[Falconoffury]

Has anyone ever noticed that retail prices of products released in multiple countries don't reflect the exchange rates very well. The British pound vs the USA dollar is a striking example. When the Playstation 3 was released, it was 425 pounds, which was almost 800 dollars at the time. Americans paid 600 dollars. I heard that the average Xbox 360 game was 45 pounds. Americans pay only 60 dollars.

Is this just affected by import and export taxes, or is something else going on?

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Falconoffury', 'H')as anyone ever noticed that retail prices of products released in multiple countries don't reflect the exchange rates very well. The British pound vs the USA dollar is a striking example. When the Playstation 3 was released, it was 425 pounds, which was almost 800 dollars at the time. Americans paid 600 dollars. I heard that the average Xbox 360 game was 45 pounds. Americans pay only 60 dollars.

Is this just affected by import and export taxes, or is something else going on?

[Twilight]

The UK has 17.5% VAT, other European countries are similar.

The retailers may also have additional costs they need to cover.

[peaker_2005]

Heh, that's nothing. They're charging around $950 for the PS3 here.

Even when you compensate for our exchange rate and GST of 10%, there's still $150 unaccounted for. Allowing a generous $25 for getting the things here, there's still $125 worth of unwarranted price hike.

[evilgenius]

I asked a wine seller in the States about this once, the same question I have asked a lot of merchants, he said it is due to the volume of business. It makes sense if you consider that prices can be cheaper for some once manufacturers have reached a point where they have paid for all of their inputs. The rest can be sold for whatever can be gotten even if it is less than technically appeals because it represents a greater percentage of profit gotten per item. People in the UK are used to a certain pricing structure so they don't react by not paying the prices being charged. They are prisoners of their own routines.

I know, there is more to it than that but I want to keep this answer simple.

[Falconoffury]

I constantly hear people saying that the economy is global these days. Are you saying that it's only global for the business owners and not the consumers?

[lawnchair]

Some of it comes down to oligarchy versus socialism.

One obvious difference would be between health insurance in the US versus health care over there.

Lets assume the PS3 is about a week's wage for Joe. In the US, he will also need to pay his contribution to his health insurance for that week. At the rate of $7000 a year for one adult and child (assume a 2 earner, 2 child household), that's already $154 extra out-of-pocket. Certainly there are other things to consider, but since health care expenditures over here are about 15% of GDP (double yours) and health-related billing and insurance overhead alone are nearly 5% of the entire nation's GDP (yours being a fraction of a percent), it's not insignificant.

I know your income taxes are higher to pay for NHS, but on lower-income people they aren't severely higher. Progressive taxation, somewhat socialist.

Further, the UK is somewhat more willing to set imposts on Sony goods. Theoretically, they do this to bolster the local competition, though there's been none of that since Clive Sinclair. Rather, they find video games to be a luxury item and tax it as such to raise revenue for other socialist goals. The US administrative view tends toward the belief that store prices should be as low as possible on everything.

Also, where do you buy your PS3? My observation is that UK high street stores tend to be much more fully staffed with better paid workers than US "box stores". This would certainly add overhead.