[Davidparis]

I want to see how you get this result. When I try to do it for a 31 Ltd I have this result :

FR (la boutique pentax) :
1 499,00 € including 20% VAT --> 1249.17 € no VAT, including 9% import tax --> 1146.02€ --> 1146.02*131.641429 (rate from google) --> 150 864.30 Y
US (B&H) :
$798.70 no VAT included --> I suppose there is no import tax as it's a favorable case for your theory --> 798.70*121.138704 (rate from google) --> 96 753.48 Y
US (MSRP) :
$1,096.95 no VAT included --> same as before --> 1,096.95*121.138704 --> 132 883.10 Y

So even if there is no import tax for lenses between US and Japan (and I don't know that), FR street price is 56 % Higher than B&H / Adorama retail price and 14% Higher than the very theoretical MSRP.
The answer is NO it's not explaining the price disparity.

If you buy it from B&H, all taxes and surcharges are calculated by them and You get it at home in a week for a total cost of $1,097.67 (import duties, VAT, surcharge and shipping paid) ~ 1010.10€. You'll pay 48% more to buy it in France. The only question is the warranty but 500€ for 2 years of warranty is a bit too much.

I got my 31Ltd used MIJ and in mint condition for 610€ in the marketplace (from a french seller), nobody is thinking it's possible to sell this lens at 1500€.

I humbly rest my case...!

[Nicolas06]

I've been working 50 hours a week, 252 days a year for 40 years. And I plan to keep working for 15 more years. Nothing is free.



But I can buy an FA31/1.8 really cheap.

Yeah sure. It depend of people, but you don't really choose the country you are born in You can only change after at the cost of seeing your own familly and old friend much less often... Even more so if you decide to go in a country with few vacations.

But if you work 252 days a years, this mean you basilly have no holiday outside the standard one like Christmas, Thankgiving and so on. That 0 possibility to even take a week to see a distant parent. I would not exchange a cheaper FA31 for that for sure ! But to me you also work more than the typical US guy thatif I understand well work around 230-240 days a year.

[Davidparis]

I live and work in France, like every country that's a mix of good and bad things...
- You have 5 weeks of vacation (minimum) if you work 35hours a week. If your contract say you work more per week (that the most common case) and then you get compensated with more vacations. All the job I got I had arround 7 weeks per year. My last contract say I work 214 days a year if you want to be precise.
- Buying a car you may buy a tax if it polute a lot (almost nobody do it), but there no tax for car ownership at all. I heard that it can be quite expensive in US. But in France you pay for most highways.
- The salary you actually get in your bank account, you already have great social security bundled... A friend of mine said he add to pay 400$ a month for his couple.
- Apparently the local taxes bound to a flat are much more expensive in US.
- School is free from the worst to the best in the country. Private might be helpfull if you live a shitty place but if you make an effort in the place you live, you get the best for free. I agree this is not fair as you have to plan to live in area with good schools.
- in France, you get an unlimited mobile plan + mobile internet for €15 and you can cancel at any time.
- ADSL price is 15€, 30€ if bundled with illimited wired phone and TV access to a hundred of TV channels.
- The terrorist are for free, terrible psychologically sure, but the 130 persons killed in Paris last time are rather small compared to the few thousand in the world trade center and in both cases you are much more likely to die out of car accident than to die in a terrorist attack but people are not affraid of their car...
- Overall life expectancy is 4 years more than in US (81 vs 77). Counting that nobody know what is here after and time is the most precious resource you have and never can go back, getting 5% longer life on average is not negligible.
- If you have no money and are legaly there, there lot of social help so you can get almost free flat, you get money to buy things, free public transportation, more money if you have childs etc.

I don't know what is better and don't want to go into political argument. But I'am not sure either US or France people are in a bad situation. I know that if I look the money per inhabitant in France and US corrected of what you can buy is almost the same in France and US and that we are among the most wealthy country in the word.

Sure as an engineer I seen that in the same company I work for, if I asked to go to Boston instead of staying in Nice French Rivieria, I would be paid double and pay far less taxes. That's an issue because many decide to leave for just that reaon but that's another topic. But on the opposite, I get to work in 15 minutes, I can go to sky for the day in winter, I can go to the beach in summer, do hiking in the back country and I'am near my familly...

All that is quite true Nicolas. I personally conclude that life is neither better nor worse in France as compared to the States (25 years here, 25 years there...) it's just different. And finally, life on both sides is quite Western, therefore quite similar. It's just paying twice the price for Pentax equipment here that I find ridiculous. But hey, nothing is perfect. On the other hand, companies like Apple are able to maintain much more homogenous pricing levels around the world. Ricoh doesn't appear interested...

Another way to look at it : Ricoh's Euro prices finance the price differential in favor of the US market. I think we should all receive a complimentary lens for services rendered !

[noelpolar]

Personally, I gave up looking for what one might consider general commonsense in world financial matters some time ago. I can't fathom the ongoing debt some countries are accruing...... just beyond me ........ including my best professional management thinking.

[monochrome]

Personally, I gave up looking for what one might consider general commonsense in world financial matters some time ago. I can't fathom the ongoing debt some countries are accruing...... just beyond me ........ including my best professional management thinking.

The only way to unwind that trade is to inflate all the debt away.

[zapp]

Come on guys. Differences in tax, income, rebate policy, ... I orderd most of my Pentax lenses from B&H shipped internationally. Cheaper than retail prices in Europe.
The news is not that pricing policy sucks, but that the educated buyer can check pricing wordwide now.

[Bophoto]

I suppose this is going OT, but anyway..

Some decades ago, when I migrated from Canada to Australia, I saw that the Mazda RX7, which had a US retail price of about $15K, was about $50K in OZ. At that time, the Australian Dollar was higher than the Canadian Dollar. and, if I'm not mistaken, higher than the US Dollar as well.

Local dealers were telling me that it's import duties, taxes, etc, but simple math said otherwise. I concluded that distributors set prices according to:

1. Limited size markets (i.e. smaller populations).
2. Limited competition in any given class of product.
3. Limited public awareness. The US market, in the past at least, was very sensitive to prices higher than necessary (I'm not so sure this is quite as true today). In many cases. Australians were actually unaware that they were being ripped off.

The above are not meant to imply that I believe myself to have any special knowledge of marketing strategies. They are merely guesses based on observations.

Or that people see as a acceptably price are that set the price. As you say US market are very sensitive, so they have lower prices.
I was check prices in EU and USA for some year ago, and for Pentax and Canikon prices was around 30-50% higher in EU. But Sigma lenses had the same price!!
Walmart have 1$ articles and i heard that Kines companies sometimes sell to Walmart with loss to get in to the market.
I was buying a motorcycle in -85 and pay 50.000SEK for it. In an vacation i Germany i see that it cost perhaps 35.000SEK there.
The answer came some year later, custom taxes was high in Denmark on motor vehicle and they were very progressive. So the price was much higher to Sweden and probably Norway and Finland. So the Japan company's was selling for perhaps 15.000 for this bike to Denmark and to that price the tax was acceptable, perhaps 30-40.000, so the end price to customer could be 60.000 (a import price of 25.000 had make a tax of 50-70.000). Conclusion, acceptable price in both country and they sell more bikes. But we have free prices in most country, there i live bread are more expensive than pork...

[Nicolas06]

Come on guys. Differences in tax, income, rebate policy, ... I orderd most of my Pentax lenses from B&H shipped internationally. Cheaper than retail prices in Europe.
The news is not that pricing policy sucks, but that the educated buyer can check pricing wordwide now.

This was clearly a great idea when 1€ was worth 1.35 or 1.50$. Even after all tax are paid you still get it for a bargain except it get returning the item it a bit painfull.

Now that we are bellow 1.10$ for 1€ this is far less interresting and outside of extreme case not worth the time.

Europe clearly make an effort theses day to lower the currency to make the countries more competitive and help growth.

[Theov39]

I suppose this is going OT, but anyway..

Some decades ago, when I migrated from Canada to Australia, I saw that the Mazda RX7, which had a US retail price of about $15K, was about $50K in OZ. At that time, the Australian Dollar was higher than the Canadian Dollar. and, if I'm not mistaken, higher than the US Dollar as well.

Local dealers were telling me that it's import duties, taxes, etc, but simple math said otherwise. I concluded that distributors set prices according to:

1. Limited size markets (i.e. smaller populations).
2. Limited competition in any given class of product.
3. Limited public awareness. The US market, in the past at least, was very sensitive to prices higher than necessary (I'm not so sure this is quite as true today). In many cases. Australians were actually unaware that they were being ripped off.

The above are not meant to imply that I believe myself to have any special knowledge of marketing strategies. They are merely guesses based on observations.

None of that has changed in Australia. STILL pay a 50-100+ percent 'premium' jjust to buy a vehicle in Australia. Same model, same year.