GPU prices in the UK

[kevman]

See the calculation I posted above - Other retailers were selling 6800XT's for £599, which based on the US price of $649 is about where it should be for the UK market. £680 was taking the **** really.

Agreed there is definite local gouging but I thought OP was asking about why UK prices are higher in general.

 

[colincarter]

At the end of the day the price is what it is, you either buy it or you don’t.

I suppose I am fortunate in that I can claim the 20% VAT back on purchases.

 

[SonicSW20]

Agreed there is definite local gouging but I thought OP was asking about why UK prices are higher in general.

OP was specifically referencing the OCUK price though, if you look at his numbers.

 

[FranciscoMDDF]

Hi all,

I am very eager to upgrade to either a 6800 XT or 3080 for the release CP2077 (which is looking less likely by the day), but I'm quite frustrated with the prices being so much higher than the initially advertised MSRPs.

I understand how Nvidia draws people in with false promises and their MSRPs are essentially nonsense as they never planned on making many reference cards (as explained by MLID and Gamers Nexus), but I am disappointed with the prices I'm seeing for the 6800 XT reference card. I simply don't understand how $650 works out to be £680. I imagine there is an import tax I'm not accounting for but what I've worked out so far is this:

$650 dollars = £486, plus 20% VAT = £583. So where is the near £100 extra coming from? An EU tax?

If I understood this better I might feel more comfortable paying the extra than I hoped for, but if it doesn't add up and I know I'm just being ripped off I think I'll wait and tolerate an initial playthrough of CP at low FPS/settings.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Dale

Its the OCUK tax. They need to add a few % so that they can afford to buy hamster food for their servers

 

[matt100]

Oh give over, it's usually something trivial like 4-6%.

Most states with sales tax are in the single digits as well. Some states have no sales tax at all.

It's actually a combined state and local often getting up to about 10% but to be fair I hadn't noticed the OP had mentioned that or that he was specifically moaning about OCUK which has never been known as the cheapest. Not exactly unknown for a bit of a gouge on new and ltd availability HW.

OP was specifically referencing the OCUK price though, if you look at his numbers.

Can't be OCUK, must be the EU omfg lol

 

[R3v4n]

At the end of the day the price is what it is, you either buy it or you don’t.

I suppose I am fortunate in that I can claim the 20% VAT back on purchases.

What sort of scam is that then?

 

[SonicSW20]

It's actually a combined state and local often getting up to about 10% but to be fair I hadn't noticed the OP had mentioned that or that he was specifically moaning about OCUK which has never been known as the cheapest. Not exactly unknown for a bit of a gouge on new and ltd availability HW.

It is, most states are under 10% though. Here's a list sorted from highest to lowest, I've only included the top bit:

 

[montymint]

Not really a very good answer though.

Literally every single other retailer could manage with those margins but not OCUK? Uh huh. They have captive market of idiots and they exploited it, plain as that. Look at the price of 5700XT's Vs every other retailer, if you need anymore proof lol.

I don't exclusively shop at OCUK - I'd be a fool if I did. I don;t know why people pay prices set clearly out for them then complain they're being raked over a barrel like there's a gun to their heads. It boggles the mind!

 

[JonnyG1982]

Because idiots buy them. Unfortunately OCUK is a business and if fools are willing to pay their prices why wouldn't they charge it. There are many on the site who already own rtx2000 cards who simply don't need these new cards at all but like the latest iPhone are desperate to buy no matter the cost just to say they have one. Of course people will argue it's a hobby, but they will prob still moan about the price while handing over their cash.

OCUK has a nice forum and nice website but prices jave been terrible for years. Although occasionally they can have a good deal so always worth checking back now and then. I just had a quick look at the rtx3090, a £1400 card selling for £1700-£1900. Disgusting tbh. Why would anyone pay £300+ over reference. Theres no justification for those prices but greed and fools.

 

[q974739]

Its the OCUK tax. They need to add a few % so that they can afford to buy hamster food for their servers

I don't believe you. Did you see how the hamsters suffered yesterday? They can't have been fed for YEARS.

 

[SonicSW20]

OCUK has a nice forum and nice website but prices jave been terrible for years. Although occasionally they can have a good deal so always worth checking back now and then. I just had a quick look at the rtx3090, a £1400 card selling for £1700-£1900. Disgusting tbh. Why would anyone pay £300+ over reference. Theres no justification for those prices but greed and fools.

Pricing here seems to either be significantly over or significantly under. My mate bought a couple of WD SN750's last week and the 1TB one was ~£25 cheaper than anywhere else.

 

[Sipha]

I suppose people have a sense of loyalty to OCUK being long time customers and forum members of a great community. So it feels like that loyalty is being betrayed somewhat with their pricing structure. I’d rather shop here but get forced away due to the price hikes.

 

[Fubsy]

I only consider OcUK and load the shop up purely because I've been here for so long, very rarely do I choose to buy now unless they are in the ball park of going rate or beat competitors. If I weren't a member, they'd be 4th/5th on my list of retailers whereas once they were the only place I would look. The GPU debacles have lead me to one of their major competitors who I swore never to use again, it's that bad.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

RRP is just a recommended price, the real cost of things is decided by supply and demand and where those 2 different things intersect.

Right now there's an unusually low supply of all major tech and an unusually high demand which means prices will be driven up. When there's a rush for limited stock all the people with lots of disposable income bid up the selling prices. If you want something very soon you're essentially going to be forced into a bidding war with everyone else.

This has got nothing to do with the EU or hidden taxes or false scarcity or Nvidia tricks. It's literally that supply is low, there's several new world class products all launching within the same 1-2 month launch windows, they all use common comonents, there's huge strain for them to be delivered, Covid is making manufacturing and supply chains hard and slow. And there's an unusually large number of people on lockdown at home driving up demand for entertainment like consoles/video cards/cpus. Not to mention xmas just around the corner every kid is expecting a ps5 under the tree.

You have 2 choices, buy now at inflated prices, or wait until Q2 next year when supply of these things will become normal again and prices fall back down closer to RRP.

 

[RavenXXX2]

Retailers don't price gouge the consoles!

 

[DeathStorm]

I'm a little curious to see how far OcUK could push things, I'm pretty sure they could have sold the cards at nearly double the RRP but I wonder how long they could sustain that kind of approach.

 

[Jammie_Dodger]

I'm guessing since we don't see the prices of consoles vary so much (if at all?), it's a case of the GPU manufacturers not instructing retailers to sell at a particular price, opening it up for them to simply sell them for whatever they can. This is understandable and I'm not complaining (although obviously disappointing as a consumer), I just wanted to understand if that's all it is.

Thanks for all the replies

 

[R4z0r]

I suppose people have a sense of loyalty to OCUK being long time customers and forum members of a great community. So it feels like that loyalty is being betrayed somewhat with their pricing structure. I’d rather shop here but get forced away due to the price hikes.

exactly this.

 

[thenewoc]

I'm a little curious to see how far OcUK could push things, I'm pretty sure they could have sold the cards at nearly double the RRP but I wonder how long they could sustain that kind of approach.

I don't think they will sustain it, I think they'll end up driving more people away which is easy to do and much harder to attract people back. Something seems to have changed over recent years since I seem to remember some good pricing in the past which drew people in to purchase the parts to do a complete build with some keen pricing on CPUs. Things have definitely taken a turn for the worse with this years releases and the gouging that's taken place.

 

[Mr_Splat]

I'm a little curious to see how far OcUK could push things, I'm pretty sure they could have sold the cards at nearly double the RRP but I wonder how long they could sustain that kind of approach.

Considering the price of the likes of the TUF 3080 has jumped from £650 at release to £800+ now would indicate they're testing that theory