Australian equipment price insanity ?

Ben_Binary · Post by **Ben_Binary** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:08 am

The APC40 is the obvious question ?

Its AU$1000 Australian here in Sydney... That is a little more than the US$399 price.

I asked dom in the APC thread a few times about where to buy the APC if your downunder but he ignored the questions...

Its not like Akai/Ableton are the only ones doing the rectal retrieval method.

USA = Apple iPhone is US$99 http://store.apple.com/us
AUS = Apple iPhone is A$719 http://store.apple.com/au

The Exchange rate is about US.80c on AU$1
- 99 U.S. dollars = 121.427695 Australian dollars

Should someone hop on a plane and buy 10 iPhones and an APC40 in California.
Come back to Sydney and make some money off the trip ?

UKRuss · Post by **UKRuss** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:14 am

Because they are all poor. It's a gesture of goodwill.

hereschenes · Post by **hereschenes** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:02 am

I was in the market for a Focusrite Saffire at one stage, and I emailed my local Australian retailer to ask whether they could come anywhere close to matching the price I could buy one from the US for (even with shipping... the difference was in the order of AU$500). Basically all they could do was say sorry, but why don't you think about supporting local business, etc. Well, for an extra $50 I would, maybe, but when the discrepancy is so huge (as you note with the APC) it's a no-brainer, unfortunately. Note that you can import anything worth up to AU$1000 and there's no import duty.

pepezabala · Post by **pepezabala** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:04 am

The Obama administration pays part of the APC for US-buyers. They believe that future wars will be fought on the dancefloors.

Ben_Binary · Post by **Ben_Binary** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:07 am

hereschenes wrote: Basically all they could do was say sorry, but why don't you think about supporting local business, etc. Well, for an extra $50 I would, maybe, but when the discrepancy is so huge (as you note with the APC) it's a no-brainer, unfortunately. Note that you can import anything worth up to AU$1000 and there's no import duty.

Good advice.

Yes I would like to support ... not *fund* ... local business

And who is making all the money then ?

lunabass · Post by **lunabass** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:13 am

i dont get it either. it's bullshit actually.

i mean i can understand that there is a difference and why but it's the size of the difference i dont get.

i can buy an apc40 from nova musik for $399us + $65us intl shipping.
this converts to $571aus
if i buy it here it's $949aus...thats $378 difference!!

i know it may cost more to send here and that demand is tiny compared to the US but an extra $378 just to buy it here is taking the piss.

i'll be buying from nova

Ben_Binary · Post by **Ben_Binary** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:17 am

lunabass wrote:i dont get it either. it's bullshit actually.

i mean i can understand that there is a difference and why but it's the size of the difference i dont get.

i can buy an apc40 from nova musik for $399us + $65us intl shipping.
this converts to $571aus
if i buy it here it's $949aus...thats $378 difference!!

i know it may cost more to send here and that demand is tiny compared to the US but an extra $378 just to buy it here is taking the piss.

i'll be buying from nova

+1

I think they might see Google as an ultra underground hackers utility that only IT professionals can access...

$378 difference is not cool,
Also avoids any early adopters issues when importing stuff.

hereschenes · Post by **hereschenes** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:21 am

Ben_Binary wrote:And who is making all the money then ?

Yeah, I don't get that at all. I guess the local retailers are just doing it for as long as they can get away with it? What's to stop me from buying them from US online stores and undercutting local stores by hundreds of bucks? Although, I'd have to get an ABN and I can't be bothered.

lunabass wrote:i'll be buying from nova

I ended up getting my Saffire from Nova too!

PS Adelaide, woo!

selthym · Post by **selthym** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:38 am

lunabass wrote:i dont get it either. it's bullshit actually.

i mean i can understand that there is a difference and why but it's the size of the difference i dont get.

i can buy an apc40 from nova musik for $399us + $65us intl shipping.
this converts to $571aus
if i buy it here it's $949aus...thats $378 difference!!

i know it may cost more to send here and that demand is tiny compared to the US but an extra $378 just to buy it here is taking the piss.

i'll be buying from nova

The APC is now suddenly a lot more attractive... well it always had been but spending another grand on more equipment wont go down to well at home. I think I might be doing the same. What about a group buy / import?

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:54 am

heres one that actual went my way...

i bought the komplete 5 deal @ 399USD - so that worked out at 500AUD. if i got billed in euros it would have been over 700AUD and would have resulted in a hearty "get fucked".

hardware is one thing, but software price gouging takes the piss even more.

its so fuckin stupid it takes your breath away.

i was in the same position when i bought my virus ti. had it all queued up at more than 2000AUD!!!! less if i imported it from the US. i was in my local store playing with one and when i told the guy what the price i had been offered he matched it there and then. so thats how much margin is on the stuff.

adventurepants_ · Post by **adventurepants_** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:44 am

We have always had a raw deal in Oz.

Theres a few reasons we get charged so much:

Economies of scale. - small population, not as many sales so the importers often dont get price breaks for volume.

Shipping - it does cost money to ship stuff halfway round the world.

but mostly we just get gouged because until the internetz, we couldnt go anywhere else. People used to go on junkets to Hong Kong to buy their electronic stuff.

The only thing to be wary of ordering overseas is that many companies are broken into regional divisions. If you buy an APC, and it fails, you may have to send it to Akai US, and not Akai Oz, as your warranty is not with them. Its worth checking for every company.

adventurepants_ · Post by **adventurepants_** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:47 am

and oh yeah, being charged extra in Oz for downloadable software is angry making.

There was teh Steam debacle a while ago, where Call of Duty 4 cost nearly double to buy from Oz than from the US. But that was about protecting the local distributors. So youre paying to subsidise JB Hifi when buying a game from Steam. When will big business understand digital distribution?

hereschenes · Post by **hereschenes** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:21 pm

adventurepants_ wrote:but mostly we just get gouged because until the internetz, we couldnt go anywhere else. People used to go on junkets to Hong Kong to buy their electronic stuff.

Exactly. Big business wants it both ways... cheap overseas labour to make their stuff, globalization FTW etc, but when it comes to the retail end of the stick they want to pretend like it's 1950 or something.

nuperspective wrote:bought the komplete 5 deal @ 399USD - so that worked out at 500AUD.

Me too... and I can't believe NI had free shipping to Australia! I thought that must have been some mistake. And it arrived in 3 days!

i was in the same position when i bought my virus ti. had it all queued up at more than 2000AUD!!!! less if i imported it from the US. i was in my local store playing with one and when i told the guy what the price i had been offered he matched it there and then. so thats how much margin is on the stuff.

Chilling.

funky shit · Post by **funky shit** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:35 pm

UK gets it tight also.

Ben_Binary · Post by **Ben_Binary** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:24 pm

selthym wrote: What about a group buy / import?

Thats a good idea. How would that work ?

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