Why do we pay so much?

Gotham

I get an email today from dabs about a 5tb hard drive, I havent bought one in a while so I initially think the price of €169.99 euro is pretty good. Link

So then I just put "seagate 5tb 169.99 euro" into Google and get an American price of $129.99. Link. I do a conversion and it comes to about €116.44.

Keep in mind that I think Dabs.ie does not do free delivery on this product.

I get that there's going to import tax and VAT, but how is it even acceptable we pay 50% more for anything?

Chill, it's just a rant post

NeitherJohn

Don't forget the sales tax on the American site too. Probably won't appear until the checkout.

L1011

Multiple reasons:

Price discrimination. Europeans are used to paying more for electronics than the US so manufacturers charge us more. Its even more pronounced on software. That drive is dearer than the US price everywhere in Europe, not just Ireland.

The US price doesn't have any sales tax on it. There isn't, yet, consistent application of sales tax across state lines.

Dabs are hideously expensive.

MagicMarker

That American site fulfills via Amazon. When I go through the sales process the final amount is €165.

So, err, yeah.

SpaceTime

It's also possible there are different import tariffs applicable in the EU.

Most likely, the device is made in China. It could be zero rated, or it could be subject to some kind of higher tax than if it were imported from China to the US.

Sales Tax in the US is applied at the till too, not added to the product price which is really confusing.

Its TARIC code : 8471 70 50 90

(enter without the spaces and you can go look it up...)

http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/dds2/taric/taric_consultation.jsp?Lang=en

rubadub

L1011 wrote: »

Dabs are hideously expensive.

And there is no offer on Dabs, the US site has 24% off RRP

The dabs one may come with a Irish/UK power supply, and due to economies of scale this can result in quite a higher price. This is why it can be a lot cheaper from EU sites too.