Why do Graphics card prices in UK suck so bad?

[Double07]

It's far from being just graphics cards, it's pretty much everything these days! Oh and even if customs inspect it its still hit or miss if they bother charging you.

I had two seperate packages opened recetly and was only charged customs duty on one even though they were both the same thing with recipts clearly showing they were commerical products. Just your luck if you get a jobsworth that charges you or someone who couldn't give a you know what and just wants to get through his boring day at work

 

[wazza300]

It would have to be marked as worth only £15 (So you only be able to insure it up to £15 ) if i understand the bottom line right..

yeah thats right either "gift" or low "value"

i had a sapphire 5770 sent over but the customs spotted it,i paid import fees and still worked out cheaper,other stuff mainly from china/japan havnt been spotted

 

[Tonester0011]

I'm fully content in paying more irrespective of costs in other countries. That's the price, don't like it, don't pay it.

 

[Tonester0011]

its known as rip off britain for a reason, most expensive in europe for everything and the most underpaid sadly.
Until the english people stop bending over and saying "yes sir 3 more times sir thank you sir" it will always be like this, and i cant see the english people growing balls anytime soon.

Pure conjecture...

 

[gurusan]

The yanks get charged tax on those prices,but as each states tax is different they do not list it . But it still does not account for the whole price we pay

You only need to pay tax on online purchases from the same state. Also I live in Oregon so there's no sales tax at all.

500 dollars is still way too much for a video card though.

 

[ViRuS2k]

I remember back in the day when AGP cards where priced very high becuse of there technology, now we are on to smaller dies and pci express and still we are paying just as high a price lol

world economics has gone **** up and its us buyers that are paying for it now, JUST SAY NO AND STOP BUYING they will get the hint. but we UK folks are dumb lol

 

[Raikiri]

This is something I would really like to know, right now a GTX 680 in the US of A will set you back $499 delivered. That's £311.63 in our currency.

Why then do we have to pay £440 for the same product? £440 = $704.57

$499 + VAT = £373, only £26 less than the cheapest one in the UK.

 

[drunkenmaster]

$499 + VAT = £373, only £26 less than the cheapest one in the UK.

True enough but that is still 7-8% more than we should be paying, but then the cheapest one on OCUK(not in stock though) is £30 more than that, or more like 15-16% more.

A lot of pricing is down to retailers knowing what they can get away with , or should I say more specifically retailers having no real reason to compete with each other, whack prices up, all other retailers see the higher prices and roughly speaking match them, then loads of suckers buy at whatever price they can because they can't wait.

If NO ONE bought from OCUK at £430, the price would be below £400 in a few days, same goes for all retailers, but people can't wait, nor help themselves.

I often buy kit as its new out, yet didn't get a 7970/50 or 680gtx, I have placed a pre-order for a 7950 at a very good price, it may/may not come through, if it doesn't I've lost nothing, if it does patience paid off.

Some products though like Samsung are being mostly screwed over via the manufacturer, other products its retailer, it mostly amounts to the same thing, someone assuming UK buyers will just keep buying. As for the better pricing, launch pricing across the UK was £300 for the screen I mentioned, and £200 in the EU, its still 25% more..... for the same product, for no legitimate reason at all. How Samsung can justify charging a distributor 15-20% more because they are in the UK than Germany I don't know.

 

[Mal X]

the problem is you wont get anything much cheaper than here online and when you do see something cheap, it's only because they haven't added VAT or Carriage yet, you wont find out the true cost until you get to the ``checkout``....... ******** !

the only thing i saved a massive amount on was the cooler and the PSU, but only because i got to know the bloke first and twisted his arm !

what about China ?..... you'll get no guarantee!..... it'll be a pirate card if it's cheap and if not, probably faulty ex-stock... Chinatoy GTX 680 = cheap nasty pile of junk !

 

[Sasahara]

Fright to Europe & internal distribution costs are higher than the USA.

 

[chris-82]

What I hate in the uk is that the people live in it have forgotten they are the ones in charge and have all the power we moan about prices all the time for instance fuel but look at all these idiots panic buying which has resulted in prices going even higher for christs sake we are a selfish community who won stand as one to fight for what we want and that's why our government does what it likes and ignores its people and prices and taxes are set so high it would take less than a week for petrol prices to plummet if wonky say 30 percent of people stopped buying or company's refused to pay it would make the country fall to its knees very sharply forcing the hand of government and company's to rethink things.

(gets off his soap box pics it up and casually strolls off!)

 

[AWPC]

Supply & demand

Price gouging always in UK on anything new & electronic based (GPUs. IPAD's etc etc)

Shipping costs (air freight is very expensive due to high aviation fuel costs + security checks through customs).

Does anyone really think Nvidia would ship a boat load of GTX680's out several weeks before launch & time them to arrive @ launch in UK its all done by express air courier which is expensive especially for the weight I doubt Nvidia make any of these in EU its all cheap far east labour then ship the boards to EU partners to add the HSF which weight the most & are most likely made somewhere else on the cheap & shipped by sea to save money its most of the weight of the card in the HSF alone.

I would say the rip-off is not as much as some think try sending a 2.5Kg GPU box to US via express air (its around $130$ depending on who you use & how quick you want it).

 

[Surveyor]

Shipping costs (air freight is very expensive due to high aviation fuel costs + security checks through customs).

Does anyone really think Nvidia would ship a boat load of GTX680's out several weeks before launch & time them to arrive @ launch in UK its all done by express air courier which is expensive especially for the weight I doubt Nvidia make any of these in EU its all cheap far east labour then ship the boards to EU partners to add the HSF which weight the most & are most likely made somewhere else on the cheap & shipped by sea to save money its most of the weight of the card in the HSF alone.

I would say the rip-off is not as much as some think try sending a 2.5Kg GPU box to US via express air (its around $130$ depending on who you use & how quick you want it).

Prices are being compared to the USA so wouldn't that apply to the USA as well?

 

[AWPC]

Prices are being compared to the USA so wouldn't that apply to the USA as well?

If it cost the same to ship to US from far east (its much cheaper due to economies of scale & less distance to cover do not assume its the same freight costs for all regions when there are 3000 miles less to pay fuel for !!).

 

[Surveyor]

If it cost the same to ship to US from far east (its much cheaper due to economies of scale & less distance to cover do not assume its the same freight costs for all regions when there are 3000 miles less to pay fuel for !!).

China to the UK is approximately the same distance as China to the west coast of the USA.

The USA is also a massively larger country so no doubt internal distribution costs are higher.

I'm sure there are economies of scale but I doubt that shipping costs makes any more than a tiny difference to the overall price.

 

[jkkc313]

and the petrol is much cheaper over there

 

[tooth]

$499 plus $8 delivery on one of the biggest cheapest USA on-line retailers. So that's $508, plus on average 7% sales tax, so that's another $36, bringing it up to $544.

UK price seems to be about $690, but if our sales tax was as low as america, that would only be about $630.

So distribution to Europe plus the fact that our on-line retailers are generally much smaller with less competition = a very approximate $85 increase.

That's £53, hardly a scandalous increase considering Europe is more expensive to ship this stuff to, as many people have mentioned. Not only that but we are another island away from europe mainland, another bump in price.

You can always import your graphics card from USA, but I bet shipping will bone you, and you may get charged import duty at customs (and why not). So if you can't import it for cheaper, how is the UK that much of a rip off?

Ironically if our economy gets stronger and each pound is worth more dollar, the american prices will start to look even better. If your economy goes to ****, and American's doesn't, well, those american prices will seem ****.

Only it's vastly more complicated than that. But one thing it really isn't really, is the "rip-off uk". It's just a different economic setup. America pays their taxes differently.

 

[tooth]

All that could be riddled with mistakes, I could be ignorant about a bunch of ****, but my point is, like-for-like comparing dollar values of stuff here and there is probably even more error prone.

 

[Mal X]

the Yanks might not export to the U.K, it's too much hastle for a retailer to be bothered with, the best place is HONG KONG but you will deffo get clobbered by import duty etc, i think you have to pay this on your doorstep, along with the carriage and as said, their cheap stuff will come from China, so beware....

what ****s us up is the VAT, this should be reduced to 5%

 

[Borsch]

US have a different tax system as I understand, once you take out VAT from UK gfx card price, it suddenly starts to look very much like US one.

We have the cheapest second hand cars in Europe though - by very far too. Was comparing German and UK car sites yesterday - even 50% difference is very common on same cars So its not all "rip off Britain"