It seems that it’s cheaper for me to get round trip tickets to Tokyo (~6000 NT) and buy a Fender Player Series Mexican Stratocaster there (~16000 NT with the current exchange rate) than to buy the same strat here in Taiwan (~28000 NTD). Heck I could have a nice little weekend trip as well and not lose any money.
Curious about why we have this crazy price difference. Any ideas?
I have no idea. I feel like the shops must have crazy margins on mexican strats. Mexican strats are really poor value in Taiwan, the American strat prices are more in line with the rest of the world it seems.
I kinda hate music stores in Taiwan for this reason.
Do you have any recommendations for intermediate level strat style guitars here that are good value for money
No idea but I did notice that the even price of the entry level squire guitars that in the USA cost close to nothing here aren’t cheap.
I thought of doing something like that before. For a bit more money you can visit places and have some fun.
EDIT: Import taxes and the island effect?
I don’t know about island effect, Japan is an island too, and import taxes for guitars aren’t that high. But the music shop act as if they went to the US, paid MSRP, and import tax on it to explain why the prices are crazy (there is no way they can run a legitimate business if they are paying MSRP for everything… either that or they are money laundering). Actually now that I think about it the prices for anything Mexican is just nuts, this goes also for Mexican Martins, Taylors, etc… Perhaps Taiwan has poor diplomatic relationship with Mexico hence the high import tax?
For intermediate level guitar I might suggest some japanese brands (ESP and all that) around the 10,000nt price range. I would still suggest a fret level though in any case because at that price range they sure as hell aren’t going to level them at the factory.
We’re talking electric guitars right? Acoustic guitars are a different ball game.
Quite simply because they can. Wait until you start looking at the price of mixers and midi equipment. Taiwan really is a rip off for those things.
Apart from tofu, what is cheap in Taiwan?
Human labor.
I bought a new MIA Fender Jag in 2016 through a guitar shop in Taichung that advertised the guitar on ruten.com. The price was only insignificantly higher (<100 USD more) than the price at Guitar Center after tax, shipping to Taiwan included. But that was a guitar that cost around 2K USD. So it wasn’t a bad deal. In general, I would never expect to get the same low prices in Taiwan on guitars as I could get in the US. Besides, the used market in the US is huge and you usually get better bang for your buck buying used in the US.
Note also that guitar prices in general, but especially for Fenders, have gone up in recent years, so it’s not just a Taiwan thing:
Guitar Prices Going Up In 2022: Things Are Looking Rather Inflated?.
Stinky tofu. But oddly enough it’s more than just regular tofu. And it’s famous.
I heard there’s a very expensive test that dealers must pay for to import electronic and amps… and any variation in model requires another test be done.
Excellent idea! Tokyo is lots of fun and you’re getting a great deal due to the low JPY!
Actually realized Okinawa also works! More temperate weather, closer to Taiwan with super cheap round trip tickets. Legit considering a weekend trip and bringing back a guitar.
Only issue is that low cost carriers won’t allow an electric guitar as carry-on (not even on Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners). Not sure the best thing to do here, but it’s true that an extra airplane seat on the way back would still keep prices lower overall 
In think a gig bag will be allowed as carry-on luggage. You can also unscrew the neck and carry the guitar in two parts in a regular suitcase.
Check for customs charges, guitars have a distinctive shape and they’ll probably check on the way in to Taiwan
it’s easy to unbolt the neck of a strat, then it fits in a suitcase easily
