Prices: Europe vs USA

I have the impression that prices for cameras in Europe are higher

than they are in the USA - in currency equivalents. Not just German

cameras, but Japanese cameras as well. Is this true? If so, why?

Bill,

The problem is that the Euro is currently stronger than the Dollar. As the exchange rates change so does the relative values of imported/exported goods.Local products consumed locally are not influenced by the rates. They are influenced by inflation/deflation.

Retail prices are also influenced by taxes. I believe that taxes might be higher in Europe.

Alas that's true. Here in Europe prices are pretty forbidding if compared to the American ones, and this is the case for both new and used market. Unfortunately a 20-24% tax is applied on import of goods which were bought online from the USA and yet it is often convenient to do so anyway...

Not quite sure about this. I think it varies.

 

My leica CM cost 698 GBP and yet in the USA I am told it was $1000 so nowhere near dollar for pound.

 

However the new Nikon D70 + 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 kit is 989 GBP and in the USA (B&H) the kit is $1299.

 

Obviously there are discounters and grey market deals to be had but I am talking about mainstream UK and USA outlets.

Oh yes before anyone questions the D70 kit price in the UK I know because that is what I am paying for my new one. (It can be got a little cheaper but my dealer is paying me a VERY handsome part exchange amount for all my old Contax gear!)

And yes taxes are very high here in the UK. 17.5 percent for all goods (higher for 'luxuries' like cameras) and I wave bye bye to just over a third of all my earnings after the combination of tax and national insurance, health plan and pension.

 

Also local council tax for my house is well over 100 GBP per month (and our local authority is no-where near one of the most expensive in the UK!)

Ah come down under if you really want to spend up big. Back in the mid 90s when an

M6 attracted 33% sales tax and cost over $6000. Even now an Mp or M7 is listed at

$5000+ plus 10% GST

 

C.

In Germany you can wave goodbye to half your earnings after paying tax and all the insurances, and then camera prices are also ridiculously high compared with the US. I don't quite understand it. Services here are also punitively expensive - especially camera repair; it seems that such people make sure they get the salaries they think they deserve.

 

Sometimes I think for a big purchase it would be worth hopping on a plane to New York just to buy gear.

You have to make sure first that you're comparing like with like, ie the price that would

actually be paid. In the UK (and in most of the 'old' EU) VAT is added, at whatever the

national rate is. Almost always, this is included in the price actually displayed, ie it's

including tax. In the US the advertised price generally doesn't include Sales Tax, I believe.

So to get a fair comparison of what an EOS 20D, say, would cost at a Jessops store in

London with the B&H store in NYC, you have to add the NY Sales tax to the B&H price.

 

But even after that, prices in Europe are indeed generally higher than in the US. What

incenses me even more is that prices in the UK are generally higher than in Europe. There's

no reason for this other than Canon (esp) chiseling the UK buyer. However, there are no

restrictions on buying and exporting/importing within the EU - no duty, no additional VAT

- so in fact buying in an EU country where a camera is cheap and importing it into the UK

is a good strategy. Nor can the suppliers refuse to do this - there is legislation that says

that the EU is a single market, and an item must be available on common conditions to all

EU territories. That is, while they can as a matter of policy put different terms & conditions

on sales in the UK and, say, France, I have the right to buy in the UK at the French terms &

conditions if I want to. And I can certainly buy in France and take it back to the UK.

"And yes taxes are very high here in the UK. 17.5 percent for all

goods (higher for 'luxuries' like cameras) and I wave bye bye to just

over a third of all my earnings after the combination of tax and

national insurance, health plan and pension."

 

 

Luxuary! You should come and live in Sweden!

 

 

I wave goodbye to 55% of my salary before I get any money in my hands,

then I have 25% sales tax on things I buy...

Well said, Håkon! Here in Norway we're not that luckier (24% VAT on cameras).. nor was I when I lived in Italy (20% VAT, aka IVA)...

Hey! C'mon guys! You're making it difficult for us here in the US to complain about "high taxes" ;-)

True, Tom, but sales taxes are usually not applied to out-of-state (e.g., mail or internet order) sales, so if someone in California buys something from B&H via their website, for example, they don't pay NY sales tax. Many states do have a consumption tax that would apply for purchases made out-of-state, but many, if not most, people do not pay it (they are supposed to declare it on their state income tax forms).

 

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"In the US the advertised price generally doesn't include Sales Tax, I believe. So to get a fair comparison of what an EOS 20D, say, would cost at a Jessops store in London with the B&H store in NYC, you have to add the NY Sales tax to the B&H price."

Andrea, Haken.

 

Don't complain too much. I would happily part with 55 percent of my salary to live in your beautiful, liberal, tolerant, peaceful, prosperous countries where people can spend half the winter lounging around in saunas and the other half skiing.

 

A colleague of mine spent just over 2 years working in Norway and was then made redundant from his contract. The state paid him 125 percent of his previous (good) salary in unemployment benefit which he was qualified to receive even when back here in the UK (!) as long as he e-mailed evidence of his job-seeking back to the un-employment office in Norway once every fortnight.

 

The reason he got 125 percent was that just after his contract ended he was retained as a 'consultant' on an even bigger fee than his salary had been. When he finally parted company the 'consultant' fee was the figure they used to calculate his unemployment payments.

Oh, and he also received a shockingly large redundancy cheque which the individual, a local magistrate (or whatever they are called in Norway) and the company will sit down and negotiate until all parties agree on a satisfactory sum!

Don't get too bent out of shape. Shopping is great in the US! But depending upon what part of the US you live in and your job situation, there are all sorts of direct and indirect cost of living issues we face here in the US - health care, education, transportation and the like. And in the big cities, poverty and crime are omnipresent.

 

I'm single and make a good living and benefit from our Schumpeterian (sp?) economy, but I pay nearly 50% of my gross income in taxes between Fed, local and FICA.

When comparing rangefinder prices, it is interesting to see that Leica cameras sell for about the same price in USA as they do in Europe - sometimes more. Cosina/Voigtlander cameras sell for more in Europe than they do in USA. Interesting . . .