Cheap CDs

vjoc

Frustrated at paying prices of up to €25 for the latest compact disc releases in Ireland, new figures suggest punters are increasingly using the Web to buy music cheaply or download it for free.

www.cdwow.ie , is now generating annual sales worth between €6-10 million from Irish consumers. CD Wow, which is estimated to have generated revenues worth about £100 million in 2003 and employs about 100 staff.

Hong-Kong-based CD Wow, has set up a host of European websites offering CDs and DVDs at a fraction of the cost of a typical high-street store. Attracted by discounts of up to €10 per item, thousands of Irish punters are buying from the firm. Most have learnt of the website by word of mouth as the firm does not spend on advertising. Even greater savings can even be made by ordering CDs directly from CD Wow’s Hong Kong site. www.cd-wow.com.hk

vjoc

I Purchased Body Language by Kylie last week:

HMV - € 17.99
CDWOW.IE - € 11.99
CDWOW.HK - € 8.44 (HK$ 83.99)

Well worth going to the Hong Kong site for more savings and still free postage and packing.

Tom Dunne

I find it incredible how companies outside of Ireland can also jump on the Rip off Ireland Bandwagon.

Why is the Hong Kong website price cheaper than the Irish website price? Over on the mobiles/PDA forum, there is an English website being discussed, Expansys, that has just opened an Irish version of it's website.

And you've guessed it - the prices are more expensive on the Irish website than on the English website (when you convert from Euro to £).

sprogman

Well Expansys aren't cheap by a wide margin...
Rip Off Ireland strikes again...

Check:
www.dsl-warehouse.ie
have much better prices....

Ripwave

Originally posted by tom dunne
Why is the Hong Kong website price cheaper than the Irish website price? Over on the mobiles/PDA forum, there is an English website being discussed, Expansys, that has just opened an Irish version of it's website.

And you've guessed it - the prices are more expensive on the Irish website than on the English website (when you convert from Euro to £).

UK VAT is 3.5% lower than Irish VAT, for a start.

I don't know why people bother with UK sites at all. Deliveries from the UK are horrendous, in my experience - the Royal Mail must spend a fortune just storing stuff before they deliver it - I know An Post aren't sitting on the stuff for 2 weeks. If you want stuff with fair Euro prices, you have to look further into Europe.

Ripwave

Originally posted by sprogman
Check:
www.dsl-warehouse.ie
have much better prices....

I've never found anything at DSL-Warehouse that wasn't cheaper at an Irish site like www.elara.ie when you take delivery into account.

Even compared to Expansys, DSL-Warehouse charge more for a DSL-604+, for example, and more for shipping.

Expansys.ie €190.27 + delivery = €199.95
DSL-Warehouse.ie €196.21 + delivery = €213.84

Elara.ie is an Irish company, and you can get the same item from them for:
€191.48 + delivery = €202.32
(Or pick it up and save the delivery charge, if you're in Dublin).

(Note that these guys aren't just ripping off the Irish. If you check Expansys's other Eurozone sites, they're charging them the same "double VAT" as they are charging us).

Tom Dunne

Originally posted by Ripwave
UK VAT is 3.5% lower than Irish VAT, for a start.

When a European retailer is selling to a European customer, the business has to charge the VAT rate of the purchaser's country. Both Amazon and Expansys have to charge 21% for Irish customers (as do all retailers).

I disagree with what you say about delivery.

Look at Amazon.co.uk, for example. I got Lord of the Rings (the first one) for something like 14 Euro including shipping before Christmas. I also got a Gameboy Advance game for 17 Euro (again including shipping). And I have bought countless CD's that still work out cheaper than here, despite the cost of delivery.

Expansys use FedEx for delivery within the EU, and they do charge quite extortionate rates. However, despite that, I have found them cheaper than buying here (I have ordered several unlocked, SIM-free phones off them, can't comment on Routers and the like).

Ripwave

Originally posted by tom dunne
When a European retailer is selling to a European customer, the business has to charge the VAT rate of the purchaser's country. Both Amazon and Expansys have to charge 21% for Irish customers (as do all retailers).

European retailers only have to charge Irish VAT if the expect to do more that €35,000 of business with Irish Customers.
http://www.revenue.ie/pdf/info8_01.pdf

(dsl-warehouse, one of the UK vendors with a .ie website mentioned in the pst I was reply to, explicitly quotes UK VAT on its it .ie prices).

I disagree with what you say about delivery.

I said two things about delivery, and you didn't contradict either of them. I said that Royal Mail is atrocious for delivery. If stuff is sent as ordinary mail from the UK, then in my experience, delivery is hit and miss. (I'm still waiting for two packages that I ordered before christmas).

I also said that, when you include delivery, DSL-Warehouse is more expensive than buying the same stuff from an Irish vendor. I was responding to the suggestion that DSL-Warehouse is "cheap", not that ordering from the UK is often cheaper than buying here.

Expansys use FedEx for delivery within the EU, and they do charge quite extortionate rates.

I lived in the US when the whole online retailing thing took off, a couple of years ago. I was very conscious of the fact that there was already a culture of mail order in the US, and that delivery was fairly reasonable. We never had that culture of mail order here, and the whole issue of delivery of packages is a little bit more problematic than it was there (for a start, our postmen in suburban areas don't normally use a van to get around, so anything bigger than a padded envelope requires special handling, which slows things down, and increases the cost). That leaves couriers and the private delivery services, which are more expensive in Europe. We haven't benefitted from the "Amazon effect", where a single huge vendor was doing so much business that they could negotiate lower rates for courier type delivey, and therefore set a lower threshhold that other vendors were driven to match.

sprogman

I admit that www.elara.ie are quite good on prices - never said otherwise.. but Expansys is a ripoff...

Compare Prices of the Linksys BEFW11S4 Wireless router:

www.dsl-warehouse.ie Cost €64
Delivery: £10

Expansys
Cost €142
Delivery: €6

www.elara.ie
Cost: €79
Delivery: €9.00

The prices speak for them selves...

Sprogman

eclectichoney

is it just me or have they put the prices up on all cdwows??

if you go into the prerelease section they are not 15.95 euro or 9.99 sterling

i *hope* this is a mistake.....but i dount it why have cdwow put up their prices??

Mossy Monk

OUTKAST - Speakerboxx/The Love Below (2CD) is €10.81 as is 17 other titles from their top 20

the most expensive is
ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - Lord of the Rings: Complete Trilogy at €14.89

cheapest is
ROLLING STONES - Forty Licks at €8.56

still not bad prices

bonkey

Originally posted by eclectichoney
is it just me or have they put the prices up on all cdwows??

if you go into the prerelease section they are not 15.95 euro or 9.99 sterling

i *hope* this is a mistake.....but i dount it why have cdwow put up their prices??

There's an article on www.theregister.co.uk about it. CD-Wow have backed down in hte face of potential litigation and agreed not to "import" CDs into Europe from Asia, thus taking advantage of the differential pricing.

Strike one for the bad guys.

jc

kmart6

This has been posted so many times:(

Dr. Dre

Originally posted by kmart6
This has been posted so many times:(

As many times as you posting in the humour board "LOL" etc.. ?
Or as many times as you telling us every feckin' song you're listening to in the music board ?