The World's Worst Hardware Prices

[Acethechosenone]

oh yeah ? try 13% tax on everything in ontario...and thats been lowered from 15% the last 2 years

anything bought online from US = another import tax on top of that, Canada is the most taxed country in the world, and Ontario is the leader in that department....we probly have a couple of guys sitting around a table thinking how to tax the people to death every day lol

We have 15% tax on everything too but in return we get nothing. Thank God for the highly organized smuggling operations.
CPU hardware is really expensive but the mainstream stuff (anything less than $300) is very competitively priced. On average we pay $50 more than the US unless the demand is really low or their is a shortage and thats not bad for a third world country.
I am talking about Pakistan BTW.

 

[Umagalis]

oh yeah ? try 13% tax on everything in ontario...and thats been lowered from 15% the last 2 years

anything bought online from US = another import tax on top of that, Canada is the most taxed country in the world, and Ontario is the leader in that department....we probly have a couple of guys sitting around a table thinking how to tax the people to death every day lol

-OK, that was BARELY worth quoting....
It makes me ashamed to also live in Canada if that kind of guy/attitude/intellect is assumed to be typical here.
Import duty and taxation is not crippling us by making us pay 2 or 3 times the US value.....we have things pretty good here in Canada!

Free college my arse! its government supported, but that means nothing, cause the privately owned colleges and universities just keep increasing the admissions every year, all the prices keep goin up on everything, book, parking, lab equipment rental, food, cost of living, gas, the government sucks

Free health care is only good to those who get sick anyway....and besides the doctors just dont heal people anymore, just make you come back and wait in line again, you guy at least get healed on the spot cause the doctor wants to get paid LOL

As our health and education systems go to crap, it's likely because of short-sighted dimwits who complain about our horrid lives here and do not support any positive growth and leave only the curiosity of leaving the country in anyones mind....fools that ruin a good thing. Canada was great, it's only problem is those who claim to know and complain about everything, do something about the system or SHUT UP and try not to look the fool.

Instead of complaining here, it might be better for those of you with higher prices to confront your respective governments. The main reason prices are so much higher in South Africa, Bangladesh, EU ect. is due to the exorbitant non-competitive tariffs placed on imports. I can understand a country like South Africa placing a large tariff on a product from another country in which they compete for market like corn or wheat: you want to keep jobs and money. But a high tariff on extremely specialized electronics produced in a handful of countries...? that's just dumb. Blanket tarriffs like this only hurt everyone - the companies exporting products as well as the citizens where the tariff is applied.

For the poster suggesting transporting goods from another country where the goods are sold cheaper, this would be considered a "contra-band cartel", and although that term does sound cool, you would be shut down and quickly find yourself facing some severe legal reprecussions.

WISE WORDS! from someone who knows..... it's all in how the government handles the imports, I have family overseas, I have heard stories from days past of countries trying to place high import duties on products to turn the people back to buying that made at home as it is cheaper than the imported version......can make sense, but only if the country can produce a comparable product for a reasonable price.

 

[Ironnads]

the samsung 226 bw black lcd monitor is more than 600 dollars here - Italy (around 300 at newegg...) ))-;

 

[Achtungbaby]

I was just comparing prices of CPU and GFX cards from My country South Africa with that of the USA

Its not a pretty picture

E6850 - R2599.00 = 382 USD
Q6600 - R2591.00 = 381 USD
QX9650 - R10 143.00 = 1491 USD

8800GT - R3208.00 = 471 USD
8800GTS - R3420.00 = 502 USD (Old G80)
8800GTX - R7523.00 = 1106 USD

These are all current prices as of today 14 Jan 2008

Ya, i know what u mean as i live in Midrand Gauteng, but i was able to get my P8800+ OC GTX for R5,700 which is a bloody good price considering the avg price of hardware here....

 

[Achtungbaby]

I remember once when I was in Abidjan Ivory Coast the cost of a box of 3.5" DSDD floppy disks was $36 USD when they were $12 USD in the Good old USA.
Most third world countries run the government on the duties paid on retail imported goods, often these taxes are equal to or higher than the price of the goods in question.
Don't worry when your income and other taxes are 50% of what you make, import duty taxes most likely will go down.

Third world countries often place higher tarrifs on what are deemed 'luxury goods', this tarrif is then often used to subsidise those export industries that have to compete worldwide, or subsidise 'neccessity' imports from countries overseas since we cant manufacture them ourselves..... However, here in SA it remains a mystery as to where these tarrif fees end up ..... damn politicians

 

[bluephix]

I didn't see any mention of exchange rates here. Approximately a month ago I bought my 8800GT in the UK for 176 GBP or R2428 at an exchange rate of 13.8 then, however today that same transaction would cost R2567. At that price I would have ordered from a dealer in South Africa without having to pay additional import/shipping. For this item perhaps the extreme global popularity distorts the price but I would argue that on the whole currency fluctuations play a part.

I know of one case where a dealer removed an online price list within a month because of fluctuations we've had in the the last month. For some pieces of hardware, we'd be lucky to find a supplier with stock.

 

[Ycon]

I guess youre owned *lol*
Swotd, 1100 bucks for a GTX

 

[nachowarrior]

Instead of complaining here, it might be better for those of you with higher prices to confront your respective governments. The main reason prices are so much higher in South Africa, Bangladesh, EU ect. is due to the exorbitant non-competitive tariffs placed on imports. I can understand a country like South Africa placing a large tariff on a product from another country in which they compete for market like corn or wheat: you want to keep jobs and money. But a high tariff on extremely specialized electronics produced in a handful of countries...? that's just dumb. Blanket tarriffs like this only hurt everyone - the companies exporting products as well as the citizens where the tariff is applied.

For the poster suggesting transporting goods from another country where the goods are sold cheaper, this would be considered a "contra-band cartel", and although that term does sound cool, you would be shut down and quickly find yourself facing some severe legal reprecussions.

I took contraband food into the library when i was in school... I was such a rebel. I understand what you're saying, I was more or less going to look for a loophole that would help both ends of the stick while nothing illegal was happening. the US government has all kinds of programs for small business and that sort of deal and bringing taxable money into the US. or maybe if there was an inexpensive supplier i could work out something by cutting overhead to 0 and lowering the profit margin, i do that here in the US, but i'm not exporting anything. There are so many ways to go about business interactions it's not even funny depending on your target market. Either that or you could take the suggestion you made and just start a massive petition and try to get it changed. Petitions are always good because it takes a specific subject and says "hey, this massive percentage of the public that signed below, hates the way this is done, and we/they want it changed" or you could just take a vacation to the nearest place that has inexpensive hardware and bring back a pc as a souvenir, if you can do that? I dunno. I personally thing it would be worth it with some of the prices you people are quoting... because you could take the money you would normally spend on the pc and just write it off as your vacation fund. see what i'm getting at?
if new pc in country=1200 dollars but vacation to another country=600 dollars and new pc in that country=600 dollars, then you just bought a pc and got a vacation for free...

 

[nachowarrior]

one more quick thought... you also must take into account the economy and the value of your national currency... america's dollar is dropping like a ford pinto off a cliff, without the sense of happiness at the end... I've been watching the cost of living rise rapidly in my area over the past year... so It's getting harder to attain computer parts at the same price for a lot of us due to the fact the cost of living is just plain higher recently... I'm not sure how it is in each of your respective area's, but i know mine is looking more and more grim... I actually had to sell my good pc due to economic effects from our recent and current recession.

 

[drysocks]

-OK, that was BARELY worth quoting....
It makes me ashamed to also live in Canada if that kind of guy/attitude/intellect is assumed to be typical here.
Import duty and taxation is not crippling us by making us pay 2 or 3 times the US value.....we have things pretty good here in Canada!


As our health and education systems go to crap, it's likely because of short-sighted dimwits who complain about our horrid lives here and do not support any positive growth and leave only the curiosity of leaving the country in anyones mind....fools that ruin a good thing. Canada was great, it's only problem is those who claim to know and complain about everything, do something about the system or SHUT UP and try not to look the fool.



WISE WORDS! from someone who knows..... it's all in how the government handles the imports, I have family overseas, I have heard stories from days past of countries trying to place high import duties on products to turn the people back to buying that made at home as it is cheaper than the imported version......can make sense, but only if the country can produce a comparable product for a reasonable price.

I do believe one of our presidential candidates wants to emulate the Canadian tax system. High national sales tax, no income tax. Canadians complain about having national health care, we complain about not having it (like yours to boot) Drives me nuts.

 

[bonorex]

I do believe one of our presidential candidates wants to emulate the Canadian tax system. High national sales tax, no income tax. Canadians complain about having national health care, we complain about not having it (like yours to boot) Drives me nuts.

First of all we do have a high national sales tax but we also have a high income tax as well. I for instance pay around 40% tax on income and it goes as high as 50% (although by that income range you really should have some deductions, tax loopholes, etc.) We do have A kick ass health care system that people complain about but those same knobs complain that its snowing. This is Canada and this is the way we like it. The main difference between here and the States is that we probably spend the same percentage of our tax revenue on Education and Health Care as the Americans do on their military. And for our military we spend about as much as the Americans spend on gun control. DOn't get me wrong, the only reason that we can do this is because our big brother down south would have to go to war with anyone that invaded us and therefore we don't have to protect ourselves cause they will. Thanks...

To stay on topic things usually cost a little more than in the states but our average income is larger and since the dollars are on par we are actually better off. And if your response to this is "ya your income is higher but you pay more in tax", just remember that I can cut my arm off and they'll put it back on for nothing. Pretty sweet.

 

[Shadow703793]

Toms should do an article on the Worlds Worst hardware Prices, seriously. They already did the worlds best hardware prices, so might as well. See:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/12/06/the_worlds_best_hardware_prices/

 

[andrei3333]

Salaries are actually higher in the US than compared to Canada, the reason the average salary is lower in statistics is because their population is like a gazillion times larger and there are more people employed for minimum wage:

Why do you think there is a shortage of doctors here ? A lot of surgeons open their own clinics in the US because they can do it there, but not in Canada, because that sector is government-ran...

One thing i do not understand is why does Canada have to cut its own trees, send them to the US bare, and buy back finished and processed lumber ?

Why do we extract out own crude oil from Alberta, send it to the us for re-manufacturing, and buy it back at ridiculous prices in form of gasoline?

Same with the power plants, we "rent" power lines and buy hydro from across the border...the black out the north eastern in 05 comes to mind

You want to create jobs ? you cant because labor in overseas countries is dirt cheap and its cheaper to ship product from there in a container than to pay $8 (in ontario) minimum wage and follow the hours of operation provided by the ministry of labor..what can you do about this? nothing, absolutely nothing, the politicians are very slow at getting things done...

So dont tell me high taxes here are good and worth it, cause if we saved money on rebuying our own products from the us, then maybe prices would be lower and the higher taxes would not bother people...maybe i am wrong, but thats just my point of view on this subject...