Card prices in Britain!

[kid A]

Originally posted by recombinant:

I went into Game the other day, a Creative GeForce 2 Ultra was.... wait for it... £439.99!!! WHAT!!! The price sticker even said "Nobody beats us on price" What a joke!

Now that is expensive.

That same card costs about £410 over here in Norway - it's not much cheaper but better.

What does it cost in the US?


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Now listening to:
Death In Vegas - The Contino Sessions

[DaveO]

I work for a UK company that has a (small) hardware division and the cheapest we can get a GF2 Ultra for (without buying lots of 10,000) is around £290 + VAT (~£345). Once you add shipping and profit onto that you can see why it turns out at £400.

When you think American end-users can buy as cheap as we can, and almost as cheap as larger companies then ourselves, there's got to be something seriously screwy going on.

Before you ask, the answer is, unfortunately, "no". I can barely swing getting my own gear at trade these days...

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What does this button do?

[litdestroyer]

If I had a friend in USA that I 'd like to bother, I 'd have all my system shipped. If I add 70$(for shipping) to the price of a GeForce2 GTS, I still pay it half than the local price....

[Triton]

Originally posted by Dectek:
I just did a little experiment to see if I could help. I just set up for a 2lb package measuring 12x15x3 inches to be delivered to the UK from Atlantic city N.J. usa through UPS. I thought that I may be able to purchase a couple things that you needed and ship them to you for a fair price ( ie. me making no profit). BAD NEWS 68 US dollars. I will try using federal Express and The United States Postal Service and post back with my findings.

Originally posted by Dectek:
fed ex $45 USPS $16

Originally posted by Triton:
And since the shipping fee when ordering from, for example, the US, is so high, in the end, you don't win on it. And besides, there are the risks what happens if the thing doesn't work.

See, those shipping fees are horrible! What are they doing, hiring a privat jet just for my package? Ok, I might exaggerate a bit, but you get my point.


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The major part of our exports goes to foreign countries. - George W. Bush.
There you have your new president, USA!

[Un4given]

Originally posted by kid A:
Now that is expensive.

That same card costs about £410 over here in Norway - it's not much cheaper but better.

What does it cost in the US?

That card is about $430 USD. I don't know what the conversion rate is, so you'll have to figure that one out.

As far as why so much of this stuff is cheaper in the US, there are many economic factors, and isn't necessarily that the card manufacturers are trying to yank your chain.

First, lets start with wage comparisons. Being right next to Canada, I know things are more expensive there, I also know they make more money for the same job here in the US.

Import fees. Depending on what they charge manufacturers to bring products in, that can substantially raise the end price.

Competition can play a major role. We have so many online, retail, and mom n' pop shops around, that competition drives prices down.

One other thing I can think of is simply this. A lot of the major manufacturers are in Taiwan, and several are here in the US, but almost ALL of the Taiwanese companies have an office here in the US. Why do you think Guillemot (sp?) purchased Hercules; yes I know their not a Taiwanese company, it's just an example? They wanted a company that was already set up in North America. They got name brand recognition with the Hercules purchase, but with the Internet, how many people haven't heard of Guillemot and their video cards? It costs less to do business in a country where you have an office.

[Ironbar]

First, lets start with wage comparisons. Being right next to Canada, I know things are more expensive there, I also know they make more money for the same job here in the US.

Well.. somethings yes and some things no. Gas is more expensive, although no where near as expensive as in europe... haha. But tons of things are cheaper here (Canada). There was a big discussion on /. about the price of adsl and cable comparisons, it generally costs the equivalent of $23-26 USD a month. But in the states it seems to be anywhere form $35-80 or even waaaaaaaay more. And the average wage difference is like $600 a year so no biggie there. It's really the taxes that are the killer. But that's why alot of the sticker prices tend to be lower in Canada. People don't realize that if taxes are lowered they really won't have any more money. If taxes go down 10% prices just go up another 10%.. or there abouts...ehem..aboots.

Import fees. Depending on what they charge manufacturers to bring products in, that can substantially raise the end price.

For sure that's what most of it is. Europe is well... damn socialist, even more so then Canada and they love taxing the poop out of everything.

[kid A]

Originally posted by Ironbar:

For sure that's what most of it is. Europe is well... damn socialist, even more so then Canada and they love taxing the poop out of everything.

So true, so true...


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Now listening to:
Death In Vegas - The Contino Sessions

[Ironbar]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by t@xman:
[B]What really gets my goat though is the fact that they appear to do it for no other reason than the fact that they know we'll put up with it. The whole bleeding situation is incredible! How can it be cheaper to buy a British built car, with British spec and a better than British warranty in france or Belgium???? even after import duty and registration!

Haha...this is funny cuz i'm not getting the pointy end of the stick. Still I had a few relative over (to Canada) from Germany a while back. And they were mentioning how big a problem car theft is over there. Cars are stolen then smuggled into Poland and the Ukraine etc. Well... funny thing. Canada has one of the highest (if not THE highest) non-recovered car theft rates in the world. Huge country little policing and import/export customs inspection, weak (as in non-existant) anti-racketeering laws blabla.. They're favorite target is of course Mercedes. And what is done with the cars when they're stolen? Shipped to Poland of course. Now something is seriously messed when it's cheapper to build a car in Germany, stick it on a boat and ship it to Canada, steal it, go through the trouble of finding/stealing fake tags for it, loading it in a sea crate and shipping it back over to Poland and then selling it for a reduced price. Because obviously the buyer knows it's stolen. Cheaper then building it in Germany putting it on a truck and driving it to Poland... like um.. ***? And everyone along the way on the criminal side is marking these things up like huge $$$.