Norman and Matt wrote in recently – thank you both!! – with tips that new Bosch 12V Max cordless power tools have popped up on Amazon. Some are available for preorder, others are immediately available.
Here’s the deal: two of those tools are coming to North America. The others seem to be international versions. Buying an international tool from a USA reseller, or a seller willing to ship to the USA, can be risky. We talked about this recently.
Coming June 1st, 2018
The shipping ETA is subject to change.
Bosch 12V Max Cordless Planer, previewed here (shown above)
Buy Now(via Amazon)
Bosch 12V Max Cordless Trim Router, previewed here
Buy Now(via Amazon)
New Batteries
While I had already known about the planer and router coming to the USA, Matt showed me something I was unaware of – listings for new 12V Max battery packs.
They’re priced higher than current 2.0Ah and 4.0Ah battery packs, but reasonably so. Compared to the 4.0Ah battery pack, the 6.0Ah ($89) is priced ~29% higher for 50% greater capacity, and compared to the 2.0Ah compact battery, the 3.0Ah compact battery is priced ~51% higher for 50% greater capacity.
Umm… Resold Tools?
There are several tools that don’t look to be USA or North American releases. My guess is that resellers bought a bunch of the tools from overseas and are selling the tools here. Some might simply be drop-shipping the tools.
Some of the listings are Fulfilled by Amazon, meaning there’s local inventory. But the others – there’s no telling if they actually have the tools in-hand or not. In theory, the seller could order the tools directly to your house.
I don’t think that any of these tools are slated for USA release, at least not in the immediate future. If they were, then 1) they would be sold by Amazon.com directly, and 2) their prices wouldn’t be so inflated.
For example, the visual IR thermometer is EUR 293 via Amazon.de. After the removal of ~16% VAT, adding shipping, and currency conversion, it comes out to $328, shipped. Compare that to a $438 3rd party Amazon.com listing.
As if the pricing wasn’t a good enough clue, Bosch has not used 10.8V branding here in the USA, at least not for a very long time. The temperature range is only described in Celsius, a comma is used in place of a decimal point, and in the product description it says “colour.” New Bosch listings are often properly regionalized, and not simply copy-pasted from existing overseas listings.
You can still order these tools from Amazon.com 3rd party sellers, but you will often save more money ordering directly from Amazon.uk or Amazon.de, where possible. I can’t tell you which is better; will you get better customer service from Amazon overseas, or a reseller here? There’s always a risk when you buy tools not officially released here, and I simply don’t know if ordering via an Amazon.com reseller will lower that risk at all.
Long story short, the new Bosch 12V Max brushless planer and edge router are both being released in the USA, and you can place your order for them now if you’d like. Right now, they’re only listed as bare tool versions. There are other listings of Bosch 12V Max tools released in Europe, and that’s a whole other topic I recently discussed separately.
Thanks to Matt and Norman for the heads-up!