Buying On Line with Major Brands - NOT

Yesterday I spend a few hours trying to buy online for some Oakely sunglasses and Bose noise reducing headphones. ( Those who travel on long haul flights will understand )

I used Googel, Froogle to get the links etc, found some good sites all US based which is what i wanted with the AUD / THB being so strong and the USD being relatively weak etc

The Australian news reported recently that this xmas , many millions will spent off shore particularly from the US, as the AUD is all but parity today . Note that Australia has a tax free status for overseas goods bought online less than $1000 AUD and I will be in Oz in December to pick them up and hand carry to Thailand and thus avoiding any local Thai import taxes .

US prices for 1 pair of Oakelys are $400 , $640 Australia, and In Thailand 19000 Baht ( $633 rounded off at 30 B to the $ )

Now I accept that local taxes play a part here ( 10% GST in Australia and 7% VAT in Thailand ) and some tarriffs may be in place and shipping , BUT more than 50% increase in price cant be warranted. These are all retail prices quoted.

Bose the same, over 50% increase in prices for Australia for the same product.

US based Oakely and Bose web sites no longer ship overseas , a change of policy recently and Oakely have no instructed their online selling / online contractural companies to also refuse to ship to Australia and other designated overseas countries , UK included

The reason is, they are trying to protect their regional sales where they can still get a better mark up than in USA.

This stinks of Cartel issues even for small products now.

Lucky I found other web based companies who were willing to ship to Australia, using google payments as the secured method and further savings of $90 and free international shipping included.

Hope this assists anyone for the xmas present bargains to be had online

Sod that, go and buy a fake pair from Laos.

You'll look just as cool.

It is an option P88

Roloarised SunGlasses, to go with the new Ipud 4 , which doesnt have the camera.

Must include the $30 Visa fee when comparing prices dont forget.

I found the same price difference when buying a video camera. The model I wanted was 30-40% cheaper in the US, the only problem was the warranty which was limited to the US so I ended up purchasing locally.

If it's not manufactured in Thailand a hefty import tax will be added. It's not surprising local people buy the copy stuff.

Seems like the latest scam from I Tunes is added to this list then

Beatles music now online nearly double the prices of the US.

http://www.news.com.au/money/money-matt ... 5955162969

Typical of anything associated with Apple I am afraid.
The initial product is twice the price of a competitors (but does look pretty I will admit ) & then anything associated with it is extortionate as well.
Just go on any bit torrent site & search 'beatles' under music & MP3s for free will appear by the 100s....

Strangely enough the itunes software allows the conversion of MP3 to the itunes format...