in the images what impact this has on buying a 737 or A321, or buying a widebody like a 777. Note that these images use the MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price) taken directly from Gemini Jets website.

Overall this rice in MSRP equates to about 8% on a narrowbody and %5-6 on a widebody - so far greater than the inflation rate in the USA.

---

---

Retailer Price Comparison

So far I've talked only about MSRP, which obviously isn't the price being charged by actual retailers. However, to show the difference I've looked at 3 of the major retailers and compared the 737s and 777s in the image above. The results clearly show the price increase:

Note: The Euro prices above include English VAT. Without it they are cheaper 38.80 and 40.45 for the 737s and 48.72 and 49.55 for the 777s. The increase remains the same.

The takeaways from this are:

• Most of the MSRP price rise is being pushed to customers
• Despite Waffle being an unauthorised retailer he is still cheaper than the competition
• ​The Euro prices are even higher because unlike US stores European ones don't have discount codes
• UK stores that stock Gemini are slow to get their releases on their websites and their pricing is high, and all over the place (which is why I excluded them)

I recently had someone say to me that Gemini were viewed as the cheap brand to NG's premium offering, which I found quite funny since I doubt Gemini see it this way. It does however beg the question how these Gemini prices compare to NG's. To answer that I picked a couple of recent non-Ultimate Collection releases and did the same thing:

The takeaways here are:

• NG's general prices are higher at a lot of stores but are now generally only about $5 higher.
  
• If you're in the USA and not buying your NGs from Waffle you need your head examined because his prices are excellent and match the new Gemini pricing

---

---

Summary

The roundup is simply that Gemini have decided to post inflation busting price rises for their products this month. Whether you think that is acceptable is up to you. Price rises are to be expected over time, but for me these seem quite high. It also brings Gemini broadly close to, or into alignment with, NG Models and other brands. That is interesting because frankly my experience suggests that their product is, not always but often, inferior.