davefloridavilla
24-02-2002, 15:24
Over the years, myself and other gadget freak friends have spent many hours and many dollars buying electronics in the USA.
The differnence in price (UK & USA) these days for the high tech stuff is now nominal and in many cases the UK can be cheaper!
Especially since the exchange rate has been pitiful for the last 5+ years.
One thing we have always found is that the small electronic outlets littered up I-Drive & 192 etc. are quite off the mark when it comes to pricing. They often have the older models too, claiming they're the latest.
By all means look, but I wouldn't advise anyone get sucked in by these people.
If you know what your talking about too, they often get quite rude and offensive!
The prices vary quite amazingly too!
Trust me on this and take my advice, below is a prime example if your interested enough to carry on reading ;)
January 2002
My friend wanted to buy a new Digital camera, the particular model required was the Sony Cybershot P5.
We found this camera in the larger outlets like Circuit City and Best Buy's. The retail price was US$599 in both places.
In the first Electronics shop on I-Drive crossroads almost opposite the big MacDonnalds, they only had the older models (P30, P50 and P1). Now we looked at the P1 and the guy wanted US$550 which we declined, when we told him that we really wanted the P5 and its price, he said we could have the P1 for US$325 if we came back with cash!
US$325 is a good price for the P1, and I thought I might have one myself at that price, because I couldnt afford the P5 price anyway.
When we came back later a differnt guy said the P1 would be US$699, needless to say we walked!
Another shop on I-Drive, a bit further up from the crossroads on the same side as Macdonnalds, wanted US$749 for the OLD P1. When we tried to explain what we wanted, he took offence and asked us to buy as many of the P5 cameras we could and take them back to him.
The nearer we got to the door, the more abusive he got.
The unforunate thing about all this is afterwards, I could remember that this is the way these shops have always been. Perhaps not always abusive, but the staff always seem to differ from one day to the next (they tend to move to another shop) and so do the prices!
In the end my friend bought one of the P5's from Circuit City for US$634.94 incuding tax. (£447 @ 1.42). You can buy them in England now for about £470.
Incidentally we shopped around several of these outlets with similar results, I thought a spare you the gory details of all of them!
The differnence in price (UK & USA) these days for the high tech stuff is now nominal and in many cases the UK can be cheaper!
Especially since the exchange rate has been pitiful for the last 5+ years.
One thing we have always found is that the small electronic outlets littered up I-Drive & 192 etc. are quite off the mark when it comes to pricing. They often have the older models too, claiming they're the latest.
By all means look, but I wouldn't advise anyone get sucked in by these people.
If you know what your talking about too, they often get quite rude and offensive!
The prices vary quite amazingly too!
Trust me on this and take my advice, below is a prime example if your interested enough to carry on reading ;)
January 2002
My friend wanted to buy a new Digital camera, the particular model required was the Sony Cybershot P5.
We found this camera in the larger outlets like Circuit City and Best Buy's. The retail price was US$599 in both places.
In the first Electronics shop on I-Drive crossroads almost opposite the big MacDonnalds, they only had the older models (P30, P50 and P1). Now we looked at the P1 and the guy wanted US$550 which we declined, when we told him that we really wanted the P5 and its price, he said we could have the P1 for US$325 if we came back with cash!
US$325 is a good price for the P1, and I thought I might have one myself at that price, because I couldnt afford the P5 price anyway.
When we came back later a differnt guy said the P1 would be US$699, needless to say we walked!
Another shop on I-Drive, a bit further up from the crossroads on the same side as Macdonnalds, wanted US$749 for the OLD P1. When we tried to explain what we wanted, he took offence and asked us to buy as many of the P5 cameras we could and take them back to him.
The nearer we got to the door, the more abusive he got.
The unforunate thing about all this is afterwards, I could remember that this is the way these shops have always been. Perhaps not always abusive, but the staff always seem to differ from one day to the next (they tend to move to another shop) and so do the prices!
In the end my friend bought one of the P5's from Circuit City for US$634.94 incuding tax. (£447 @ 1.42). You can buy them in England now for about £470.
Incidentally we shopped around several of these outlets with similar results, I thought a spare you the gory details of all of them!