ELI5: Why is GBP pricing equal to USD pricing?

iamgigglz

iamgigglz

iamgigglz

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Ok, not always, but take the Corsair Air 5400 as an example. £240 here, $230 on Newegg. With the insane US import tarriffs and 1 GBP supposedly worth 1.3x as much as 1 USD, how is this possible?
Please fix my very simplistic world view.
 
iamgigglz said:
Ok, not always, but take the Corsair Air 5400 as an example. £240 here, $230 on Newegg. With the insane US import tarriffs and 1 GBP supposedly worth 1.3x as much as 1 USD, how is this possible?
Please fix my very simplistic world view.
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The Holy Profit declares it must be so.

(but it might also be the 20% vat?)
 
Aah ok, forgot their pricing excludes tax, AND their tax is only 7.25% (at worst), so we're not being tarriffed but we are being taxed. The pricing is still too close to make complete sense to me but the tax goes a long way in explaining it.
 
Google says something like, even though the pound is technically worth more than the dollar, that is overshadowed by the dollar`s dominance in global trade and its status as the world`s reserve currency.
What really grinds my gears is that their youth are driving around in huge V8 cars and our youth are driving around in noddy cars with 1 litre engines.
 
dave28 said:
Google says...
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I used to google stuff like this but the internet has turned into a mess of automatically generated content, AI or otherwise, that I can't really trust for answering questions like this. I need a person who understands the global economy better than I do.

dave28 said:
What really grinds my gears is that their youth are driving around in huge V8 cars and our youth are driving around in noddy cars with 1 litre engines.
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If I wanted to keep my 18yr old out of trouble I'd stick him in a huge V8. No chance he'll be driving to the local pub - car won't fit down the road and nowhere to park.
 
iamgigglz said:
If I wanted to keep my 18yr old out of trouble I'd stick him in a huge V8. No chance he'll be driving to the local pub - car won't fit down the road and nowhere to park.
Click to expand...

Exactly, he'll be enjoying doing burnouts for 3 blocks and having a fast car too much to care about downing stella and beating his GF :cry:
V8 FTW!
 
Market size is one reason. The others would be our exit from the customs union and US tariffs. In a nutshell, mostly because of Reform and MAGA.
 
dave28 said:
Google says something like, even though the pound is technically worth more than the dollar, that is overshadowed by the dollar`s dominance in global trade and its status as the world`s reserve currency.
What really grinds my gears is that their youth are driving around in huge V8 cars and our youth are driving around in noddy cars with 1 litre engines.
Click to expand...
Relatively speaking in the late sixties US you could buy a 302 (5 litre) Mustang cheaper than a 1600GT Capri and it would be cheaper to run. It used to annoy me somewhat.
 
iamgigglz said:
Aah ok, forgot their pricing excludes tax, AND their tax is only 7.25% (at worst)
Click to expand...

You're forgetting that there's state and local sales taxes in the USA. California for example is 7.25% state tax and 0-9.5% local tax (depending on what it is/which county you're in). Average sales tax on IT products is around 13% in CA.

Edit - also most states now have laws which allow local taxes to be applied to interstate transactions, which wasn't the norm until Amazon etc. That means it doesn't matter where in the USA its shipped from, you're paying state+local where you live.
 
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