[simonjames]

Hi

anyone had experiences with buying Apple hardware overseas?

I am traveling around the world in May and have been comparing the price of Apple hardware on the Apple Australia and Apple USA sites and have been thinking of buying maybe a new screen o/s as it looks like I could save lots of money doing so.

For example
the Apple 17" display is $699 USD (from the Apple Store)
I am going to LA and NYC so I've assumed a 6% sales tax
This brings the display to $741USD
With an exchange rate of $0.77USD to $1AUD
the screen becomes $962AUD which is significantly less than the $1300AUD Apple are asking for here - even when 10% GST is added to the price. A total saving of $240AUD

Questions
Have I got my calculations right?
Is it worth it? Its possible the screen could be damaged by the airlines in transit and then where would I be
Is it possible to buy sales tax free in the States?
What is the full duty on a monitor in Australia (I surfed for hald an hour and couldn't find an exact rate)?
If the screen goes bust within the warranty period will Apple Australia service the screen free of charge?
Have I missed anything?

thanks to anyone who can help


cheers



Simon

[disectamac]

I'll take a stab at it since it doesn't look like anyone else will. Your calculations are only off by a few cents so your good as long as the exchange rate is .77 to 1.

Check the overall dimensions of the screen, I would try to throw it on a carry on that way it won't get thrown around by the neanderthals. Import duty? I've never paid import duties for anything I own, bought for personal use and paid taxes for in the respective country. It should be Non-dutiable to Australia

[paully dub]

I bought a tibook online, had it sent to my mom in NY, who fedexed it to me in France. Customs people caught it at the border and sent it back (at my expense). Mom put it in a different box with some other stuff, sent it again and it made it through.

Point is, it had lots of air miles on it before I had even used it.

Opened it up and it was just fine. One year later no problems.

[mac-at-kearsarge]

If you come to the east Coast, New Hampshire is a sales tax free state that has an Apple Store as well as several other retailers (Like the Best Buy I work at) carry the full Apple Product range. We actually get a large percentage of international travers in our store doing exactly what your looking to do, buy them without sales tax, then ship them home.

[simonjames]

thanks people - I'll investigate the shipping from the US back to Oz as I don't really feel like carrying a monitor around for another 5 weeks.

b-t-w all iPod accessories are about two-thirds the cost in the US (compared to the Australian price) - the Belkin iTrip is almost half price

[veryniceguy2002]

Originally posted by simonjames:
Hi

For example
the Apple 17" display is $699 USD (from the Apple Store)
I am going to LA and NYC so I've assumed a 6% sales tax
This brings the display to $741USD
With an exchange rate of $0.77USD to $1AUD
the screen becomes $962AUD which is significantly less than the $1300AUD Apple are asking for here - even when 10% GST is added to the price. A total saving of $240AUD

Questions
Have I got my calculations right?

Sounds about right, except the US$ to A$ exchange rate changes so dramtically all the time!

Is it worth it? Its possible the screen could be damaged by the airlines in transit and then where would I be

I guess there's always such possibility.
Bear in mind that the new US air transport regulation that any checkin lugguage into/out of/within US must be unlocked for the ease of security check. So there's possibility your monitor can be damaged due to security check.

Is it possible to buy sales tax free in the States?
What is the full duty on a monitor in Australia (I surfed for hald an hour and couldn't find an exact rate)?

Do you mean custom duty in Australia?
Have a look at the custom's website, in particular this page.

Bear in mind if you are going to post it back to Australia, your package will be more likely to be checked by customs if you use a courier company than using post office. (And a side notice: US postal service is less efficient than Australia Post, and from my experience in US you have to queue to wait 0.5 hour in the post office just to get served...)

If the screen goes bust within the warranty period will Apple Australia service the screen free of charge?
Have I missed anything?

Unlikely, as it is not a laptop.
I hope you had exchanged some US notes already, since the Aussie dollar is fallen from the 7 year high...

I know in US they have a lot of factory outlets (like Prime Outlets) where they sell refub stuff cheap. May be some of the US user can tell you if there is any outlets that sells Mac or Mac related gears around in US. (I only shopped in the Sony outlets in San Marcos in Texas before)

The most important thing is: enjoy your trip!

[veryniceguy2002]

Originally posted by mac-at-kearsarge:
If you come to the east Coast, New Hampshire is a sales tax free state that has an Apple Store as well as several other retailers (Like the Best Buy I work at) carry the full Apple Product range. We actually get a large percentage of international travers in our store doing exactly what your looking to do, buy them without sales tax, then ship them home.

Yes, I remember Best Buy when I was in US in 1999. It is huge (from an Aussie prespective) I like the idea that signing the credit card voucher using an LCD screen instead of on the paper!

How full range are the Mac stuff in Best Buy nowadays? (When I was there it was the time when Best Buy stop selling Mac stuff). Does it have more stuff than CompUSA at the moment?

For simonjames, stores like Best Buy and CompUSA open late everynight (I think a lot of them close 10PM) except Sunday (close 8PM), so you can do your shopping at night time, and do your sightseeing during day time.

Would they be any of those stores open 24 hours? (I remember some Target stores in Texas open 24 hours a day...)

[mac-at-kearsarge]

Originally posted by veryniceguy2002:
Yes, I remember Best Buy when I was in US in 1999. It is huge (from an Aussie prespective) I like the idea that signing the credit card voucher using an LCD screen instead of on the paper!

How full range are the Mac stuff in Best Buy nowadays? (When I was there it was the time when Best Buy stop selling Mac stuff). Does it have more stuff than CompUSA at the moment?

For simonjames, stores like Best Buy and CompUSA open late everynight (I think a lot of them close 10PM) except Sunday (close 8PM), so you can do your shopping at night time, and do your sightseeing during day time.

Would they be any of those stores open 24 hours? (I remember some Target stores in Texas open 24 hours a day...)

Currently, not all Best Buys Apple Systems, however everything is avalible for order through bestbuy.com (They all sell iPods though and as I have been wathing the numbers, extremely well too!). The ones that do are in key places where there is a demand for Apple but there aren't any stores that sell them.

At My store (# 868 in W. Lebanon, NH), is close to Dartmouth (A huge Apple friendly college. Remember Fetch FTP?) So there is demand.

What we have in stock actually in the store are:

SYSTEMS:
- 1.6 G5's
- 15" and 17" iMacs
- eMacs with Superdrives.
- 12" iBooks
- 12" and 17" Powerbooks

DISPLAYS:
17" and 20" Studio Displays

SOFTWARE:
Panther
iLife 'o4
Final Cut Express
AppleWorks
MS Office
Quicken
YurboTax
Halo
Unreal Tournament

All G3 Ipods too.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things.

Also, are prices are locked in with Apple's so the price is the same as if you had bought it directly from Apple.

One last thing. If you're looking for an iPod mini, Due to limited space in many stores, they are only selling the silver version in stores, although like what I mentioned before, all the colors are avalibe at bestbuy.com.

[Link]

Originally posted by veryniceguy2002:
Yes, I remember Best Buy when I was in US in 1999. It is huge (from an Aussie prespective) I like the idea that signing the credit card voucher using an LCD screen instead of on the paper!

*smirks* lately out here EVERY store has that O_O... but it gets annoying when they replace the atm card systems with those because you have to mess with the pen to get in the pin number :shrug:

[urbatronik]

i bought my 15'' imac 800 here in mexico
price: $24000 pesos = $2400 dollars (or a lil bit more)