Quote from: heffeque on November 06, 2019, 17:31:55

Quote from: yacc143 on November 06, 2019, 14:10:45
Don't forget that the EU prices are normally quoted with VAT, which averages around say 20%. If you add that to the Chinese price, you get $480 versus $600 which is still a difference but not as big.

(And you have to pay the VAT on importing it from China anyways.)

Add compulsory 2-year warranty... and there you've got a bit more again.

Either way, for some strange reason, there's always a way to get them cheaper (buying them directly from China), but you lose the warranty and you risk having to pay import taxes.

Is it really strange? With taxes and marketing and pricing strategy and all the price of goods is always somewhat distorted beyond their inherent value, creating opportunities. It's now this way for Chinese phones, especially as some global versions of Xiaomi firmware have less ads, reducing revenue on originally thin margins, but it's the other way for other phones. The HK version of Sony, Apple and Samsung is always cheaper than mainland China, the SK version of Samsung is almost always the cheapest around the globe.
Also clothes retailing for ~$200 could be had for CNY300-400 in China, unofficial channels of course, you need to look, and sometimes there are fakes, but those generally go for even cheaper or they fake far more expensive clothes in the first place, but I digress.

Quote from: yacc143 on November 06, 2019, 14:10:45
Don't forget that the EU prices are normally quoted with VAT, which averages around say 20%. If you add that to the Chinese price, you get $480 versus $600 which is still a difference but not as big.

(And you have to pay the VAT on importing it from China anyways.)

Add compulsory 2-year warranty... and there you've got a bit more again.

Either way, for some strange reason, there's always a way to get them cheaper (buying them directly from China), but you lose the warranty and you risk having to pay import taxes.

Don't forget that the EU prices are normally quoted with VAT, which averages around say 20%. If you add that to the Chinese price, you get $480 versus $600 which is still a difference but not as big.

(And you have to pay the VAT on importing it from China anyways.)