Well, that's it for Australians buying goods from overseas

[jtk]

Some companies are trying to anticipate results of fluctuating mental condition of certain politicians...

 

[Mick Fagan]

Sorry Mick I expressed my question poorly. I meant what now you have to add GST to the bill for imported film what is the import price of Kodak Portra? I note that the consensus seems to be that Oz prices are high already and I just wondered what increase GST makes. Does it for instance mean that importing is no longer worthwhile or at least become much more of a marginal difference between Oz purchased Portra and personal import?


Thanks

pentaxuser

It's pretty simple really, one just adds 10% to any overseas price including freight. GST is 10%.

To answer your question another way, I don't buy Kodak Portra, but I did a very quick look around and came up with two prices for a five pack of 135 Kodak Portra 400.

Directly from inside Australia, $109.90 AUD delivered to my door and inclusive of all taxes = $21.98 AUD per roll.

Directly from the USA, $85.73 AUD delivered to my door and inclusive of all taxes = $17.15 AUD per roll.

Without really looking, I appear to have found an overseas like for like film that is $24.17 AUD cheaper.

As for B&W sheet film, read my earlier post, the difference is breathtaking, not to mention bank account emptying.

Mick.

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks Mick. It seems to me that Oz users and to probably a less extent U.K. users are being "screwed" in comparison with U.S. users. I find it as pity that a lot of our U.S. members seem to want to persist in giving us reasons why all of this can be explained away on logical grounds and has nothing to do with pricing policy when this is patently not true.

I seriously wonder what might happen to Kodak support if U.S. consumers were subject to the same prices. The plain fact is that pricing policy works against most if not all consumers who happen to reside outside the U.S.

pentaxuser

 

[JBrunner]

Amazon, B&H, et al now hapily and routinely collect and remit sales tax involving multiple rates in umpty thousands of jurisdictions across the country. It's obviously not a technical issue, but one of policy. Curious, do these pricing difference (outside of the tax) factor exchange rates and the cost involved for the merchant in dealing with foreign currency?

 

[mgb74]

Amazon, B&H, et al now hapily and routinely collect and remit sales tax involving multiple rates in umpty thousands of jurisdictions across the country. It's obviously not a technical issue, but one of policy. Curious, do these pricing difference (outside of the tax) factor exchange rates and the cost involved for the merchant in dealing with foreign currency?

Routinely, but not likely happily. Adds cost (to process and remit taxes) and takes away a competitive advantage they had over local shops.

 

[Mick Fagan]

The price difference of some goods between Australia and the rest of the world, is sometimes unbelievable. Photographic goods are stupendously overpriced compared to many other jurisdictions and has been for a very long time.

In 1985 I picked up a brand new Nikon F3 body in Germany, it was not on special, not being moved on by Nikon Germany, just for sale at the regular price. I paid approximately $650 AUD for that camera body. Back home in Australia that exact same body had a non negotiable price of $1,800 AUD plus 32% sales tax for a total price of $2,376 AUD.

Another time, I personally helped someone purchase a 600mm f/5.6 Nikkor lens from New York in a well known store. The difference was literally enough to fund the air fare to New York from Melbourne and back, and with the spare change left over to purchase a very second hand automobile. I did the trip, picked up the lens and with the change left over my friend picked up an old ute (utility vehicle). This was in 1977 when this lens was not imported into Australia, it was a special order as the local importer didn't have it as a stock item.

There was a newspaper article about a youngish Australian photographer who purchased the Nikkor 300 F2. The cost of that lens was more than the average price of a house and land package in Melbourne. If the photographer had been able to purchase this in the USA he would have saved around 50% of the price, but as it was a made to order lens at the time, he opted to get it locally. This was in the early 80's.

Now as to whether or not the collecting of taxes for goods consumed in Australia by people who purchase them via overseas websites makes the cost prohibitive. Well, yes and no. In some instances you can almost pay more if you purchase overseas, but it really depends on what you are purchasing.

In the case of photographic stuff, anything that is bulky, like paper, is generally too expensive to source from overseas. Film is definitely cheaper purchased overseas, sometimes not by much, other times by an unbelievable difference.

As for the problem of the local USA store selling on Ebay, they don't have to do anything, Ebay does the tax collecting as they are the ones selling the goods to the person placing the order. So it is a no brainer for any store or business to sell something via Ebay to anyone in Australia. If a store sells direct, then that is another story, but it is not difficult. An American I know who lives not far from me, sells stuff directly and indirectly to the USA. If directly he knows the tax regime of the various states and his software does it. If selling indirectly via Ebay (or similar) it is slightly easier as he processes it as an off shore transaction thereby not collecting any tax;. Ebay in the USA collects the taxes.

Mick.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

The price difference of some goods between Australia and the rest of the world, is sometimes unbelievable. Photographic goods are stupendously overpriced compared to many other jurisdictions and has been for a very long time.

In 1985 I picked up a brand new Nikon F3 body in Germany, it was not on special, not being moved on by Nikon Germany, just for sale at the regular price. I paid approximately $650 AUD for that camera body. Back home in Australia that exact same body had a non negotiable price of $1,800 AUD plus 32% sales tax for a total price of $2,376 AUD.

Another time, I personally helped someone purchase a 600mm f/5.6 Nikkor lens from New York in a well known store. The difference was literally enough to fund the air fare to New York from Melbourne and back, and with the spare change left over to purchase a very second hand automobile. I did the trip, picked up the lens and with the change left over my friend picked up an old ute (utility vehicle). This was in 1977 when this lens was not imported into Australia, it was a special order as the local importer didn't have it as a stock item.

There was a newspaper article about a youngish Australian photographer who purchased the Nikkor 300 F2. The cost of that lens was more than the average price of a house and land package in Melbourne. If the photographer had been able to purchase this in the USA he would have saved around 50% of the price, but as it was a made to order lens at the time, he opted to get it locally. This was in the early 80's.

Now as to whether or not the collecting of taxes for goods consumed in Australia by people who purchase them via overseas websites makes the cost prohibitive. Well, yes and no. In some instances you can almost pay more if you purchase overseas, but it really depends on what you are purchasing.

In the case of photographic stuff, anything that is bulky, like paper, is generally too expensive to source from overseas. Film is definitely cheaper purchased overseas, sometimes not by much, other times by an unbelievable difference.

As for the problem of the local USA store selling on Ebay, they don't have to do anything, Ebay does the tax collecting as they are the ones selling the goods to the person placing the order. So it is a no brainer for any store or business to sell something via Ebay to anyone in Australia. If a store sells direct, then that is another story, but it is not difficult. An American I know who lives not far from me, sells stuff directly and indirectly to the USA. If directly he knows the tax regime of the various states and his software does it. If selling indirectly via Ebay (or similar) it is slightly easier as he processes it as an off shore transaction thereby not collecting any tax;. Ebay in the USA collects the taxes.

Mick.

A lot of Europeans fly in to NYC, buy a bunch of stuff at B&H, and pay for the air flight, hotel, and a Broadway show with the savings. What a deal!