Quote:
Originally Posted by Leaping Gnome
Just to give you an idea, I did it for less than twenty bucks, mostly to cover the gas on my car and give me a little incentive to go stand in line at the post office for half of my lunch hour. I don't mind doing favors for people at all, most of you know I do the gift card exchanges for free so our foreign members can purchase Connect books, it's only a few clicks and doesn't cost me any gas. 
It is not as simple as "here's $350, ship me a Reader please", there is sales tax, paypal fees, shipping, insurance, it all adds up.
For example, I'm not sure if there is anywhere around me that has the $299 price, I know the local Borders has the $349 price, so let's assume that. $349 + 6% Kentucky sales tax = $370 + $46 2-3 day European shipping with insurance = $416 + $3 packing supplies = $419 + 4% paypal fee = $436 total. Round it up to $450 to compensate for my time and gas. There you go, at least an extra $100 over the MSRP to make it worth it for me to ship one internationally. If one can be found locally for $299, drop it to $400. If you can find someone in a state without sales tax, you can save another $20 or so.
If the stars all align and you get someone that has one local for $299, in one of the five states with no sales tax, and they don't mind doing it at a cost to themselves (time and gas), you can squeak in right around $363
shipped. |
It actually won't cost me any gas if I just walk up to the post office (as long as it's a nice enough day out). Good chance to get out and get some exercise. I could order one from B&H for example and get it at the $299 price + shipping which would be cheaper then the $349 price. Yes there are some other costs associated with this like the PayPal fee, the shipping cost, any import tax and what not. But it's still cheaper then buying from someone on ebay charging $416 for the unit without any other fees. Because $416 is just the unit itself and then there is shipping to be added on top of that.