You could probably do this - but it would be easiest to buy one in the USA as it's pretty hard to find "travel" adaptors in this country for going to 3 pin, everywhere just sells the from 3 pin ones.
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Apple prices outside US = Ridiculous
- Thread starter RowdyFROG
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Would seem the easiest option. Do you think i pull a student discount from apple even though i live in the UK. I could show them my NUS card! 
Maybe making it that little bit cheaper.
Maybe making it that little bit cheaper.
I think you will find youstill have to pay 17.5% VAT when you bring it back through the customs!
How about if i get my friend to buy it for me? I have a friend in the US who could do this, that way if i get caught they cannot tax me on something that i never bought because it isn't mine!
Can this work?
Can this work?
Somebody mentioned export prices not being high enough to justify the price! Well my PowerMac came from Cork in Ireland and my 17" display came from Holland, before then it was in taiwan or something, so no, export prices from the US are not the Issue, if anything it should be cheaper here! (If only)
I suppose one way of Apple adding to their market share would be to lower the prices so that they are inline with the US.
Keeps them competitve as well.
Keeps them competitve as well.
US Student discounts
I was staying in Tucson Arizona recently with a friend who's a student there. I have just graduated from Uni here in the UK.
I knew the 20GB iPods were cheaper in the US, but thought I could get my friend to buy one at the Uni store with her discount.
As it turned out, I bought it myself in the student store, with the student discount - my friend wasn't even with me - the prices were already discounted.
I got a brand new 20GB mac iPod for £300.00.
That's a quarter off the price here - so I was pretty pleased. iBooks started at about £580 too, and they had PMs, PBs, and iMacs too - and those PowerMac boxes are pretty small to put in a suitcase...
I was staying in Tucson Arizona recently with a friend who's a student there. I have just graduated from Uni here in the UK.
I knew the 20GB iPods were cheaper in the US, but thought I could get my friend to buy one at the Uni store with her discount.
As it turned out, I bought it myself in the student store, with the student discount - my friend wasn't even with me - the prices were already discounted.
I got a brand new 20GB mac iPod for £300.00.
That's a quarter off the price here - so I was pretty pleased. iBooks started at about £580 too, and they had PMs, PBs, and iMacs too - and those PowerMac boxes are pretty small to put in a suitcase...
Re: US Student discounts
What happened when you brought it back here?
Also how come you bought it at student prices without being with a student?
Originally posted by gotohamish
I was staying in Tucson Arizona recently with a friend who's a student there. I have just graduated from Uni here in the UK.
I knew the 20GB iPods were cheaper in the US, but thought I could get my friend to buy one at the Uni store with her discount.
As it turned out, I bought it myself in the student store, with the student discount - my friend wasn't even with me - the prices were already discounted.
I got a brand new 20GB mac iPod for £300.00.
That's a quarter off the price here - so I was pretty pleased. iBooks started at about £580 too, and they had PMs, PBs, and iMacs too - and those PowerMac boxes are pretty small to put in a suitcase...
What happened when you brought it back here?
Also how come you bought it at student prices without being with a student?
Although it's the same here in Germany (+ 16% taxes +15% Apple Germany for various unknown reasons) it's not the price that annoys me the most. It's the fact that you get even less for the more on money.
Look at the iBook: $999 in the US, ~$1300 in Germany. Ok, let's have a look at the software: iPhoto online services. Missing. German Sherlock Channels*. Missing. EarthLink, AOL, Quicken 2003 Deluxe, World Book 2003 Edition. All missing. That's the bad point! Apple should at least give us the same/equal software for our money.
Well, I will buy an iBook anyway. They got me at design
* FYI: There's a nice page with free channels for Germany at: http://www.thomasdingler.de/sherlock/
Look at the iBook: $999 in the US, ~$1300 in Germany. Ok, let's have a look at the software: iPhoto online services. Missing. German Sherlock Channels*. Missing. EarthLink, AOL, Quicken 2003 Deluxe, World Book 2003 Edition. All missing. That's the bad point!
Apple should at least give us the same/equal software for our money.Well, I will buy an iBook anyway. They got me at design
* FYI: There's a nice page with free channels for Germany at: http://www.thomasdingler.de/sherlock/
Maybe Apple has to pay higher corporate income taxes in those countries for the business they do there, and the prices reflect that.
Originally posted by cionheart
That's totally right. That's why I am not complaining about higher prices. I'm complaining about the lower value for money
Anyway, somtimes I think Jobs really don't like Europe very much...
Government regulation maybe? Maybe bundled software isn't really that big a deal? Maybe they haven't been able to get deals with European ISP's? I don't know if Jobs dislikes Europe or not, but it's highly possible he's just focusing on the US market.
Would be nice if you could purchase apple hardware from the states and get it imported at a reduced cost or something.
I think that you will be charged a HUUUUGE customs fee for importing computer hardware into the EU plus the applicable VAT for your country. You bet.
And yes, customs officers realize that you didn't purchase that iBook (with US keyboard layout) in the U.K. before you went to the States.
Hence my last question. Since then i have been looking around on sites that deal with VAT and duty and i have realised it isn't worth it.
Thats why i am asking about a company importing it over here for me instead.
New Zealand Prices...
iBook G3 cd $2,365
iBook G3 combo $3,010
iBook G3 14" $3,445
That's all in New Zealand dollars and excludes the 12.5% tax that is levied by our Government on all goods and services.
But as I understand it there are some analogous consumer taxes in various places, levied in various ways, so let's exclude it for now. It's not strictly a tariff or duty.
That converts back to US dollars (at today's exchange rate) at...
$1,305.47
$1,661.51
$1,901.63
(But in reality you can add that 12.5% on to those NZ Prices, because that's what the consumer will pay).
As compared to Apple store prices of...
$999
$1,299
$1,499
Now directly converting currencies doesn't tell you a whole lot about purchasing power (and the US dollar has better than parity with most others).
But that puts the iBooks at a higher price point in NZ than competing PC laptops by a couple of hundred dollars.
(Excluding the lower-end iBook - I haven't seen a lot of PC laptops around without combo drives recently...)
There are very few Apple retailers and negligible advertising. Which kinda turns specialist Apple retailers into niche "geek shops" that sit some way from the CBD.
(Though I think our retailer here, MagnumMac does a great job).
But, given how much I like Apple products, this is very sad indeed!
And given the cost differential, it makes it even sadder to consider ever affording a 17" lunch tray.
It would be great to see a well marketed product here, with bigger stores and a geek...er genius bar!
iBook G3 cd $2,365
iBook G3 combo $3,010
iBook G3 14" $3,445
That's all in New Zealand dollars and excludes the 12.5% tax that is levied by our Government on all goods and services.
But as I understand it there are some analogous consumer taxes in various places, levied in various ways, so let's exclude it for now. It's not strictly a tariff or duty.
That converts back to US dollars (at today's exchange rate) at...
$1,305.47
$1,661.51
$1,901.63
(But in reality you can add that 12.5% on to those NZ Prices, because that's what the consumer will pay).
As compared to Apple store prices of...
$999
$1,299
$1,499
Now directly converting currencies doesn't tell you a whole lot about purchasing power (and the US dollar has better than parity with most others).
But that puts the iBooks at a higher price point in NZ than competing PC laptops by a couple of hundred dollars.
(Excluding the lower-end iBook - I haven't seen a lot of PC laptops around without combo drives recently...)
There are very few Apple retailers and negligible advertising. Which kinda turns specialist Apple retailers into niche "geek shops" that sit some way from the CBD.
(Though I think our retailer here, MagnumMac does a great job).
But, given how much I like Apple products, this is very sad indeed!
And given the cost differential, it makes it even sadder to consider ever affording a 17" lunch tray.
It would be great to see a well marketed product here, with bigger stores and a geek...er genius bar!
you think the prices for apple products in other countries is exorbitant? I asked my pen pal in south korea how much it was...oh my lord. It's nearly impossible to get a Mac in a country where almost (literally 95+%) everyone uses a Wintel machine. Forget about linux, unix and the mac! Horrible...I'll get run over by a crowd of apple-hating people there!
Actually as i have said before computers at the moment are free from any other tax other than VAT at 17.5% but all i am saying is if anything goes wrong shipping back and Forth to the US can prove costly!
That's a good point Melchior
My only "hassle" with UK customs has been when I have deliberately ASKED to pay duty on equipment brought into the UK for friends - once for a laptop, and once for a high spec video camera. Because both friends were going to claim VAT back though there own companies anyway.
Interestingly both occasions were after early morning flight arrivals ~6am, and coincidently they were with the same customs officer - yes he remembered me trying to declare before
After spending nearly an hour rifling through the duties books for the correct categorisation (not to mention keeping my wife & baby and parents waiting in the arrival hall), the officer basically hinted for me to not waste his time next time. Since then I have brought a laptop, digital camera or portable DVD player on most trips and NEVER had any problem. More to the point I haven't had a guilty concience as I have walked through the Nothing to Declare channel ! But there again that is just my experience...
Andy