How to pay too much

There’s nothing better than having a hot shower after a sweaty day in the Australian Outback.  I’ve decided to purchase the components to make a portable shower.

The 12V pump was easy.  We have the spare pump from the boat which I’ll install in some type of container.  We have an old 20 litre water jerry can which will be the water reservoir.  The hot water will be produced by an LPG instant hot water heater.  If you’re solo driving in the outback a shower screen isn’t particularly necessary.  It’s unlikely there will be human for 100’s of kilometres and I’m quite happy to scare off the local kangaroos snakes and dingos by exposing my taunt and terrific body.  However there may be times when you’re not on your own where privacy becomes an issue.

There are various designs for shower enclosures and I rather like the design of a folding en-suite.  Quick Pitch in Australia sell one for $555.  That seemed rather excessive and after some online searching  I found a website selling the same folding shower tent for $295.  The retailer was Ironman.  Further searching on eBay identified another supplier (KickAss) selling the same tent for $299.  By now I was getting suspicious, thinking these retailers are all getting their tents from the same manufacturer and re-badging them.  Going to the KickAss website I found the same tent they were selling on eBay for $299 at a price of $199.  Effectively the price range for the same item varied from $555 to $199.

More detailed internet searching revealed the location of the manufacturer.  China of course!  The manufacturer sells the tent at US$30 – 50 depending upon the size of the order.  Minimum order is 10.  The manufacturer will include a customized logo (eg, Ironman, KickAss, etc) with the minimum order.  Therefore for Australian $72 (plus postage) I could purchase a shower tent.  I just need to find another nine private buyers to achieve the minimum order size of 10.

This is what I’ve been considering.  It would be mounted on the trailer roof rack.

It rolls down and folds out to form an open topped box

For me, two things stand out with this research.  The price of the same item can wildly vary; and eBay isn’t necessarily the cheapest option.

However just to show there can be an advantage shopping on eBay consider our latest purchase.  The online 4WD Supa Centre shop was advertising a campfire folding grill and plate at a special price of $44 plus $15 postage.  The same item could be found on eBay for $45 with free postage.  The seller was the 4WD Supa Centre!!  Same seller, but cheaper on eBay.

Obviously it’s not that difficult to pay too much!