Hee hee hee
One side-effect of the near-parity of the Australian and American dollars (we're on about 88 US cents at the moment) is that some items are now cheaper to import than buy locally.
Case in point:
For those who came in late - I am an occasional collector of transforming robot toys. I have no ambitions to reach even a tiny fraction of the uber-collections I've seen amongst the hardcore fans, but every so often over the years, a particular design here or there has made me plunk down a couple of dollars. Some years, I may buy a handful. Other years, none. It's all relative.
Aaaaaanyway, traditionally, these toys have sported Australian price stickers of about double to triple that of their US counterparts. If local collectors were lucky, they would find a huge discount sale and pay only twice the US price (after conversion). Given that we're actually closer to the Chinese factories where these things are produced, it was annoying, to say the least. And the currency conversion and shipping costs meant that there was little to be gained from importing.
Ah, but NOW the playing field is a little bit more even. And even with international shipping costs and import duty, buying these things from American online stores runs to about half what we'd pay locally.
Case in point - I looked up the cost of buying about a dozen past and present toys. The absolute cheapest I can find them for online in Australia is about $500. I'd be looking at closer to $600 at the physical toy stores.
Importing them? $300. And a third of that is shipping.
Now the question is - should I splurge, or should I wait?
Case in point:
For those who came in late - I am an occasional collector of transforming robot toys. I have no ambitions to reach even a tiny fraction of the uber-collections I've seen amongst the hardcore fans, but every so often over the years, a particular design here or there has made me plunk down a couple of dollars. Some years, I may buy a handful. Other years, none. It's all relative.
Aaaaaanyway, traditionally, these toys have sported Australian price stickers of about double to triple that of their US counterparts. If local collectors were lucky, they would find a huge discount sale and pay only twice the US price (after conversion). Given that we're actually closer to the Chinese factories where these things are produced, it was annoying, to say the least. And the currency conversion and shipping costs meant that there was little to be gained from importing.
Ah, but NOW the playing field is a little bit more even. And even with international shipping costs and import duty, buying these things from American online stores runs to about half what we'd pay locally.
Case in point - I looked up the cost of buying about a dozen past and present toys. The absolute cheapest I can find them for online in Australia is about $500. I'd be looking at closer to $600 at the physical toy stores.
Importing them? $300. And a third of that is shipping.
Now the question is - should I splurge, or should I wait?