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Miguelsan wrote:I wonder when GW will start with the dissclaimer:

This book is not intended for use outside the US. To do so will be a violation of the warranty

Sony and other companies love that stuff on their products.

M.

That's because due to different electrical systems, TV and Radio transmission systems, etc, electronics bought in one country often won't work in another one.

For instance, last time I was in Japan I bought a new digicam, and it only has Japanese menus. I read enough Japanese this does not matter, but it would screw an ordinary tourist. To be fair, the guy in the shop warned me. Of course when I got home, I found the battery charger fits the Japanese socket, so I had to buy a plug adaptor for UK.

I tell the story to illustrate the problems of sending stuff to a different country.

I sympathise with Miguelsan's problem. We can only hope that, since GW have reportedly written 5th edition a lot better then 4th edition, perhaps they will get professional with the translated editions too. God knows, they don't need to annoy European customers any more than they have to. They need to get sales into the Euro zone headed upwards again.

JohnHwangDD wrote:

Cheexsta wrote:Ridiculous. Paying for convenience? No convenience is worth an extra 100% after shipping and exchange costs for exactly the same product from the same company

Really? Why is it that a can of soda bought in bulk from my grocery store is $0.25, but it's $0.50 when I buy individually from the vending machine, and whopping $1.00 when I want it cold from the gas station? Why is it that a $1 super-soda at the convenience store costs $5 at the movies?

Could it be this magical thing called "convenience"?

Replace "100%" with "$100" then. Better?

The point I was making is this: the rulebook itself is US$50 vs AU$85, which is only around a 60% increase when you take exchange rate into account. I can stand that; unlike the US, we don't manufacture GW products here so the company has to import everything, so naturally it would be more expensive. Why, then, is this one product more than double the cost of its US counterpart when the rulebook is only 60% more? Is shipping a bunch of these things so much harder for Australia compared to just the rulebook on its own? Are there a more limited number of them?

Using your "soda" example, that's like having a bottle of Coke cost $1 at the grocery store and $1.60 at the vending machine, but Diet Coke would cost $1 at the store and $2 from the vending machine. Why would you do that?

And following the "soda" example too, the problem with Sony and other worldwide companies is that they understand the term globalization as producing the soda at the cheapest place of the country as well as forbiding customers to go to that place to get their sodas cheaper. At that point convenience becomes "market segmentation" and the game becomes one of sucking clients dry before they can find alternatives.
GW is not there yet but some of their recent internet sales policies (e.g. no shopping cart for internet shops) point on the right direction.

M.

Miguelsan wrote:And following the "soda" example too, the problem with Sony and other worldwide companies is that they understand the term globalization as producing the soda at the cheapest place of the country as well as forbiding customers to go to that place to get their sodas cheaper. At that point convenience becomes "market segmentation" and the game becomes one of sucking clients dry before they can find alternatives.
GW is not there yet but some of their recent internet sales policies (e.g. no shopping cart for internet shops) point on the right direction.

M.

Well of course this is true, and it is why DVDs have a region lock. Thankfully videogames are usually region free these days.

Another point about globalisation is that it allows the free movement of capital, but not of people.

Typeline wrote:You can have her. And keep your fancy Coger-ing to yourself aswell!

My language is different, so we ain't keeping anything

You can actually keep Pamela, Monica Belluci is still as hot as they could ever possibly come. And Carla Bruni. And Helena Coelho.

Miguelsan wrote:And following the "soda" example too, the problem with Sony and other worldwide companies is that they understand the term globalization as producing the soda at the cheapest place of the country as well as forbiding customers to go to that place to get their sodas cheaper.

Ah yes: the beauty of... arbitrage?

Cheexsta wrote:

JohnHwangDD wrote:Really? Why is it that a can of soda bought in bulk from my grocery store is $0.25, but it's $0.50 when I buy individually from the vending machine, and whopping $1.00 when I want it cold from the gas station? Why is it that a $1 super-soda at the convenience store costs $5 at the movies?

Could it be this magical thing called "convenience"?

Replace "100%" with "$100" then. Better?

The point I was making is this: the rulebook itself is US$50 vs AU$85, which is only around a 60% increase when you take exchange rate into account. I can stand that; unlike the US, we don't manufacture GW products here so the company has to import everything, so naturally it would be more expensive. Why, then, is this one product more than double the cost of its US counterpart when the rulebook is only 60% more? Is shipping a bunch of these things so much harder for Australia compared to just the rulebook on its own? Are there a more limited number of them?

Using your "soda" example, that's like having a bottle of Coke cost $1 at the grocery store and $1.60 at the vending machine, but Diet Coke would cost $1 at the store and $2 from the vending machine. Why would you do that?

It is entirely possible that shipping rulebooks is different from shipping other things, due to density of weight vs dollar value. Or it may be that GW chooses to segment their market overhad costs on a regional basis. With the US having larger economy of scale, along with local production, we have a low cost. Non-US overhead might be much higher proportionally, and GW may not have assigned the US to carry any of that load.

Perhaps there are lots more fatties buying soda at that vending machine, so we chooses to make fatties pay more for "diet" products. Or it could be magical ingredients - after all, you pay more for a rosbif sandwich compared to a couple slices of plain bread.

When you look at dollar costs per model, why is it that 10 Daemonettes cost a lot less to buy than 10 CSM or SM? Yet their points values are similar?

Kilkrazy wrote:Well of course this is true, and it is why DVDs have a region lock. Thankfully videogames are usually region free these days.

And that is why the Chinese created the all-region / region-free DVD player, along with no-region DVD duplicator. God bless the Chinese in their wisdom.

Everything is always cheaper in the USA.

Economies of scale may have something to do with that however one important reason is that since the 2nd World War the US dollar has been the world's premier reserve currency.

This means that other countries want to get dollars for their foreign exchange reserves. This inflates the value of the dollar higher than it would achieve based just on the strength of the US economy. It enables the US to buy imports more cheaply, and more easily sell government bonds.

Kilkrazy wrote:Everything is always cheaper in the USA.

Economies of scale may have something to do with that however one important reason is that since the 2nd World War the US dollar has been the world's premier reserve currency.

This means that other countries want to get dollars for their foreign exchange reserves. This inflates the value of the dollar higher than it would achieve based just on the strength of the US economy. It enables the US to buy imports more cheaply, and more easily sell government bonds.

In before Pronographic Euro Love, and End-of-the-World U.S. Economic Analysis from some guy who watched CNN once.

Miguelsan wrote:And following the "soda" example too, the problem with Sony and other worldwide companies is that they understand the term globalization as producing the soda at the cheapest place of the country as well as forbiding customers to go to that place to get their sodas cheaper. At that point convenience becomes "market segmentation" and the game becomes one of sucking clients dry before they can find alternatives.
GW is not there yet but some of their recent internet sales policies (e.g. no shopping cart for internet shops) point on the right direction.

M.

Considering sony produces thousands of different products typically assembled by part in china with parts manufacturing happening in over twenty different countries i wouldn't call them the driving force behind market partitioning. Especially when you consider that most market regions have very different laws concerning market tarifs, taxes, and all manner of other import legislation. In fact sony is one of the less egregious offenders, samsung is in the middle of a price fixing and corruption scandal as i type this and toshiba sold nuclear secrets to the soviets so it's all in how you look at it.

Honestly thats just how megalithic supercompanies operate. They are too large for straight forward pricing across the board, especially with something as fickle as consumer electronics. Use apple as an example of price fixing, it's easier and they sell like 20 products (and use slave labor in production of the Iphone).


Unfortunatly as for the spanish pricing goes, if spanish language copies are in very limited supply with moderate demand it doesn't surprise me that they would up the fee of the book. It's an easy dollar.

ShumaGorath wrote:

Miguelsan wrote:And following the "soda" example too, the problem with Sony and other worldwide companies is that they understand the term globalization as producing the soda at the cheapest place of the country as well as forbiding customers to go to that place to get their sodas cheaper. At that point convenience becomes "market segmentation" and the game becomes one of sucking clients dry before they can find alternatives.
GW is not there yet but some of their recent internet sales policies (e.g. no shopping cart for internet shops) point on the right direction.

M.

Considering sony produces thousands of different products typically assembled by part in china with parts manufacturing happening in over twenty different countries i wouldn't call them the driving force behind market partitioning. Especially when you consider that most market regions have very different laws concerning market tarifs, taxes, and all manner of other import legislation. In fact sony is one of the less egregious offenders, samsung is in the middle of a price fixing and corruption scandal as i type this and toshiba sold nuclear secrets to the soviets so it's all in how you look at it.

Honestly thats just how megalithic supercompanies operate. They are too large for straight forward pricing across the board, especially with something as fickle as consumer electronics. Use apple as an example of price fixing, it's easier and they sell like 20 products (and use slave labor in production of the Iphone).


Unfortunatly as for the spanish pricing goes, if spanish language copies are in very limited supply with moderate demand it doesn't surprise me that they would up the fee of the book. It's an easy dollar.

Sony was only an example. All major global companies do this.

The point about the rules pricing is that GW make their money from the figures. If they sell fewer rulebooks they are choking off figure demand.