Beef - WTC price gouging Canadians

[Herobizkit]

Am I holding down the east coast all by myself? Ah well, I knew that the Halifax Citadel would prove useful one day...

Shawn

East Coast representin' in da hizzouse! Fredericton, NB here.

Back when the CDN/USA dollar ration was terrible (48% I think at its worst), I did all my gaming supplement shopping (and selling!) on eBay because it was far less expensive than buying it locally. Now, with the dollar difference balancing out, it's not that advantageous to sell, and only nominally better to do shopping on eBay. My FLGS sells all WotC products as per the label price... which is why I stopped purchasing most WotC products.

 

[Darth Shoju]

....heck, someone has to represent the bloody middle of the country, eh?
Cheers, (and back to lurking)
Colin

I be representing the Cold Flat Land!

Viva Winterpeg!

 

[Steel_Wind]

Nobody pays the $39 here in Toronto. The price is generally $32.50 on the street (401 Games on Yonge St., to be specific).

When it comes to Gaming stuff though - we actually have it cheaper than in the States for the most part. For example, I buy a case of 12 D&D mini boosters for $120 CDN.... about $104 USD.

When I was in Gencon, I bought stuff I wouldn't find very easily back home. Otherwise, the cost was just way too high to justify it.

For general goods, we used to get the good end of the exchange rate. Prices were less here 3-5 years ago than the US. Essentially, for no other reason than to actually charge the same in US dollars after converting to Canadian resulted in a sticker price people here just wouldn't pay.

We got a good deal before - bad deal now. Especially on cars and electonics. Try buying an Xbox360 in Canada. It is significantly more expensive. I know - I got one today. After the bundles and add-ons and other gizmos, if I had got it in Buffalo, it would have been about $75 CDN cheaper. Same equipment - 2 hours away.

Inertia is another issue. There are a lot of consumer electronics mftrs for audio video electronics that jack their prices 60% higher in Canada. No reason - they just do. And they nearly ALL do it too. It's price-fixing via gentleman's agreement, not much doubt of it.

And they nearly all refuse to ship from US online sellers to Canada too so their price racket is preserved. (No, this is not a question of different distributor in Canada).

I went through this with an Onkyo HTS system here last year. They wanted more than double the price for a system they were selling for $399 USD at Circuit City. Canadian price? $1,050CDN.

I spoke with the president of Onkyo Canada on the phone and he gave me such incredible B.S. to justify it - I got so ticked, I ebayed it privately and gave em the virtual finger.

Market inertia, expectations and price-fixing in some sectors of the economy counts for a lot.

 

[greymist]

The pricing difference between the US and Canada is mainly due to the exchange rate; and also a charge for shipping.

Here's a CBC story on the subject.

 

[mythusmage]

Speaking to you from Canada's largest west coast city south of Vancouver...

Other than Zonies our biggest batch of tourists comes from Canada. Often they forget to exchange their coins for American, so one has a pretty good chance of picking up a Canadian quarter or nickel in one's change. Making life even more fun is the fact Canadian coins are not that easy to distinguish from their American counterparts. You look carefully you'll notice the difference. But nobody has the time to look. So you have Canadian coins circulating in southern California.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Often they forget to exchange their coins for American, so one has a pretty good chance of picking up a Canadian quarter or nickel in one's change. Making life even more fun is the fact Canadian coins are not that easy to distinguish from their American counterparts. You look carefully you'll notice the difference.

Mwah-ha-ha! That's our secret plan to take over the USA. First we insinuate our pennies and quarters into your financial system, and before you know it you're wondering what the heck these gold and multi-coloured loonies and toonies are doing in your pocket! Mwah-ha-ha!!!

 

[eyebeams]

Yes, that's a drag. But does the retailer still have to pay the national tax..(what's it called, GST, maybe?). Plus there are costs involved in importing and so on I assume.

The MSRP does not include taxes and the formula is the same as when the Canadian dollar was about 65-70 cents.

 

[dcas]

In the above reply, is WotC suggesting that they sell to Canadian retailers at the more or less fair exchange of what they sell to American retailers? I guess if they answer is, " Yes " , then does that mean they are alone in this practice, or that it really is the big retailers that don't care and only go by the suggested price? I think that at my FLGS, the price is marked down around $4 vs. the suggested price.
I will be quite interested to see if WotC ever does change the suggested price (on their novels too). I have my doubts.

WOTC probably doesn't do a lot of selling to retailers. I assume that distributors do most of that. So distributors are setting the prices at which Canadian retailers are buying products. I assume that the price is the same (in American $) regardless of where the retailer is located, and the only additional costs to a Canadian retailer are shipping and duties (are there duties on wholesale items?).

I guess that a larger retail store that carries (and orders) more of a given item would be able to provide a larger markdown, since shipping costs per product go down as you order greater amounts.

 

[dcas]

I'd think it would be easier to just keep a portion of the print run North of the Border to meet Canadian Demand & lower prices.

Then they would have to maintain a warehouse north of the border, or rent space in an existing warehouse, and that would add money to the price, too. :\

As far as shipping to Canada is concerned, I have not (personally) found it terribly expensive to do so, in fact not much more than say, Priority Mail in the U.S. Of course I've never shipped a large parcel to Canada, so I could be quite wrong.

 

[Mighty Veil]

You should see what Sony is doing to us in the UK for the PS3.

I've been to the UK. I know the pricing of everything is not fair. A CD is priced at the same number there as it is here, except the Pound is worth well over double a C$. Everything is expensive there (but I do so love London still. I would live there if I could).

As others pointed out. It isn't just WTC who overprices. But this is a D&D forum, so I'll stick to just them ;-)

I can guess why this is. A few years ago, out dollar was worth 35 cents less. So to "make up the differance" pricing was set this way. But the Cdn dollar is only 10 cents less now. We have a free-trade agreement (yeah that's been factored in, I know. Canada isn't putting a dollar fee on D&D books). Most books get printed in Canada for Canada. So shipping is only an excuse. Printing is cheaper in Canada than the US (and China is even cheaper, but it would have shipping costs).

WTC is taking advantage. And yes there's nothing that can be done about it, except silly boycotts or download books off the net (in which case you're paying for paper and ink and time).