SAMcinty@exua.exeter.ac.uk (Scott McIntyre) (03/04/91)
I recently purchased a STE from a company here in the UK, but have also noticed that the going price for my system in the States is about half as much.... The main damage is done, but I am going to be in the market for hard drives, printers, etc, and the more I look at the prices here, the more flummoxed I get! The typical 24 pin printer is about #259 (give or take a bit) which translates to nearly $475!!!!!!! Seems outrageous...especially the hard drives, going price for 40megs is #350, which is nearly $700 US! I know that the Atari ST market is supposed to be big in Europe, especially Germany, so is it possible to purchase things from the Continent without paying customs out the wazoo? I am planning a trip to the us in about a year, should I save up all my wants and get them then and just smuggle them back into the UK? Is there ANY hope for someone like me, a student with a limited income and high computer aspirations? I would appreciate replies from ANYONE who can help, here in the UK or other wise... Oh, software, there's a good one, the typical program like Word Perfect goes for about #250 mail order, which is about $475...I don't think that it can be that expensive in the States!!! Help! Scott . oops
wmagro@firenze.uiuc.edu (William Magro) (03/05/91)
In article <1185@exua.exeter.ac.uk>, SAMcinty@exua.exeter.ac.uk (Scott McIntyre) writes: |> I recently purchased a STE from a company here in the UK, but |> have also noticed that the going price for my system in the States |> is about half as much.... |> |> The main damage is done, but I am going to be in the market for |> hard drives, printers, etc, and the more I look at the prices here, |> the more flummoxed I get! |> |> The typical 24 pin printer is about #259 (give or take a bit) which |> translates to nearly $475!!!!!!! Seems outrageous...especially |> the hard drives, going price for 40megs is #350, which is nearly |> $700 US! Wow! Those prices are outrageous! A 100 meg drive can be had for $399 these days if you look around (that's a bare drive). I sort of remember looking through a UK ST mag and getting excited at the low prices and all the support. Are we thinking of the same UK??? --Bill Magro
mg20+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Paul Greelish) (03/06/91)
Whoa... I've heard stuff about European products being more expensive, but your price quotes are outrageous! Is it some kinda tax thing or something? Things are *WAY* cheaper here. A weird side note: how come imported European software is so cheap here, at least from a good importer? I dunno, maybe it's because we're in a recession... how's Europe doing economically? Would you have to *SMUGGLE* stuff back from the States? What if you mail-order it? Is there some kind of import tax? ______________________________________________________________ |\ /| | \/ | ike Greelish Carnegie Mellon U. undergrad, professional writing major quote: "The brain cells, they canna take the strain!" ---me stupid disclaimer: My opinions have been known to piss people off.
exspes@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P E Smee) (03/07/91)
In article <4bp2=jK00WB0QQG2VJ@andrew.cmu.edu> mg20+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Paul Greelish) writes: >Whoa... I've heard stuff about European products being more expensive, >but your price quotes are outrageous! Is it some kinda tax thing or >something? Things are *WAY* cheaper here. The apparent exchange rate for computer stuff is about 1 dollar equals 1 pound sterling. British prices do include their analog of the sales tax, which is about 15%, which accounts for some (but not much) of it. >A weird side note: how come imported European software is so cheap here, >at least from a good importer? The software companies *claim* that it's because the US market is so big that they can take advantage of economies of scale which they can't use in their own countries. (If this is true, I'd expect the common market act to drastically cut European prices, come '1992'. I suspect the real answer, though, is that they know they can get away with it.) >I dunno, maybe it's because we're in a recession... how's Europe doing >economically? Depends which bit of Europe. For most of Europe, the answer is 'not great, just at the moment'. For the UK specifically, well, you think *you've* got a recession? Let me tell you... >Would you have to *SMUGGLE* stuff back from the States? What if you >mail-order it? Is there some kind of import tax? At the very least, we'd have to pay our sales tax (15% in the UK). In some countries, duty might be charged as well. The biggest problem with 'unauthorised imports', though, is that the software might not work, and there'd be no-one to turn to for support. Examples, European ST keyboards use (slightly) different scan codes than US ones -- or at least, mapping of scan-codes to letters, since European keyboards are laid out differently. Also, ROM identifiers tend to be different, which can screw up stuff which checks things like that, either for protection or for modifying it's behaviour. US wordprocessors usually don't support (for example) the British 'pound sterling' currency symbol. There are lots of potential such annoyances. -- Paul Smee, Computing Service, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UD, UK P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk - ..!uunet!ukc!bsmail!p.smee - Tel +44 272 303132