On Sun, Feb 03, 2008 at 09:04:46PM +0000, Peter Flynn wrote: > > When you look at the pricegrabber page for the N810, it lists the sales > > tax (or lack there of). So when Amazon is selling it for 419USD. That > > is what one pays. > But when you import it from outside the EU, your EU entry-point Customs > may randomly check it, and charge you VAT on the invoice amount. Sure. But the original poster was talking about being in the US on a business trip. So they could easily just hand carry the device and have Customs be none the wiser. > > And no, I do not know why there is such a large price differential > > (except for EU taxes). For once, I like being on the right side of > > that difference > It's usually because American companies (wrongly) claim and believe that > Europeans have more disposable income than Americans, when in fact the > opposite is the case. In fact, the historic price differential was down > to Europeans simply not knowing the comparative value of goods because > the choice was so poor. Not so nowadays, but the myth persists. In this case it is a European company that is perpetuating the myth. But US companies like Apple are definitely showing the same pricing differential on their products. E -- Erik Hovland mail: erik at hovland.org web: http://hovland.org/ PGP/GPG public key available on request
