Brits being ripped off again.

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Elliott
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Noticed the new Canon 50mm 1.8 STM was unveiled earlier this week. Priced at $129.

Had a look around various UK retailers and of course it's priced at £129.
 
Is the US price with the state taxes applied?
 
Noticed the new Canon 50mm 1.8 STM was unveiled earlier this week. Priced at $129.

Had a look around various UK retailers and of course it's priced at £129.

For a start, UK prices include VAT at 20%, whereas US prices do not include tax, which is added at time of payment.
 
A quick Google seems to suggest that the state with the highest tax rate is Tennessee at 9.45%. So rounded up to 10% would make the lens $142. At today's exchange rate equates to £90
 
Still cheaper than flying to America to buy one.
 
What's does the cost of flights have to do with it?
Well nothing,really.

What has the price of equipment several thousand miles away have to do with the price here?

Just buy one from the USA and ship it over.
 
Well nothing,really.

What has the price of equipment several thousand miles away have to do with the price here?

Just buy one from the USA and ship it over.

Well, if your happy to pay over the odds for the same product, but I don't see any reason why the UK prices are more than US.
 
However, if you are there on holiday, below £135 is no import duty, just VAT.

By my calcs, that is £99 odds!

Oregon is a lovely place and has no Sales Tax either:p
 
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Not this again!

It's the same with all new lenses. The retailers know that they can charge the MRSP when any bit of new kit is released, safe in the knowledge that there are plenty of people who will pay extra to get the shiny new toy before all the other kids.

After a while the price drops to a level where sensible people (or people who have to buy using their own cash) can get it for close to the same price one would pay in the US. Take the 50mm f1.2 as an example -

B&H Price = $1449 + 8% sales tax = $1564
WeX Price = £1020 (inc 20% VAT) = $1581 which is 1% difference.

But, if you're a pro then you can claim back the VAT. So you only pay £850, or $1317. Now who's being ripped-off?
 
The lens isn't even being listed on Camera Pricebuster yet, so I'd wait and see what the price is in a few weeks time before comparing.
 
In all fairness, I got a wex voucher with £10 off to use with it (it wasn't specific but you had to spend £100 to use it) but I think I'll just wait until it's a bit cheaper or buy it from HK next month, it'll be nice to open it with the 85L, it'll bring the average lens price down within the order!
 
A quick Google seems to suggest that the state with the highest tax rate is Tennessee at 9.45%. So rounded up to 10% would make the lens $142. At today's exchange rate equates to £90

You can't compare prices including tax as this differs from country to country and is beyond the control of Canon. The only fair way to do it is to compare the prices without tax, so removing the 20% from our price which gives around £107 or about $169. Still a lot higher than the US price but not as bad as it first appears.
 
Well, if your happy to pay over the odds for the same product, but I don't see any reason why the UK prices are more than US.

This shows a desperate lack of knowledge of even basic global economics and the kind of mindset that isolates us from the rest of the world. Life ain't that simple and if you don't like it tough.

Put it a different way, would you care to get paid the same figure you currently own but in USD? how about not having the NHS? No, thought not but that's the reality of things - it's about relative affordability not absolute price and each country's economy is set up that way, taxes, public services and cost of goods included.
 
This shows a desperate lack of knowledge of even basic global economics and the kind of mindset that isolates us from the rest of the world. Life ain't that simple and if you don't like it tough.

Put it a different way, would you care to get paid the same figure you currently own but in USD? how about not having the NHS? No, thought not but that's the reality of things - it's about relative affordability not absolute price and each country's economy is set up that way, taxes, public services and cost of goods included.

And what does my salary and the NHS ( which is funded by tax payers, not Canon) have to do with how much Canon charge for the same lens in different countries?

You obviously have the knowledge and mindset that I lack, so p,ease enlighten me.
Actually, never mind, I figured it out. Canon charge more in the UK because of people like you who just accept it and call it global economics.
 
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I figured it out. Canon charge more in the UK

No, you haven't figured it out - because you ignore any facts that disagree with what the Daily Mule tells you.

Canon DO NOT charge more in the UK. The difference in price between different countries is down to two factors.

Firstly, there's the amount of duty and tax that the government charge. This varies from country to country, being fairly high in the EU and fairly low in the US.

Second, there's the amount of discount applied by the vendors (people who sell the gear). In the US there is a lot of competition between vendors - so they apply large discounts from the launch of a new product - otherwise their competitors will undercut them and they will lose sales. In the UK there isn't as much competition. And the retailers have reached an unspoken agreement whereby they sell anything new at the full MRSP - zero discount. This mazimises their profits as there will always be people who are willing to pay this 'early adopter's tax'. Some buy the gear with other people's money, some really need the gear ASAP, some just have more money than sense and others just can't wait to be the first on their block with the new shiny toy and are willing to pay for the kudos.

After this 'goldrush', sales will start to slow, one of the retailers will apply a small discount - which the others will follow. Quite quickly the price drops to around 80% of the MRSP - which is, presumably, where the retailers are just about making a profit. You can see this happening for fairly recent gear at CameraPriceBusters.com - here's their page for the 24-70 MkII. Note how the price stuck around £1800 for almost a year - then dropped down to its current £1400 (a drop of 22%). That's £1170 without tax - which is around $1800 or $100 cheaper than you can get it in B&H in the US.
 
No, you haven't figured it out - because you ignore any facts that disagree with what the Daily Mule tells you.

Canon DO NOT charge more in the UK. The difference in price between different countries is down to two factors.

Firstly, there's the amount of duty and tax that the government charge. This varies from country to country, being fairly high in the EU and fairly low in the US.

Second, there's the amount of discount applied by the vendors (people who sell the gear). In the US there is a lot of competition between vendors - so they apply large discounts from the launch of a new product - otherwise their competitors will undercut them and they will lose sales. In the UK there isn't as much competition. And the retailers have reached an unspoken agreement whereby they sell anything new at the full MRSP - zero discount. This mazimises their profits as there will always be people who are willing to pay this 'early adopter's tax'. Some buy the gear with other people's money, some really need the gear ASAP, some just have more money than sense and others just can't wait to be the first on their block with the new shiny toy and are willing to pay for the kudos.

After this 'goldrush', sales will start to slow, one of the retailers will apply a small discount - which the others will follow. Quite quickly the price drops to around 80% of the MRSP - which is, presumably, where the retailers are just about making a profit. You can see this happening for fairly recent gear at CameraPriceBusters.com - here's their page for the 24-70 MkII. Note how the price stuck around £1800 for almost a year - then dropped down to its current £1400 (a drop of 22%). That's £1170 without tax - which is around $1800 or $100 cheaper than you can get it in B&H in the US.

I don't read the daily mail.

The prices being banded around at the moment have nothing to do with individual retailers or discount. The prices are the RRP announced by Canon.
I understand that many people will buy at the launch price and I understand that prices will, more than likely, drop in price.

My gripe is the disparity between RRP here and in the U.S.
I'm sure that import duty plays a small factor, but I can't believe it would be by such a large margin.
 
and it's not just the UK vs US - look at the massive variations you get between Amazon sites in the UK vs Germany / France / Spain etc. When I was looking for my 16-35 lens Germany was much cheaper until the Spring Cashback came along then the UK was once again the cheapest.

Sometimes, it is the UK as the cheapest from the off. sometimes it is the US/Europe
 
Let's ignore tax etc for the moment and talk about relative affordability and why your salary and the currency it is paid in is important.

Say (for ease of calculation) someone earns £10k here in the UK, it would be tempting to think that in America they would get the dollar conversion and earn $16k but it doesn't work like that. You will get paid around $10k for the equivalent job.

So £1 = $1 in terms of relative affordability.

This is why and ideal situation for me would to be an expat in Switzerland as I'd get paid Switz salary which is higher than in the UK but I would be based in the UK so everything is relatively more affordable.

A simple comparison is that Toblerone is cheaper in the UK than it is in Switzerland, is that fair on the Swiss considering it is made in Switzerland? Of course it is because they get paid relatively more.

Now, you could argue that the Swiss pay more tax too and that would affect the affordability which may but a contributing factor and also why global economics is important.

What you think matters little to me but it strikes me that you can either go around playing the victim all the time or try and understand the reasons and get on with life not feeling like a victim. I know which is rather do.
 
My gripe is the disparity between RRP here and in the U.S.

Er, why? Nobody pays the RRP in the US or here (on everything except new gear). The RRP is irrelevant. All that matters is the price that retailers charge. And, ignoring the early-adopters tax, we are cheaper than the US in most cases.
 
The RRP is irrelevant. All that matters is the price that retailers charge. And, ignoring the early-adopters tax, we are cheaper than the US in most cases.
What he said.

The big difference is that UK retailers seem to charge an early-adopters tax and retailers in other countries don't.

It would be interesting to find out how/why this happens. The UK market is very competitive generally, and UK prices are usually lower than US prices for mature products. I doubt very much there is active collusion between retailers to charge RRP on newly introduced items. Maybe they've simply realised that there are people out there who want to be the first kid on the block with the latest toy, regardless of price, and it's not in their interests to cut prices from the RRP until these people have filled their boots.
 
I'm sure that import duty plays a small factor, but I can't believe it would be by such a large margin.
There's more than just VAT and import duty.

There's also the overheads of running the local operation - salaries, social security costs, rent&rates, energy, transportation, marketing, cost of FX hedging, the Transfer Pricing policy adopted by the tax authority of the country, cost of financing the local operation (including tax deductibility of the interest or equity cost)...
 
The big difference is that UK retailers seem to charge an early-adopters tax and retailers in other countries don't.

It would be interesting to find out how/why this happens.

It would be very interesting. It must be tempting for one of the smaller retailers to break ranks with the 'cartel' and to knock 10% off the RRP at launch. I'm sure they'd get a huge rise in order numbers, possibly enough to offset the losses from discounting. The only thing I can think of that might work against them would be if Canon rationed the supply of new gear - giving the big retailers more new stock than the smaller guys. Then the cartel-breaker wouldn't have enough stock to supply all their potential customers.

So I guess people like me (I would so much like a 7DMKII and 100-400 MkII) are just going to have to accept the choice - wait 8 months and save £500, or buy it now.
 
There's more than just VAT and import duty.

There's also the overheads of running the local operation - salaries, social security costs, rent&rates, energy, transportation, marketing, cost of FX hedging, the Transfer Pricing policy adopted by the tax authority of the country, cost of financing the local operation (including tax deductibility of the interest or equity cost)...
What local operation are you referring to?
Do we also assume that the US does not have this operation that needs paying for?
 
What local operation are you referring to?
Do we also assume that the US does not have this operation that needs paying for?
The local operation that purchases the goods from the parent company and imports them to the local market and distributes them. e.g. Nikon UK.
The US does, of course, have these operations but the costs of them will vary greatly from country to country. Is this not obvious? :thinking:
The US, in particular, benefits from low transportation, energy, salary and social security costs - largely due to tax reasons.
 
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