A real moneysaver!

[DomValente]

Dom

 

[Scrit]

Perhaps one new piece of relevance in this post was that it involved hand tools.

I think you are right in there being a difference. Hand tools are often manufactured by smaller concerns who are not in the position of the big boys who can and do set internal exchange rates for a year at a time and who tend to export or import profit margins by their manipulation of the wholesale prices.

I don't think it is right to compare prices as though they were like for like, though. For example when I lived in California I would be charged about 7% over the quoted price on the sticker - this being the local sales tax which most states charge (that's 7% over the price in FWW, therefore). If you import from the USA (or do a personal export) you won't be charged the sales tax as the sale is out of state, so I feel the price comparison should be made between the US price (normally quoted sans sales tax) and the UK or EU price less the VAT. I agree, though, it still doesn't add up to the prices charged here. When the pound was trading in the $1.75 area the difference on many items was often not great enough to warrant importing (assuming you were paying shipping, clearance, duty, VAT, etc) but with the pound having risen to the $2 mark it is somewhat more attractive for certain items. Why haven't the retailers dropped their prices? Because they are often holdingg stock bought at a worse exchange rate. That's the joy of being in import/export

Scrit