Why I'm not going to buy eDGe... at least in Europe... (a few words about pricing)

Originally Posted by Jerry

I Mentioned the PocketBook in my earlier postand they seem to be using the same German distributor that Entourage are using. So expect the same price differentials.

Ah, see your reasoning. But I think that you are in error there, as PocketBook has it's own subsidiary in Germany, and a number of retailers it works with in germany and elsewhere. So it's a different story there.

The eDGe is distributed in Germany and the BeNeLux via a firm in the Netherlands, NDIGO Business (I bought from them, when they still had the preorder rebate).

However only the one on-line retailer in the UK.

Has anyone at Entourage ever given a valid reason as to why they will not sell Direct outside of the US or Canada?

I just Noticed that Staples is an Entourage Edge supplier and Staples UK is a subsidary so when they said they were looking for other European Outlets they didnt look very hard. Just Go to Staples website ans select UK. Hopefully if they do sell it they wont hike the price up too much.

I live in Russia. I got my eDGe delivered to me from the US store through a freight forwarding company. I'm happy!

Originally Posted by Burgher

I live in Russia. I got my eDGe delivered to me from the US store through a freight forwarding company. I'm happy!

Well, no one says you can't. And actually everyone says "let's do it" because it is so much cheaper than buing in EU shops.
The point is that when forwarding from USA you pay US taxes (which you should be able to have returned, but you don't) and you pay for shipping twice. So, yes, you can do it, but it is still more expensive then it could be or should be.

And the European price, even after excluding VAT is still higher then the US price by a mile.

Originally Posted by borisb

So, if I understand correctly, iPad prices aren't too different in euros from the US price.

No, that's not true. The problem with most of the above posts is that they give you numbers that looks similar, but they some are in $ some in € and some in £. The pricecs vary between $160 and $250. So just like with EE, it is cheaper to buy iPads in USA, pay US taxes, pay inland shipping, then pay for forwarding from USA to EU. You would still pay much less then in USA.

Only when customs officers catch your parcel and make you pay VAT (18-23%), the price will be just the same.
At the moment $1 = €0.717 = £0.626.

Originally Posted by Melkor

The point is that when forwarding from USA you pay US taxes (which you should be able to have returned, but you don't) and you pay for shipping twice.

I ordered my Edge from the US, via a forwarding service and didn't pay any taxes, just shipping to my forwarder.

Originally Posted by emen

I ordered my Edge from the US, via a forwarding service and didn't pay any taxes, just shipping to my forwarder.

How does this work?


I was just about to give up as from next month I can but a good 10 inch tablet (Advent Vega) and a good e-reader for around £400 $640. A lot cheaper than the Edge in the EU and this includes Taxes.

I have a feeling that Edge will lose its chance at gaining a foothold in a very competitive market (based on Tablet/ e-reader sales predicitons) I feel there is considerable price fixing in the EU and a virtual monopoly by one player. I doubt if edge are benefiting much from this, I would have thought volume sales would be important for this product to become mainstream.

Originally Posted by Melkor

No, that's not true. The problem with most of the above posts is that they give you numbers that looks similar, but they some are in $ some in € and some in £. The pricecs vary between $160 and $250. So just like with EE, it is cheaper to buy iPads in USA, pay US taxes, pay inland shipping, then pay for forwarding from USA to EU. You would still pay much less then in USA.

Only when customs officers catch your parcel and make you pay VAT (18-23%), the price will be just the same.
At the moment $1 = €0.717 = £0.626.

Thanks for the clarification

Originally Posted by emen

I ordered my Edge from the US, via a forwarding service and didn't pay any taxes, just shipping to my forwarder.

Well, as far as I understand US taxes (from various posts at this forum) you already have state taxes added to the price of any object you buy. So the price of EE you see on the entourage webpage rose due to state taxes and later shipping to your forwarder. You just don't know that you already paid US taxes.

And even if there was no tax (which I doubt as this is how administrations and governmments get their funding) you still paid for double shipping. First to your forwarder, and then for forwarding itself. It also included some extra money the forwarder wanted to earn. They don't do it for free, you know ;-)

Just to show you the difference. Quite often when buying from China, or more generally from Asia, the shipping cost is $0 worldwide.
So consider this. If you could buy EE as you did (paying for double shipping and making the forwarder profit) or pay $0 for having EE shipped directly from its Chinese manufacturer (hinted a few times at various posts here and there) which option would you choose?

Originally Posted by Melkor

Well, as far as I understand US taxes (from various posts at this forum) you already have state taxes added to the price of any object you buy. So the price of EE you see on the entourage webpage rose due to state taxes and later shipping to your forwarder. You just don't know that you already paid US taxes.

There is no state sales tax unless the seller has a "physical presence" (for example, a brick-and-mortar store) in the state where the buyer resides (or in this case, the state of the forwarder). So, buyers living in whatever state Entourage is headquartered in have to pay sales tax but no one else does. This is due to the fact that only the federal government is allowed to regulate interstate commerce, and currently there is no federal sales tax.

Yup. Same applies in Canada.

There have been proposals for a federal "Internet Sales Tax" in Congress a few times, but they never got passed. Surprising in a way, since retailers like Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble have been lobbying hard for it, claiming it's unfair that they have to charge sales tax for online orders but their strictly-online competitors (for example, Amazon) don't.

@ Jerry and Melkor: I believe Chubulor was right. I used forwardit for forwarding my Edge, and payed $499 plus shipping, $40.

Jerry, if you want to use a tablet and an e-reader for academic purposes, there isn't really anything decent available right now except for the Edge. Even its big screen sometimes isn't enough for articles and scanned books. I also own a 6" reader which is nice for recreational reading, but it is of no use when it comes to journal articles etc. There are some 9" readers announced for October or November I think (e.g. Pocketbook), but in Europe the price will be 400 euros.

Originally Posted by Chubulor

There have been proposals for a federal "Internet Sales Tax" in Congress a few times, but they never got passed. Surprising in a way, since retailers like Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble have been lobbying hard for it, claiming it's unfair that they have to charge sales tax for online orders but their strictly-online competitors (for example, Amazon) don't.

Well, guys, I must believe in what you're writing here. But then it's no surprise America is thriving. No taxes (even when only in some cases) is awsome. Unfair or even unjust, but still awsome. In EU taxes seem to be the reason to live for...

Well I manged to buy an EE on Ebay from a private seller (US) , so I wish you all luck with your quest.