Why are LCDs so expensive in Canada compared to US???

[poohbear]

Hey all, so im looking to build a new PC, and i've eyed the samsung T260HD as my main monitor, beautiful 26" that'd suit my needs just fine.

On American websites i found it for $330 w/ FREE shipping & NO tax, on avg its 330-360, but that was the best deal i found w. a 2 second search. In Canada, the cheapest i've seen is $495 + SHIPPING + TAX!!!! This is across the board for all computer components, but LCDs in particular are a slap across the face. Why is this? is there any around it? Why do have these ridiculous prices here?

[MarkOne]

Welcome to the reality... Not only the LCD are like that. Bombardier sell their VTT and SNowmobile cheaper in US than Canada , when they discover than people from Quebec was going in the Vermont to buy them, they forbit to the US dealer to sell their product to someone who have no US address, for warranty purpose ( My A$$)

I order a lot on the web.

In US the competition is more aggressive.. A lot more of sources too, If I'm not mistake FS and BestBuy is the same company , NCIX own how many company too... where is the real competition in Canada ?


The funny thing is ... in US they take our money change for change in Sky Station. And here company don't care if we go shop in US, because they have enough fish to buy their products.

[poohbear]

well screw it. Im getting it delivered to my friend in US & next time i visit i'll just pick it up. So inconvenient but hey toronto is 2 hours from US & i go there often. I can't imagine these products could be selling that well here when people find out the price in the US. I mean seriously, its a $200 price difference on something that costs $330. its absurd.

[gingerbee]

but i am pretty sure you can find something comparable in Canada. I was just thinking how cheap they are

[rjbarker]

^^^ Exactly Ginger.....hell a wander through FS and a good selection of very inexpensive LCD's....

[Cowboy]

yeah but they're USED. used never = new

[FiXT]

Its not necessarily a profit scheme like MarkOne seems to push. It is purely the cost of doing business in Canada.

There are many extra costs at the manufacturing distributor level including exchange, expensive transportation, additional costs to get Canadian compliance and packaging (remember the 1 off french packaging and instruction laws... you think its cheap to produce a relatively small run of special packaging for a different country).

You then have to build in retailer costs because retailers cannot profit off the pure volume model like they have in the USA. Your talking less than the population of California across an entire country.
With that you have additional advertising costs, higher business taxes, higher cost of having to employ people do deal with those taxes. There's a handful of things like this PLUS they are paying higher costs for the product in the first place.


Without giving to many details - I was recently informed of a price change by a distributor of a somewhat popular motherboard manufacturer. The Canadian MFG branch had closed and they were now sourcing directly from the USA side. In some cases, prices dropped as much as 20%! Though, the disty did have to factor in extra padding as they now have to pay for custom's clearance, extra transport costs and pad for the extra cost of any RMA's it still came out to 10% +- savings for the exact same thing.

RMA's are also a huge chuck of change factored into Canadian prices, especially when sourcing from the USA.

A $100 product with the average 3%-5% profit typical of electronics, means that a single RMA, costs the company the profit of 5 units or more. An RMA rate of 20% is unlikely, but it adds up quickly especially with shipping rates the way they are.

[Arinoth]

If i'm not mistaken quite a few companies now will only allow you to have warranty for their product if you are within the country of purchase so if you buy say something in the states you have to go back to the states and us a US postal code to actually get your thing RMA'ed otherwise they'll say you voided their contract on the warranty by taking it outside of the country of purchase.

[gingerbee]

Originally Posted by Cowboy

yeah but they're USED. used never = new

I think he meant the For Sale from online vendors which would be new.

[poohbear]

thanks FIxt, that explains alot. Interesting to know, but man its a huge price difference on the LCD i want, its $200 more whereas the original price is $330 in the US. I mean if its a 15% difference then fine, but $200 more on a $330 price tag? that doesnt make any sense.:p