I suppose Taiwan is the major manufacturing hub for PC parts (for desktop PC, such as GPU, CPU etc), yet the retail price in Taiwan is quite expensive as compared with other countries like US, as if the price in Taiwan had included custom taxes, or is it the case?
I look at it more like there is much more choice (competition) in the US, so the prices there are low. Prices of computer parts in Taiwan are probably comparable or lower than in other parts of the world (except for the US)
I used to regularly shop for computer parts in China, the Philippines and Taiwan. Taiwan was/is my favorite place to buy stuff among the 3. But buying parts online in the US is the cheapest of all.
They really do seem pretty expensive here. Have been for a good while.
I always assumed it was down to taxation - possibly designed to encourage export rather than local sales?
I think we need the perspective of a tech guy who has been here for at least twenty years. I’ve noticed a change. But since I was pursuing a life other than tech stuff, I seem to have lost track of what happened.
OK, around twenty years ago, around the time I came here, Nova was king of Computer retail. In Kaohsiung and Taipei you can visit this multi storey computer flea market, visit a few shops and get a custom built computer.
Just before I came here in New Jersey, there were computer shows and swap shops and fairs in public areas like school parking lots, gyms and arenas. You can have your computer thrown together right there. From guys standing behind folding tables with boxes of parts on the floor behind them.
The guys were from Taiwan. The parts were also from Taiwan.
Every few years my computer would take a dive and I’d have a local computer shop owner help me build a new computer. I happen to be buddies with the local computer guys so he would only really charge me his supplier cost. I really don’t notice the prices going up. I think I’ve actually been spending less than for more power than before. But, I have not been to American so I don’t know that the prices have dropped there.
One thing I 've noticed is my buddy now buys more at the big stores like Sun Fair where he gets his volume discount and makes his money more by repair and support. I don’t see walking wholesale computer shops anymore. But I guess there competition is there to keep the retail stores giving us fair prices. One Geek’s opinion.
I think the real cause if volume. I’m not going to talk about buying parts and building it yourself, I’m just going to talk about brand name computers with warranties and repairs.
The manufacturing companies don’t really see any differences from the US retail companies and Taiwanese retail companies, even when the retail company is related to the manufacturer. The one that buys more gets more room to negotiate price. In Taiwan, no matter how many competition there are, there are simply less people to buy computers.
With less people buying computers and less computers sold, providing services also becomes more expansive. I don’t know how well the technicians are paid in Taiwan or the US, but there are more users justifying the cost in the US.
As for shipping, the computers and its parts are shipped all over the world before it’s even made. The fee per unit to ship a small amount of computers to Taiwan from China might cost about the same as shipping a lot of them to the US.
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That’s a great question. In short, it’s a small market with entry barriers (regulatory and otherwise), which results in limited competition.
If you ship stuff from the US though, it’s only taxed at 5% (or nothing if valued under 3,000 TWD) so that’s an option you might want to consider.
Volume is exactly the reason.
I helped a friend buy an Asus in the US instead of in Taiwan. With postage, import fees and the original price of the laptop, it still worked out at half the cheapest price it could be found for in Taiwan - and it had more RAM as well. The prices here are utterly ridiculous.
The employees at an Apple shop in Taipei, after I told them I was considering buying in either Taiwan or USA, once recommended I buy my iPad in USA because it’s cheaper.
@spaint This reflects my experience exactly: I bought an Asus Zenbook UX31A in the US for some $800 when the price in Taiwan was in the order of TWD 50,000.
@tango42 I always thought Apple was an exception to the rule. I got an iPad 2 in Taiwan and remember checking at the time that the price difference with the US was just a couple of hundred TWD. It’s been a long time though, so things definitely might have changed.
Also, a friend of mine works for one of the local notebook makers. Pre-production units, often with some issues, are made available for sale to employees, supposedly at a discount. This week the company is offloading a convertible tablet with a non-working touch screen and gravity sensor for nearly the same as Best Buy’s retail price for a fully functional unit in the US.
Yeah I agree, and if an American biz would open stores in Taiwan they would sell Taiwan made products at even lower prices.
My understanding of it is that the market is protected by very high import taxes, so the Taiwanese manufacturers essentially have a monopoly. As with all cases where there is a lack of competition, this means that they can charge whatever they want and people don’t really have a choice.
I’m glad I found this thread! I was comparing prices between here and the UK & US. I was wondering if I wasn’t tech savvy enough, or if things were being lost in translation as I was looking at Taiwanese sites here. Ebay’s shipping and custom charges look good. And Best Buy has great prices, but they don’t ship here, so you would need a shopping concierge service which means extra money of course. Anybody know the best site(s) for buying PC parts etc in the west and having them shipped here?
That’s where it’s not worth it. Most of us that have been here long enough know that buying from overseas websites and shipping to Taiwan, you might as well buy it here.
Issues you may run into:
- Whether they ship to Taiwan
- Customs fee if your parts are expensive
- Shipping cost
- Warranty
Now, I’m not the most tech savvy person, but I’ve bought my fair share of electronics. When it comes to that, there’s only a handful of brands that honor global warranty. Now, I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but just keep it in mind.
If you’re not in a hurry, I’ve found the best way is to buy parts from home and have friends/family bring it over via commercial flights.
Is the price that much different to pay the shipping costs?
Reason why prices are lower - economy of scale.
It really depends on what you buy and from where. I’ve heard shipping costs can cost anything from 30-100USD extra. In the end, if the shipping costs outweigh the cost here in Taiwan, might as well go for it. However, you still run the risk of custom fees if the value of your goods exceeds 90USD.
Are there environmental levies on electronics in cities or in Taiwan?
This is one of the rare occasions where I’d recommend eBay’s global shipping program. You might spend 100 bucks on shipping but it’d include comprehensive insurance and all customs/duties/taxes are already paid. I have two experiences with the service: one was for an item damaged in transit for which I received a full refund (packaging was a disaster and a pack of BOLTS had been added to the package), the second was a laptop computer (the aforementioned Asus) that arrived quickly, cheaply and in perfect working order.
This is actually very useful info @spaint , thanks for sharing.
Has it worked out that the cost of goods + shipping came out cheaper than its cost in Taiwan or was it another reason why you bought from eBay?
It was the entire reason I bought it on eBay. My friend was looking for a Zenbook and couldn’t believe the prices here compared to the offers available in the States. A little shopping around showed that eBay (with the insured/duty prepaid global shipping program) was the best choice by far. It cost him about $770 all told, while the Taiwanese price was something ludicrous like NT$33,000.