I am done shopping there… I have this months pricelist from a few vendors… and digging around my house I found some old pricelists from about a year ago. Decided to compare prices expecting to see some positive price changes for the sophisticated tech shopper.
Believe it or not some of the prices have never changed in over a year.
Especially for a 500Gig or 1TB western digital drive. In some cases the prices have actually gone UP… yes pricing on old technology and the prices go UP!?!
video card prices are insane. With some prices rising for old tech.
WTF kind of bullshit is that? Further investigation… not like I need it: 2gigs of 800MHz DDR2 memory ( old as fuuuuuu)… That will be $35 USD… seriously… its like valued at $8… in the USA… thats after importing the same memory from Taiwan. What a joke, there are no DEALS there.
Anyone care to explain the buying culture here?
My feeling is, that everyone has to pay out the mafia and they dictate the prices.
The same thing happened to the Sunday fruit vegetable market there, all the prices were the same ridiculous.
I buy nearly all my electronics outside of Taiwan as it’s cheaper in Hong Kong, USA, even Thailand (just have to be more aware of what your buying).
What about shipping?
And time it takes to get through customs? Customs must eat up your value.
[quote=“downtownandrew”]I am done shopping there… I have this months pricelist from a few vendors… and digging around my house I found some old pricelists from about a year ago. Decided to compare prices expecting to see some positive price changes for the sophisticated tech shopper.
Believe it or not some of the prices have never changed in over a year.
Especially for a 500Gig or 1TB western digital drive. In some cases the prices have actually gone UP… yes pricing on old technology and the prices go UP!?!
video card prices are insane. With some prices rising for old tech.
WTF kind of bullshit is that? Further investigation… not like I need it: 2gigs of 800MHz DDR2 memory ( old as fuuuuuu)… That will be $35 USD… seriously… its like valued at $8… in the USA… thats after importing the same memory from Taiwan. What a joke, there are no DEALS there.
Anyone care to explain the buying culture here?[/quote]
Hardly anyone is producing DDR2 anymore, so new DDR2 RAM is rare and expensive - especially for the bigger sizes (4Gb / 8Gb).
You would get a far better deal looking for old stock on e-bay.
Current DDR3 prices will probably go the same route as production declines in favor of DDR4.
Prices do seem quite high there. I thought it was just my imagination.
Yeah, that was disappointing.
i wouldnt buy in HK either. same deal. cartel and monopoly ensures prices are redonkulous.
I always buy now from Amazon, Ebay, Newegg, etc. IE from America. where it’s cheaper to buy goods made in Asia and shipped to USA than buy them in Asia… f’ed up.
case in point, a Lenovo y50 from amazon (top of the line specs, 4K video, max ram, SSD drive) was still cheaper than the most basic cheapest spec from ANY shop in HK (i visited or called dozens)… and that even includes shipping from the US. as I said, redonkulous
I had the same impression in Guanghua, and I told that to my wife. Then she scolded me for buying like that. Next time we went, she haggled with the guys at the store, and she got about 30-40% off in most articles (except for a WD NAS, where she managed to get only a 20% off).
Apparently, guys expect you to haggle, and go easy on the pricing because they know everyone will try to do that. If a foreigner comes in and buys straight from the rack without haggling, then they get more profit (they won’t tell you “you’re supposed to haggle”).
For me, haggling is an alien concept, specially when buying new products (as opposed to second hand ones).
I usually go to Newton on Bade Rd.
[quote=“Jack Burton”]
I always buy now from Amazon, Ebay, Newegg, etc. IE from America. where it’s cheaper to buy goods made in Asia and shipped to USA than buy them in Asia… f’ed up.[/quote]
It’s not just technology. It’s the same with bicycles, golf clubs, aftermarket car parts, etc. Things are made in bulk for large export markets like the US. The Taiwan market is so small that they don’t even bother siphoning off any inventory to serve the local market. I definitely try to buy any higher priced items in the States when I can.
There are good deals to be had at Guang Hua, but haggling is the only way to unlock them.
I am sometimes surprised but in general many items I buy are priced lower off island, even when factoring in shipping. Any trip home there is an unfortunate amount of time is spent shopping for the essentials and non-essentials.
Even Europe is cheaper or equal in price and that’s after shipping, import duty, VAT(21%), higher energy costs and rent, higher labor costs for store clerks … but as said, don’t pay the price it shows on the tag, they almost always tell you the shown price is not the price you pay except for some chain stores like 3C something, they have a fixed price, same as shown on their web sites.
Same goes for cameras, lenses etc … only if you need the ‘Taiwan’ waranty you pay full price, else you can get a ‘gray’ import. Some stores don’t do that but that’s their problem.
[quote=“Belgian Pie”]
Same goes for cameras, lenses etc … only if you need the ‘Taiwan’ waranty you pay full price, else you can get a ‘gray’ import. Some stores don’t do that but that’s their problem.[/quote]
I never know how they work out the gray pricing. Last camera body I bought had a recommended price globally of US$3500. The cheapest online was at B&H in NYC where it was on sale at US$3200. I bought it gray here for NT$82000 which at the time worked out to be about US$2800-2900. Apparently Taiwan was the cheapest in the world at the time, and they were getting dealers from HK flying in to buy them and take to HK to sell gray there. But it was already a gray import here, so where was it coming from? 
Last time some friends from Spain came here, one of them bought a lens for her Sony alpha camera. The lens in Barcelona was about 500€, and she bought it in Guanghua for about 10000NT$ (that was when the euro was at 40NT$, so it was approximately 250€, or half price). Haggling and not needing the taiwanese warranty did the rest.
In terms of warranty, though, nothing beats Japan: I bought a Sanyo photo/video handheld camera in 2004, and they offered worldwide warranty by default. Even when that camera was only sold at Japan, you could drop it by any Sanyo service center and they would fix it free of charge (providing the damage was not intentional).
[quote=“cfimages”][quote=“Belgian Pie”]
Same goes for cameras, lenses etc … only if you need the ‘Taiwan’ waranty you pay full price, else you can get a ‘gray’ import. Some stores don’t do that but that’s their problem.[/quote]
I never know how they work out the gray pricing. Last camera body I bought had a recommended price globally of US$3500. The cheapest online was at B&H in NYC where it was on sale at US$3200. I bought it gray here for NT$82000 which at the time worked out to be about US$2800-2900. Apparently Taiwan was the cheapest in the world at the time, and they were getting dealers from HK flying in to buy them and take to HK to sell gray there. But it was already a gray import here, so where was it coming from? [/quote]
Just don’t ask, it doesn’t matter. If you know the addresses you can have good deals on photography equipment.
[quote=“monkey”]
Hardly anyone is producing DDR2 anymore, so new DDR2 RAM is rare and expensive - especially for the bigger sizes (4Gb / 8Gb).
You would get a far better deal looking for old stock on e-bay.
Current DDR3 prices will probably go the same route as production declines in favor of DDR4.[/quote]
Look I can guarantee you, that no one is producing “NEW” DDR2 RAM, unless they just want to toss their whole company into bankruptcy.
old memory historically goes DOWN in price, not up. Unless you are some kind of creepy historian !?! :roflmao:
Sure they’re still producing DDR2. It gets used in industrial applications (which can’t be updated on a whim to whatever memory is available this week). PCs aren’t the only application for electronic parts. I’ve got two board designs here that we’re still manufacturing, one with plain old DDR and one with SDR.
Still, if you buy “old” memory on a DIMM it will cost more than the fashionable type.
[quote=“cfimages”][quote=“Belgian Pie”]
Same goes for cameras, lenses etc … only if you need the ‘Taiwan’ waranty you pay full price, else you can get a ‘gray’ import. Some stores don’t do that but that’s their problem.[/quote]
I never know how they work out the gray pricing. Last camera body I bought had a recommended price globally of US$3500. The cheapest online was at B&H in NYC where it was on sale at US$3200. I bought it gray here for NT$82000 which at the time worked out to be about US$2800-2900. Apparently Taiwan was the cheapest in the world at the time, and they were getting dealers from HK flying in to buy them and take to HK to sell gray there. But it was already a gray import here, so where was it coming from? [/quote]
i saw quite a few pieces come from Thailand. not sure why though or how that works. i understand some of nikon’s stuff is made there now. wonder if its snuck out the backdoor
Me trying to buy a GPU in 2021
Here is more blast from the past:
Computer Geeks’ Paradise
Credit Kazuhiro Matsuzaki (松崎一博)
The photo, taken during Computex Taipei in June 1988, shows the entrance of Guanghua Market, arguably Taiwan’s largest electronics and computer marketplace. The popular venue, then situated under an elevated road, was later demolished and relocated.