Why the massive price difference for laptops in USA vs ZA?

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DJ-DK786

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Hi all!

I'm in the market for a gaming laptop for about R10,000 and recently fell in love with the Dell Inspiron 7559, specifically the i7 version, because it fits in my budget. However, it only fits in my budget if I'm in the US, where it's $800 (Amazon).
Then, I checked the price here. Takealot has it for... R20,000. Almost double the price.

Any reason for this? I get that importing it and customs is expensive but double?
 
It's not just laptops, it's everything. I've started buying everything from overseas including PC's and software recently, example: Win 10 Pro costs R3-4K locally, I bought from the UK delivered for R700. It's mainly import taxes and then all the distributors inbetween, remember Takealot doesn't buy from Dell US (original supplier) which obviously has the lowest cost. Takealot has to buy through a local vendor/ local Dell offices which means there is at least 1 other company in the middle taking their cut. Import taxes is a b1tch though.
 
Also suppliers are ridiculous, for our RHEL Licenses you can go and clearly see the pricing on the website. In US dollars the one we wanted was $349. We were quoted on average R8000 for a license by local suppliers, how is it that they can justify putting on that markup for a license? It's not an actual product they ship in.
 
I regularly import things myself, but dont discount the value of local support if something goes wrong. This is important for some people
 
Have you ever been to Rectron, Axzis, Tarsus, etc... who do you think pays for those huge buildings they are in, all the staff , etc... ?

The harsh reality is the tax man gets his cut, transport and logistics get a cut, then the distributors get a cut, then the retailers get a cut, and by the time it gets to you an $800 goes for R20 000 , its one of the many reasons I wish we had amazon as a retail store here, they are one of the few entities that can buy directly from manufacturers.
 
pvs said:
It's not just laptops, it's everything. I've started buying everything from overseas including PC's and software recently, example: Win 10 Pro costs R3-4K locally, I bought from the UK delivered for R700. It's mainly import taxes and then all the distributors inbetween, remember Takealot doesn't buy from Dell US (original supplier) which obviously has the lowest cost. Takealot has to buy through a local vendor/ local Dell offices which means there is at least 1 other company in the middle taking their cut. Import taxes is a b1tch though.
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OT for this thred, from where in the UK did you buy Windows 10 for R700?
 
Got told to multiply dollars by 24 to get the rate used for import from USA , this is from a company that has sole distribution of the products , so yeah everyone here in SA starts a business to be a millionaire over night
 
Mark-up is insane on local resellers. Core Group's mark-up on Apple products is noting short of daylight robbery.
 
bigboy529 said:
OT for this thred, from where in the UK did you buy Windows 10 for R700?
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Bought it on ebay, specific sellers' shipping is bloody quick. Takes a week for delivery. It's win 10 pro 64bit single language. I can send you his link if you interested.
 
pvs said:
Bought it on ebay, specific sellers' shipping is bloody quick. Takes a week for delivery. It's win 10 pro 64bit single language. I can send you his link if you interested.
Click to expand...

Linky please? Is it dsp or the retail version?
 
DJ-DK786 said:
Hi all!

I'm in the market for a gaming laptop for about R10,000 and recently fell in love with the Dell Inspiron 7559, specifically the i7 version, because it fits in my budget. However, it only fits in my budget if I'm in the US, where it's $800 (Amazon).
Then, I checked the price here. Takealot has it for... R20,000. Almost double the price.

Any reason for this? I get that importing it and customs is expensive but double?
Click to expand...

I can land one for you for R17100, no way you'll get an $800 laptop in for 10k. That particular laptop has $71 sales tax in the states as well, then you need to add in 14% VAT in for here plus the courier charges.

For R10k you're looking at max about a $500 laptop.
 
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Last time I looked there was no import duty on PCs incl laptops. There is Customs VAT (14% on 110% of invoice value), plus of course shipping, insurance, handling, clearance and agent disbursement fees.

Also, you're probably using the wrong exchange rate to compare costs. Most websites quote a mid rate, which is an average of Sell Rate and Buy Rate. In the real world a local importer paying a foreign supplier in say USD would have to use the Sell Rate to sell ZAR and buy USD - and that's about R0.50 in the dollar higher than the Buy Rate. Right now FNB is quoting 13.9678 Sell Rate (to convert ZAR to USD) and 13.4940 Buy Rate (convert USD to ZAR). Of course a large/regular importer would get a slightly better rate, but the spread still applies.

If it's a regular importer with credit terms on supplier, say 45 or 60 days, then the importer will not pay today's quoted rate but generally buy forward at the 45 or 60 day rate, which is different, and generally higher.

Another thing: bear in mind that most stuff on sale today was ordered and imported 2-3 months ago, when the Rand was around 14.3--14.4, ie the forward rate when invoiced by the supplier. A local distributor can't just drop the price for stock ordered and committed (through a forward forex purchase) at a higher forex rate. There's no magic way to get a refund from the supplier or bank when you paid say R14.35 per dollar three months ago but today's rate is R13.89. Obviously.

Lastly, unless the vendor has a local warranty/RMA facility, the local importer has to ship returns overseas, which is much more expensive than domestic shipping in the USA. That has to be funded from margin.
 
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Scale. Container full of laptops goes from China to the US. The same is not true for SA.

And yeah then also taxes etc
 
HavocXphere said:
Scale. Container full of laptops goes from China to the US. The same is not true for SA.

And yeah then also taxes etc
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Both does not compute: A laptop that travels to US in a container then door to door back to SA, plus paying import tax is still cheaper than a laptop bought at a local supplier. No sir I reckon its all the middle man making his cut.
 
AlphaJohn said:
Both does not compute: A laptop that travels to US in a container then door to door back to SA, plus paying import tax is still cheaper than a laptop bought at a local supplier. No sir I reckon its all the middle man making his cut.
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That's the point, how can self import with all the accompanying expenses and no scale of costs benefits from buying bulk be so much cheaper than local retail.

Its basic maths, apart from the after sales warranty support where is this huge local cost of sales creeping in?
 
AlphaJohn said:
Both does not compute: A laptop that travels to US in a container then door to door back to SA, plus paying import tax is still cheaper than a laptop bought at a local supplier. No sir I reckon its all the middle man making his cut.
Click to expand...
Just because its not *all* of the price difference doesn't mean it's not a factor.

It's ultimately a combination of all factors. I believe it's most scale & taxes though cause the local IT hw business is pretty cut-throat & certainly doesn't have margins big enough to explain the bulk of the diff.

Except Apple & Nikon products...something there is seriously fk'd there in ZA. e.g. top of the range iphone:
ZA: R20 999
Europe: 13.5-15k
Some with Nikon...its about double the price.
 
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