Looking at the cost of an EMPEG from SonicBlue in the States compared to the cost in the UK, using todays exchange rate:

US price : £706 inc delivery to a US address
UK price : £910 inc delivery and VAT

It doesn't take a genius to see the difference. I thought EMPEG were based in Cambridge, UK - so why the difference in prices? Is it worth buying from the US?

good question

A friend of mine has been looking to buy at my insistence and was put off by this very difference.

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Steve - 18GB Mk II Sssmokey

VAT makes up the difference?

For the unit my friend was looking at it still appeared that it was the equivalent of £50 cheaper to ship from the US after taking all such considerations into account.

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Steve - 18GB Mk II Sssmokey

The US price is currently a little more favourable than the UK price (US sales wanted a 999 price point, UK sales wanted 899 including VAT). This is far more favourable than most consumer electronics items where a 1:1 conversion is commonplace before tax.

However - if you live in the UK and buy the product in the US, you will have to undergo the follow:

Get someone in the US to order it, or travel there
Pay US sales tax (maybe)
Import the product into the UK
Pay 10% import duty
Pay 17.5% VAT

If you ship the product in, air freight will cost somewhere in the region of US$60-80.

If you bring it in by hand, or lie on the import forms, you might get away with it - but the UK store cannot conveniently forget to charge you tax.

Rob

Yes, but only if you defraud UK Customs & Excise.

Rob

Exchange rates change every day, I doubt sonicblue is going to change their prices every day to make up the difference.

The original post states a difference between the cost of an empeg to a US customer at a US address compared to a UK customer to a UK address.

Now, I love my empeg and the service that they provide and I'm probably skating a thin line here and risking making enemies, but by my calculations this is a difference of about 200 UKP in favour of the US customer when the unit was originally sourced in the UK and therefore makes a valid argument for someone in the UK not to buy if they think they might be being ripped off. I reiterate, this is not my feeling but is something that could be easily perceived by a potential customer browsing the 2 sites.

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Steve - 18GB Mk II Sssmokey

If you browse the two sites you'll see USD999 at the eStore and UKP765 at the empeg store. This "feels about right" at current exchange rates - slightly mismatched, but not by 200 quid.

As I've already said, the difference opens up when you pay sales tax. If the UK customer is put out by this they might choose to complain to their MP.

Note that you also have to pay tax on top of the US price if you live in certain states. This tax is rather less than 17.5% though!

Rob

Yup, doing the sums, it works out at the same price (give or take £2) if I have it imported from the US by a friend and pay all the UK required taxes - and that doesn't include shipping to the UK.

The only other option is to try and smuggle it past customs. I think I would prefer to buy it in the UK... Don't fancy having a latex glove insterted in any of my orifices

The only other option is to try and smuggle it past customs. I think I would prefer to buy it in the UK... Don't fancy having a latex glove insterted in any of my orifices

Never mind the latex glove. It's getting the Empeg in and out of there that's the hard part.




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Tony Fabris

THERE'S ALWAYS TIME FOR LUBRICANT

Murray 06000047
Just increasing my post count

Heh. Anyone see South Park this week?

"Dude, I wish we hadn't sat here and watched that."

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Tony Fabris

Even though I disagreed with earlier posts I was going to sit on the fence over this, but continued debate has stirred me from my complacency again. As I mentioned before, the original post was comparing the cost of purchasing a unit within a country not of purchasing from a different country and importing it. Looking at the US and UK 10GB models I calculate that the US customer gets his/her empeg delivered to his/her door for approximately £127 cheaper than the UK customer. This is, of course, based on the discounted US model, but could still make a UK customer look elsewhere.

I'm not even gonna start on price comparisons for the tuner

[update]Okay, so I've just re-read the original post and it does ask if it would cheaper to import - but I still think my points are valid[/update]

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Steve - 18GB Mk II Sssmokey

Edited by srhodes on 29/08/01 01:58 PM.

We're covering the same ground over and over again. Yes, the American consumer makes a substantial saving over the European consumer (about 200 pounds on the 10GB model). Most of the differential is sales tax. Solution - put up with it or move to America!

Of course that argument has created quite a brain drain from the UK, but that's hardly our fault.

I'm not even gonna start on price comparisons for the tuner

The pricing for the tuner is exactly equivalent both sides of the Atlantic (by today's exchange rate).

USD: 99 (ex tax)
UKP: 70 (ex tax)

USD : UKP = 1.42 : 1

99 / 1.42 = 69.72

In the USA sales tax is likely to be between 0% and 6% where as in the UK it is 17.5%, so that creates a differential. Refer to above.

One last thing you might try - go check the equivalent price of some Levi's or some consumer electronics in the UK and the US. Discover how the empeg store pricing compares.

Rob

> Solution - put up with it or move to America!

Or find a friend who is over there and coming here soon, and get him to smuggle it in for you :)

In reply to:

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One last thing you might try - go check the equivalent price of some Levi's or some consumer electronics in the UK and the US. Discover how the empeg store pricing compares.

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Exactly, that's why they should start paying more for cool stuff like the empeg


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Steve - 18GB Mk II Sssmokey

One last thing you might try - go check the equivalent price of some Levi's or some consumer electronics in the UK and the US. Discover how the empeg store pricing compares.

For me, it all comes down to the price of labor for something. I can buy one empeg 10gb model ($1000) every 70 hours of work after taxes, or around 47 before taxes. That's in a low end, but decent tech paying job, and a location that I could rent a five bedroom house for $1295 a month (And it was rather nice). Compare that to the price of living and such in the UK. While the exchange rate may speak one story, your average hourly rates speak another. I believe this thread had similar insight using Big Mac meals at McDonalds as a good basis.

I had to keep remembering I was on vacation and supposed to have fun when I was in Scotland a few years back. But I kept doing the conversion in my mind for what I was buying and it was killing me to think about the difference.

if you want to escape high taxes in the long term the US would be a bad idea at the rate we are going ours will be just as high

32Gig MK2 In 2001 VW Golf TDI