X Mid - Dan Durston

[Mookie]

Apparently Drop have decided to sell the Xmid via Amazon only.... I just copied and pasted this from the Durston Gearheads Facebook page, posted by another user.....

"May be helpful for those outside of Canada/USA:
I've been waiting for the 1P to come onto Drop to allow for shipping to Australia, but with the news that the upcoming 1P/2P stock will only be sold via Amazon (currently with shipping only to Canada/USA, although I've seen that Dan is trying to change this to ship internationally) I've had to place an order via Amazon US and use a parcel forwarding company to send it onto Australia as I have some time constraints and can't wait any longer.
If you create an account with the package forwarding service Hop Shop Go, you can get $15USD off your first order with code WELCOME15HSG.
With express shipping to Australia, you're looking at 220USD (~286AUD) for the 1P via Amazon + 18.60USD (33.60USD - 15USD with discount code, ~24AUD) postage via Hop Shop Go + potentially GST if Customs decides to charge you, so almost the same cost as it would be via Drop anyway.
These prices are based on an estimated package weight of 1kg. There is a calculator on the site for other countries.
Hope that can help someone else."

[Saintpaul]

Thanks Mookie

I just need Amazon to get stock now

[dandurston]

Yes the X-Mid will be on Drop's Amazon store instead of Drop.com now (their decision).

The X-Mid 2P should be in stock on Amazon.com either late this week or early next week. I think it will ship internationally and be a good option. Some might be sent to Amazon.co.au but it might also sell out so fast that they don't.

The X-Mid 1P is in stock on Amazon.com but is USA shipping only (not sure why) so it says unavailable if you are outside the USA. You can order if you enter USA shipping address and use a re-shipping service like MyUS.com.

I am not sure what other Amazon sites it is on. I see it on Amazon Canada and I hear it is on Amazon australia, but not sure because even if it is, it probably says unavailable for me since I'm not in Australia. Does anyone in Australia know?

[warnesy]

I am not sure what other Amazon sites it is on. I see it on Amazon Canada and I hear it is on Amazon australia, but not sure because even if it is, it probably says unavailable for me since I'm not in Australia. Does anyone in Australia know?

Yes it is available on the Australian Amazon site.

[tazzi]

I am not sure what other Amazon sites it is on. I see it on Amazon Canada and I hear it is on Amazon australia, but not sure because even if it is, it probably says unavailable for me since I'm not in Australia. Does anyone in Australia know?

Yes it is available on the Australian Amazon site.

??? The only one I can find is a way overpriced one from a third party seller?

[warnesy]

I am not sure what other Amazon sites it is on. I see it on Amazon Canada and I hear it is on Amazon australia, but not sure because even if it is, it probably says unavailable for me since I'm not in Australia. Does anyone in Australia know?

Yes it is available on the Australian Amazon site.

??? The only one I can find is a way overpriced one from a third party seller?

Could be right there, I could just see it was available for purchase.

[dandurston]

The X-Mid 2P is now back in stock on Amazon Australia. Selling really fast though and may not last to long.

[MissBunnyhead]

Dang missed out - only available for jacked up prices now

[dandurston]

Drop still has about 200 of the 2P to release. Not sure exactly when they'll do that, but it'll hopefully be available on Amazon Australia again, and hopefully will ship internationally from Amazon USA as well.

The 1P is in stock on Amazon USA now. It'll say unavailable when you are viewing it because it knows you are outside the USA, but if you enter a USA address you can order it, so you can send it free to a re-shipping company like MyUS.com and then they'll forward it to you. Drop is working on enabling direct international shipping from Amazon USA so hopefully that'll be up and running in the next few weeks.

[johnw]

The 1P is in stock on Amazon USA now. It'll say unavailable when you are viewing it because it knows you are outside the USA, but if you enter a USA address you can order it, so you can send it free to a re-shipping company like MyUS.com and then they'll forward it to you. Drop is working on enabling direct international shipping from Amazon USA so hopefully that'll be up and running in the next few weeks.

Hi Dan, Amazon US direct shipping already is working, or at least it was yesterday. I have been trying to get a 1P for a while, at a reasonable price, and was actually able to order one yesterday from Amazon US. I've had an amazon.com account for many years, mainly to order Kindle books etc. I also have an amazon.com.au account. Whether that has any relevance I don't know. It seems to know who/where I am regardless of which one I log in to. Anyway yesterday there were 6 1Ps showing in stock with Amazon US. I bought one, presumably leaving 5, but looked online last night with my son and it didn't even come up in the search results. Just now when I logged in to my Amazon US account it now shows temporarily out of stock. All sold? I'm happy that mine has just shipped, hopefully others wanting 1P or 2P can get them soon.

[dandurston]

Nice to hear you were able to get one. They did a small test run of 10 tents allowed for international shipping, which would be what you got. Drop are trying to enable that, but want to make sure there aren't issues before they roll it out widely (e.g. I think they have to pre-pay the tax to come into Australia, but didn't charge the customer, so they may end up losing money to pay that tax). It's not for sure, but hopefully they can sort out any issues and enable that permanently in another week or two.

[tazzi]

The 1P is now available from amazon.com.au (had to search for x-mid or x-mid tent - didn't show up if search was x-mid 1P). $314.55 + shipping - but Prime free shipping is available. The price equates to the AUD converted $220 US + GST. Somewhere else someone posted that shipping is $60 so probably worth considering a prime membership for $59 if you don't already have one.

[johnw]

The 1P is now available from amazon.com.au (had to search for x-mid or x-mid tent - didn't show up if search was x-mid 1P). $314.55 + shipping - but Prime free shipping is available. The price equates to the AUD converted $220 US + GST. Somewhere else someone posted that shipping is $60 so probably worth considering a prime membership for $59 if you don't already have one.

Very frustrating, this seems to change by the minute. I just logged in to my amazon.com.au account and it is now showing in stock for $359-20 AUD including free delivery next Wednesday 24/3 (no need for Prime). With the wisdom of hindsight I should have waited and saved ~$40 plus several weeks delivery time. C'est la vie I guess.

EDIT: Looks like there is actually a $5-99 AUD delivery fee on the AU stock (unless Prime).

[tazzi]

https://www.amazon.com.au/Massdrop-Dan- ... 453&sr=8-1

This is where I saw it - still @ $314.55. Shipping is from amazon US.

[johnw]

https://www.amazon.com.au/Massdrop-Dan-Durston-X-Mid-Tent/dp/B08FXVFKKT/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=x-mid+tent&qid=1616121453&sr=8-1

This is where I saw it - still @ $314.55. Shipping is from amazon US.

That's really weird. When I click your link I get the page below. Confirmed correct in AUD/local delivery once logged in:

[tazzi]

Have you maybe selected Australia only as the location? The one I found was shipping from Amazon US and yours says Amazon AU.

[johnw]

Have you maybe selected Australia only as the location? The one I found was shipping from Amazon US and yours says Amazon AU.

No, I didn't need to select anything. The link you provided is an Australian URL. I simply clicked it and that page displayed immediately as shown.
I then logged in to my account from there, added the item to my basket and verified the details on the checkout screen.

If I go to the Amazon US site I get a different result. Now says $220.00 USD plus $34.27 USD Shipping to Australia (plus GST I presume). Arrives: March 31 - April 12.

[Ms_Mudd]

I read that there may be more scope for product development with the switch up in distribution.
It would be incredible if that means a DCF 1p.
I just bought a TT Protrail Li after learning that dcf xmid only occurring in a 2p- the 2p is fine but waaaaaay too big for most places I wanted to pitch it.

Had a tops night in my xmid 1p on Thursday night,arrived and set up in dark and rain, slept cosy through storms all night, woke up at 0600 as rain was lightly blowing in my face, closed vent on that side, realised tent floor felt like a water bed from all the ground water, I was dry so lay down snugly intending to get up and get moving for the day. Was so cosy I fell straight back to sleep and woke up 2hrs later, so so much water, had to make a life-raft for my coffee in the vestibule out of a thong. I was STILL dry. Packed up and off I went, go the Xmid!
Sketchy walk out due to flooding, the National Park and commercial accommodation sites evacuated mid morning. Cant believe with that much water on the ground, that my Xmid floor held tight, even with lazy sleepy me snoozing away on my ccf inside/putting pressure on floor to ground.

[tazzi]

Have you maybe selected Australia only as the location? The one I found was shipping from Amazon US and yours says Amazon AU.

No, I didn't need to select anything. The link you provided is an Australian URL. I simply clicked it and that page displayed immediately as shown.
I then logged in to my account from there, added the item to my basket and verified the details on the checkout screen.

If I go to the Amazon US site I get a different result. Now says $220.00 USD plus $34.27 USD Shipping to Australia (plus GST I presume). Arrives: March 31 - April 12.

Really odd. This is what I see from that link.

[johnw]

Really odd. This is what I see from that link.

That doesn't match anything I've seen. One for the X Files

[dandurston]

I'll try to shed some light on the Amazon availability, with the caveat that I don't fully understand it either:

Drop has the tents at a USA warehouse and lists them on Amazon USA where they can control the pricing and sort of control the distribution. There are three ways you can get the item internationally:

1) Drop can choose to fulfill the orders to international customers from their USA warehouse. This works and is within their control, but international shipping is expensive because they're mailing individual items all over the world (rather than larger shipments). They did a small trial of this last week with 10 tents and it works but shipping is around $50 USD.

2) Drop can hope Amazon USA selects the item for their export program, which would let it ship from Amazon USA all over the world but with the shipping handled by Amazon rather than Drop. Amazon selectively enables international shipping for items they think are popular enough where Drop can't just turn that on. If the tents are selected for that program then suddenly people all over the world can order and it's cheaper shipping because it's going as part of a larger batch. Someone in Australia buys from Amazon USA and the tent gets shipped on a pallet with a bunch of other stuff going to Australia.

3) Amazon can choose to list the items on their various international sites like Amazon Australia. Drop also doesn't have control over this since Amazon's computers have to decide if they want to stock it or not. That's why it's intermittently available on Amazon Australia. If Drop keeps it consistently in stock then it probably would remain in stock on Amazon Australia, but when it sells out and then returns, it can take Amazon a few weeks to realize it's popular enough that it's worth stocking. That's been an issue with the 2P where it's out of stock and then suddenly available in brief bursts. When Amazon does list it on their international sites they have control over the pricing because they are essentially buying the stock from Drop and selling it. Usually the price is pretty much the same as on Amazon USA but sometimes funny things happen. It could be higher due too import tariffs and taxes, or just Amazon doing something funny. Recently the 1P was very expensive ($5xx AUD) but seems to be fixed now ($3xx AUD).
__________________________________

As mentioned, Drop recently did a test of 10 X-Mid 1P where they shipped it internationally from the USA warehouse. Simple to do but expensive shipping ($50-$60). Fortunately, in the last day or two Amazon figured out that these tents are popular so they have added the 1P to their international export program. So now Australians can buy directly from Amazon USA without using a re-shipping company and with more affordable shipping. It looks like you'd pay $220 USD + $35 shipping and then they're not taking an import fee deposit, so you'd probably have a bill for whatever tax Australia charges when it arrives (unless there is none).

Screenshot here: https://i.imgur.com/oWq892H.png

As for Amazon Australia, as mentioned Drop can't control if the product appears here nor the price, but usually Amazon will figure out that's it's popular enough to stock once it's been selling in the USA for a bit. I'm not sure why they had it for a really high price recently but it looks like they figured that out now. I see it listed for $316 AUD which looks like a good price because that's $245 USD and presumably has free shipping. So it's good to see they have this sorted out and that's probably the best option for Australians now, but if it did go up in price or become unavailable it would hopefully still be available for export from Amazon USA, and failing that, Drop could re-enable international shipping from their warehouse for a bit higher cost.

As for the X-Mid 2P, it takes Amazon a while to figure all of this out. They want to see sustained sales before they start stocking it all over the world. So when the X-Mid 2P re-appears on Amazon USA when Drop releases the next batch (likely next week) it probably won't be in Amazon's export program, and it's hard to say if Amazon will list it on their Australian site. So I think Drop is going to enable their own more expensive international shipping for that launch (but I'm not 100% sure so I can't promise this) so that everyone can order from Amazon USA, and then if it is in their export program or Amazon Australia then it'll also be available via those routes and for a bit less.

[stry]

Thanks for taking the time to give us a helpful explanation Dan.

My approach to Amazon is simple. I don't buy anything from any listing on Amazon unless I cannot find it anywhere else. So far I have had to buy only one item from Amazon. As expected, the charges were exhorbitant and unjustified, but at least I got the item. I check Amazon listings from time to time, but so far have not seen anything that would change my opinion.

I am more than reasonable when it comes to charges. After all, it costs what it costs, and people should be able to earn a living, but Amazon ????

Drop OTH have been great in my few dealings with them over several years.

[dandurston]

I'm not sure what happened with your last experience, but when you buy the X-Mid 1P from Amazon USA they are going to charge the actual price ($220) plus $35 shipping to Australia and then you're responsible for whatever taxes Australia charges when it arrives. The 2P will be similar arrangement when it's in stock.

Screenshot of that here:
https://i.imgur.com/ucDMB2o.png

[kymboy]

I've just logged into my amazon.com.au page.

It has Dan's X Mid tent for $316 plus free shipping from the US

I am a prime member which gives me free shipping on most Australian items and on US products over $49 (I think). I decided to sign up for Amazon, not only because I have the same haircut as Jeff Bezos, but because I get to stream stuff on Prime Video and get free and fast shipping.

Maybe you need to be logged in as a prime member to get that price???

[coimon]

I recently purchased one from this listing as a Prime member and got the same price and free shipping etc.

[stry]

I'm not sure what happened with your last experience, but when you buy the X-Mid 1P from Amazon USA they are going to charge the actual price ($220) plus $35 shipping to Australia and then you're responsible for whatever taxes Australia charges when it arrives. The 2P will be similar arrangement when it's in stock.

Screenshot of that here:
https://i.imgur.com/ucDMB2o.png

I wouldn't complain about that. I haven't bothered to try to understand how the Amazon platform does business, and my sour experiences may well have been due to the avarice of some using the platform.

[cha0003]

I'll be taking my xmid 2p out to the Grampians next week and staying on the tent platform at Bugiga... Is the consensus that cup hooks are the easiest way to set up? I'll take some study extra cord as well (the leftover Lawson 2.5 from upgrading my corners...)

[dandurston]

Last batch for a while is now on sale on Amazon USA and does ship to Australia directly:
https://amzn.to/30nlCff

EDIT: SOLD OUT!

[MissBunnyhead]

Gee that batch went quickly!

[stry]

Last batch for a while is now on sale on Amazon USA and does ship to Australia directly:
https://amzn.to/30nlCff

EDIT: SOLD OUT!

Nice looking pole(s) in the pic in that link. ? ?