Getting ripped off for a CD - a visual journey

[sidereal]

So I decided I really needed to get this Dick Gaughan CD with many great tunes on it.  It's a little obscure and an import, but hey this is the age of global commerce and the Internets.

Amazon's heard of it, but doesn't have any in stock.  Fortunately they link to suppliers:



Wow.  That's a little fucking expensive.  Let's see what the other suppliers are asking for:



HA! HAHAHAHA!

Moving on.  Let's try a local shop's website.  I like local shops:



Ugh.  Still expensive.  My favorite part is how it looks like I'm getting a good deal because it's under an imaginary 'list'.
But what's this?  I can see the distributor:



Hmm.



And what's this?  The distributor sells directly:



So to recap:

Dick Gaughan records a great album and distributes it in Scotland with a local distributor who probably sells it locally for 12 bucks.  An importer brings it in and offers it for $18.95 (I assume the wholesale price is less).  For the great honor of buying the same fucking CD which will be sent to me from the same fucking source via a local store's website (the local CD store doesn't do fulfillment. . they just signed up with some turnkey ecommerce music 'solution' that interfaces with the distributors), I can pay $25.36 which is 'discounted' from a made-up magical fairy pony list price of $26.98.  Or I could go to the merchants blessed by Amazon, who will charge me at least $33.78.  Including one twat who seems to believe the CD was shat out by Baby Jesus and wants $66.11.

[Strazos]

US Amazon probably charged more than UK Amazon. I use to import some stuff from Germany, and while the prices were steep...not That retarded.

Also, I was buying them before they were available at all in the US, so I had to pay more anyway.

[Calantus]

That's what they do for everything in Australia. It's very annoying I agree.

[Lt.Dan]

I live in Australia too.  There's something seriously fucked up about music/DVD/book retailing over here when I, as an individual, can undercut Australian retail prices by ordering directly from US Amazon.  Just to put it in perspective I saw the local Borders had the hardcover of the latest Iain Banks novel for $A45.  At the current exchange rate that's about $US40.  I can order same hardcover from Amazon today for $US17.15 plus $4 shipping.  Sure it takes 7-10 to ship here but why pay twice the price for something now?

[Engels]

Its always mistified me why both books and music in Europe (and aparently Australia too) are so much higher than in the US. Is it collusion amongst publishers? Is it price fixing in Europe? Or is it a matter of what the market will bear? Do US publishers know that if they jacked the prices for books and/or CDs they'd have a revolt on their hands?

[Llava]

This was actually very helpful for me.  I want this album by Mors Principium Est but no one local carries it (they don't even have their more recent, more popular CD... the obscure older one is right out) and I'm CERTAINLY not spending over $50 for it.  I hadn't considered trying to find a distributor and buying from them.

[Simond]

Dick Gaughan records a great album and distributes it in Scotland with a local distributor who probably sells it locally for 12 bucks.

Fourteen quid, which converts into papiermarks dollars as...$28. Add postage and shipping, and $33-34 isn't that far out.

It's not our fault your currency is circling the drain, you know.

[NowhereMan]

Its always mistified me why both books and music in Europe (and aparently Australia too) are so much higher than in the US. Is it collusion amongst publishers? Is it price fixing in Europe? Or is it a matter of what the market will bear? Do US publishers know that if they jacked the prices for books and/or CDs they'd have a revolt on their hands?

I know part of it is that most UK distributors like to take the dollar price and just stick a £ in front of it. This was a bit silly back when a dollar was around 80p but now that effectively means they're doubling the price. At least part of the discrepancy is the exchange rate difference that has appeared in the last few years, there's no way distriubtors are going to lower prices simply because they're making more money (OTOH if the balance shifts significantly they will up the prices and point to inflation). There are higher taxes and such to deal with in Europe (I believe) but there's no way they are as great as the price difference.

A large part is also what it is considered people are willing to pay, I know UK car dealers all got slammed a few years ago for quite obvious price fixing (a car in the UK was somewhere in the order of 20-25% higher than the Continent, though that figure is somewhat pulled out of my ass). Historically European distributors have been able to justify higher prices on 1)Shit is being imported and 2) almost noone's going to know it's so much cheaper in the US.

[caladein]

Its always mistified me why both books and music in Europe (and aparently Australia too) are so much higher than in the US. Is it collusion amongst publishers? Is it price fixing in Europe? Or is it a matter of what the market will bear? Do US publishers know that if they jacked the prices for books and/or CDs they'd have a revolt on their hands?

Hmm... textbooks are the opposite case:

The average textbook surveyed costs 20 percent more in the United States than it does in the United Kingdom.

Some publishers display overseas prices on their websites. For example, Thomson Learning's website lists the prices charged to students in the U.S., U.K., Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. According to this website, for the books included in our survey, Thomson Learning charges U.S. students 72 percent more, on average, than it does students in the U.K., Africa and Middle East. Some books are priced even higher. For example, Thomson Learning charges U.S. students $108 for its Biology textbook, but charges students in the U.K., Africa, and Middle East only $51 for the same book.

[Engels]

Text books are a strange exception. They ARE a racket in the US. Ask anyone that's had to plonk down $100 for a text book for one semester on Rare Fungal Maladies of the Upper Nile Delta or some such twaddle. That's no mistery, that's up and up graft plain and simple.

I'm asking if a similar thing is going on in Europe & Aus with books and music.

[SnakeCharmer]

How much of the price gouging on US textbooks is a result of the fact that many retailers know a Pell Grant or somesuch is just an application away?

Hell, half the people I knew in college got Pell Grants for nothing but beer / party / fraternity / sorority dues money for the quarter/semester.  They gave those out like candy.

[NowhereMan]

Shit, those textbook prices make me  . I thought they were bad enough over here, though I've now moved on to looking at actual academic books that are basically priced for University libraries, fun.

[Jain Zar]

Companies charge whatever they can get away with, and Ebay is a big reason why.  (Ok, the college textbook thing is different, but the US educational system seems designed soley for rich fucks, or to put people in debt early.)

Ebay has proven idiots will pay any price to have something, especially if its rareish, out of print, or they can have it before anybody else.

Most online Transformers fans don't like me for bringing up the fact its totally fucking STUPID to pay 50-100 dollars for a loose toy that in 3-4 months will be at your local Wal Mart for 10 bucks, just because you get it early.
(Of course because of said COMPLETE FUCKING RETARDS scalpers and online toyshops try to swipe any hot toy from the store before any kid or general fan can get it, knowing they can sell it for a big profit on ebay, and making it harder to get is just gravy.  Also see most PS3 buyers the first month.  )

When the Neo Geo Pocket Color went kerblooey Faselei! was only released in English in the UK.  Morons were paying 125-220 dollars for the game.  I looked around and found a UK gamestore who shipped me the same title for like 35 bucks.

Yahoo sellers are just basing their prices on what dipshits on ebay do.

Its why we gotta stop being such consumer whores.  We don't need it, and if its too expensive, fuck em!  Don't buy it!

[Righ]

The Gaughan album is a double CD on a minor label, imported from the UK. $19 seems pretty cheap. Were you expecting Walmart chart album prices? You should see what I have to pay for some obscure European CDs for whom there is no US distribution.

BTW, the 'made-up magical fairy pony list price' is within a cent of what the record company advertises on their chosen online vendor today:

http://www.musicscotland.com/acatalog/MusicScotland_Dick_Gaughan___Prentice_Piece_3674.html

[lamaros]

Taxes and such make things more expensive in Australia. Also we don't make many of the books here yanno, so you have import costs on top of store costs, etc etc.

I don't get Music or Books from stores here unless I need them quickly or they are on sale (or second hand). Why pay $30 for a CD when I can pay $13?

America is just cheap for everything though. You guys love the material goods! (Look at the difference in price between the US and Australian American Apparel stores if you want a laugh).

[Tale]

Taxes and such make things more expensive in Australia. Also we don't make many of the books here yanno, so you have import costs on top of store costs, etc etc.
...
America is just cheap for everything though. You guys love the material goods! (Look at the difference in price between the US and Australian American Apparel stores if you want a laugh).

The answer is that stores charge what MOST people will pay. We educated internet consumers are a rarity.

On the Aussie broadband forum Whirlpool, a guy ordered a game from a Thai online store for $20. The label said "manufactured in Melbourne, Australia". The same game sells for $90 in Australia.

The difference between US and Australian prices is also sharply obvious now because of the drop in the greenback. The number of dollars charged has remained about the same, but because the Aussie dollar is now worth much more, our prices look like bigger rip-offs than ever.