Small Astro-Biz

We're a small business! Scratch that, we're a downright teeny tiny business. Ok, it's really just me most of the time. I'm Darren, nice to meet you!

I started this business mostly by accident, but I love meeting all of you and I want to keep doing it. I love astronomy and astronomy people (if you've been caught on the phone with me for any length of time you may have realized this) and this little venture is a way for me to (hopefully!) combine my love of the cosmos with a way to make a living. I've been working hard in the background to try and bring as much value as I can to my customers (you, if I'm lucky!) and part of that for me is to be as upfront as possible with how this thing works so that you can make an informed choice about whether I'm the kind of person you'd like to support with your astro-bucks.

Price Matching

(If you just want the details and don't want to learn how the sausage is made, see the bold text below. If you want a peek behind the curtain and an exhaustive and seriously quite long explanation of the dollars and cents of our business then see "How We Make Money" from the top Navigation Bar underneath the "Price Matching" heading)

We will beat any advertised price, by 10%, from any Authorized Canadian Dealer of any products we carry, unless we run up against our base cost (in these cases we will advise you of the maximum discount we can offer). The dealer must be located in Canada and be an authorized vendor of the product in question. The product from the vendor being matched must be in-stock and ready to ship, it cannot be back ordered or special order.

So you've done some research and found the same product for less from one of our competitors, and would like to support our small venture? Send us an email with a link and start a conversation. Exclusions apply, such as clearance pricing holdovers from holiday stock buys, bankruptcy liquidations, etc. The vendor you are asking us to match has to have the actual product in stock, as we need to price match something you can actually purchase: not just numbers on a website.

Are you purchasing from the USA or Internationally? We will still honour this policy, with regards to Canadian dealers only. As we are the exclusive distributor for Fornax Mounts in North America, this policy isn't relevant to Fornax products. (Sidenote: If you are located in Europe we encourage you to support your local Fornax dealer or purchase from Fornax directly)

Feel free to price check us. Heck, let us get you started. This list will be expanded as additional options pop up.

The following dealers stock products from William Optics and/or STC Optical Filters (exclusively distributed through William Optics):

• All-Star Telescope
• Astronomy Plus
• Telescopes Canada
• Ontario Telescope
• David Astro

The following dealers stock products from QHYCCD:

• Astronomy Plus
• Telescopes Canada
• Ontario Telescope
• David Astro
• KW Telescope

The following dealers stock products from Astronomik:

• Astronomy Plus
• Telescopes Canada

The following dealers stock products from IDAS:

• Astronomy Plus
• Telescopes Canada
• Ontario Telescope

As all our products are purchased in foreign currencies, and the MSPRs and/or MAPs of those products are in foreign currencies, things fluctuate quite a lot as exchange rates change. It's entirely possible that on occasion we wont be able to match a price because the exchange rate was 1:1.35 when we paid for the goods but has since dropped to 1:1.24 or something. But at least this policy is going to save a lot of time looking at exchange rates, combing through my competitor's catalogues, weighing my options, and updating my store's pricing! Lol ;P