I don't think they do that in Europe, at least, not in France.I'm pretty familiar with what US audio equipment goes for in Japan and Australia. It's a 20-30% percent markup over US list, that it gets bought says something for the quality of the product. Of course it's all high end specialty stuff, expensive even here.
Actually it's cheaper to order higher end electronics through Hong Kong, as long as you can find out where they're made--i.e., which factories. Western brands are made side by side with Chinese and Japanese brands, all in China. Since I was looking for Shortwave radios and receivers, I only looked for the same items with different trademarks. For the shortwaves, Eton/Grundig are made along with Tecsun. Kaito and Degen are almost identical, Sangean makes some items for Radio Shack and C. Crane. My Tecsun was identical to the Eton radio for less than half the price. Adding the shipping and insurance still came to about $40 less than the Eton. BUT I had to make tiny labels to cover the Chinese characters with ones I could read.
I bought the Kaito for US market instead of the Degen and don't have to deal with labels or AC adapter/chargers that are almost impossible to find [220v-->110v]. Bigger receivers are also cheaper shipped through Hong Kong, but prices in Hong Kong itself aren't very good.
Small stuff I order from HK. I'd rather pay more and buy bigger items here. Keeps some money here, and is more convenient if anything goes wrong. Besides when you order from China, you have to figure out if it's the real thing, like the Nokia N79 I'm considering, or if it's made by Nokla [NOKLA]. Not too much of a problem with fakes ordering from Western Europe.
BTW, the Australian dollar is 20-30% less than the US$. ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
