Pandora Price In The Uk

[brasco03]

Hi I was wondering why a place I know is charging £273 for a new Pandora including shipping and then the US price is $330 which is quite a bit cheaper,do other people on here know of that taking place?
I have the Wiz and I was wondering if its worth upgrading to the Pandora I know it can handle N64 roms which sounds good,does it play psx games at full speed?
What other reasons make it worth upgrading by most people on here?

Thanks for all your good advice in advance

brasco

 

[gruso]

Sounds like the UK price includes VAT. Where have you seen it? As far as I was aware the only place listing it is Craig's store (gbax.com) and that price is in USD.

 

[brasco03]

Sounds like the UK price includes VAT. Where have you seen it? As far as I was aware the only place listing it is Craig's store (gbax.com) and that price is in USD.

Thats the uk price from Craigs store for me in the uk £273 including vat and delivery
Do you think its worth me getting it if I already have the wiz,is it loads better?

 

[gruso]

Well I think it is but to pull out the standard line, it really depends on what you want to get up to. You've mentioned N64 and PSX for starters. PSX is running at full speed. N64 development is going well too, but we shouldn't expect every game to work, or to run at 100%. All the usual older systems are already running well (or will be), and if you're interested in older computers like Spectrum, C64, Atari ST, Amiga etc then Pandora's keyboard makes it the ideal device to emulate them.

Like the Wiz there will also be plenty of homebrew written for the platform, and games ported to it. The Pandora's higher spec opens up much more possibilities though, for example Quake III. The higher res screen also allows it to run a full desktop environment, office apps, web browsing etc.

Have a browse here for videos: http://kultpower.de/pandoravideos/

Whether any of this stuff makes it worth the cost is up to you.

 

[brasco03]

Well I think it is but to pull out the standard line, it really depends on what you want to get up to. You've mentioned N64 and PSX for starters. PSX is running at full speed. N64 development is going well too, but we shouldn't expect every game to work, or to run at 100%. All the usual older systems are already running well (or will be), and if you're interested in older computers like Spectrum, C64, Atari ST, Amiga etc then Pandora's keyboard makes it the ideal device to emulate them.

Like the Wiz there will also be plenty of homebrew written for the platform, and games ported to it. The Pandora's higher spec opens up much more possibilities though, for example Quake III. The higher res screen also allows it to run a full desktop environment, office apps, web browsing etc.

Have a browse here for videos: http://kultpower.de/pandoravideos/

Whether any of this stuff makes it worth the cost is up to you.

Ok many thanks for the link,I still have a problem with the us price being much less then the uk price why does'nt everyone just get charged the us price I say,cause if ur in the uk your gonna pay quite a bit more for the same thing,which seems very strange to me.
I would be using the pandora for snes things megadrive psx and n64 mainly and the larger screen is a good this my question is will all the most recent emulators of psx super nes picodrive work on my pandora with the same roms or will I have to download emulator versions written for the pandora to run these?

 

[Prometheus]

You'll need to download emulators for the Pandora, for those.

Most software will likely be in ".PND" format. This is a little bit old, but it should give you the gist of it.

 

[gruso]

You can use the same ROMs though.

The price difference is just the law unfortunately, AFAIK if you're in the UK everything you buy has VAT added. International buyers don't have to pay VAT when buying from the UK, but they may be charged import duty by their own government when it comes through customs.

 

[limetang]

Firstly, £273 would include special delivery shipping, so you're actually only paying £266.20 for the Pandora. If we convert 330 USD into GBP, we get £214.68 plus VAT (17.5%), giving us £252.24. Admittedly, you could argue that you're being overcharged by about £14, but it's probably not worth it. Keep in mind that buyers in the US probably have to pay a lot more for postage if they want their Pandoras quickly, and could have to pay customs charges, so I wouldn't be surprised if, overall, UK buyers end up paying less (well, excluding VAT at least, but that's not Craig's fault).

 

[ashdjones]

I think it's the exchange rate. I originally paid about £200 including VAT and shipping. But at the time the pound was nearly twice as strong as the dollar.

 

[kaprikawn]

...,cause if ur in the uk your gonna pay quite a bit more for the same thing,which seems very strange to me...

Are you being serious? This is how it is with just about everything in the UK. Welcome to rip-off Britain. How is this a surprise to you?

On another note, £273 now? It's a long time since I paid but I'm sure mine was £200. Wow...just wow. Still totally worth it IMO, but by Christ, the price has gone up. I'm not having a go, if that's what the price they have to set it at then fair play, I don't begrudge them charging the going rate for the Pandora. I'm just shocked at the amount of the price hike.

 

[CCmachined]

Does the US have any tax on sold goods similiar to VAT?

 

[hal9000]

I think it's the exchange rate. I originally paid about £200 including VAT and shipping. But at the time the pound was nearly twice as strong as the dollar.

Yes, there is another long thread about that... However, no explanation sounds convincing to me. I can understand price variation, but then price in dollars should increase as well.

It is extremely upsetting to pay once again more, as european, for a product which is build by a UK-based company. I guess this is more acceptable because we are used to be ripped off.

 

[Tom`]

Does the US have any tax on sold goods similiar to VAT?

Most states have a sales tax, but it varies from state to state. There are a few states that don't have one at all, too. So when buying things from another state (or another country), you don't have to pay any tax. (I have heard that you are supposed to report the value of any goods bought in this way on a tax form somewhere, but in practice no one actually does this.)

 

[Ollonk]

The US price is $350 including delivery. Some banks will also charge an exchange rate fee, depending on the market.

And on that topic, I have heard that the Obama Administration is considering something very similar to VAT.

 

[quadomatic]

And on that topic, I have heard that the Obama Administration is considering something very similar to VAT.

And now my day is ruined

So much for the convenience of Amazon, Newegg and Steam over standard B&M stores

 

[Lorkile]

quadomatic, I'll take it you don't live in one of the states that already forces online retailers to charge tax for any purchase. Here in Washignton we are forced to pay federal & state sales tax of 7.9% (I believe, might have increased since I last looked into it), though it could be worse and paying the additional county taxes that in King County (Seattle for instance) bring it to 10%.

 

[quadomatic]

Well, I need some relief from Chicago's 10.something% sales tax...

 

[brasco03]

...,cause if ur in the uk your gonna pay quite a bit more for the same thing,which seems very strange to me...

Are you being serious? This is how it is with just about everything in the UK. Welcome to rip-off Britain. How is this a surprise to you?

On another note, £273 now? It's a long time since I paid but I'm sure mine was £200. Wow...just wow. Still totally worth it IMO, but by Christ, the price has gone up. I'm not having a go, if that's what the price they have to set it at then fair play, I don't begrudge them charging the going rate for the Pandora. I'm just shocked at the amount of the price hike.

It is no surprise to me I just think its unfair for uk cutomers to pay 273 including vat and del and for the us to be charged $330 dollars which is a lot less but they do need to pay for postage etc,i just think the price should be closer to the us price.

 

[Tom`]

quadomatic, I'll take it you don't live in one of the states that already forces online retailers to charge tax for any purchase. Here in Washignton we are forced to pay federal & state sales tax of 7.9% (I believe, might have increased since I last looked into it), though it could be worse and paying the additional county taxes that in King County (Seattle for instance) bring it to 10%.

Seriously? How can the online retailer possibly keep track of taxes on the county level?

 

[valhalla]

Yes, there is another long thread about that... However, no explanation sounds convincing to me. I can understand price variation, but then price in dollars should increase as well.

Most of the price for building a pandora is in dollars, since that's how components and everything except final ssembly in the UK are paid

When preorders opened there used to be 3 official prices, in USD, GBP and EUR, but currencies have been fluctuating a lot since then, and now the only official price is the USD one

It is extremely upsetting to pay once again more, as european, for a product which is build by a UK-based company. I guess this is more acceptable because we are used to be ripped off.

In the EU we're paying VAT, but then we're not getting hit by random import taxes; everywhere else the price looks lower, but there is a risk of discovering that they have to pay another unpredictable amount when customs notice the package.