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Quote from: goddessofpeep on May 22, 2018, 08:20:40 PMWith all the budget minded people on this thread, I'm wondering who keeps winning those stupid expensive auctions on ebay:p I know, right? Apparently you and me and just a few others here appear to be paying too much for ponies, everyone else seems to find them somewhere cheaper! It's hard being a collector in a country like Australia, where the US Dollar is considerably stronger than our local currency, because by the time you factor in the currency conversion AND the outrageously expensive international shipping costs, a single not-super-expensive pony which may originally have cost $10 USD often ends up costing $30+ Australian dollars. That's per pony. Consider that any rare ponies purchased overseas in USD or GBP once converted to AUD will end up cost one third to double as much as it would for someone buying the pony who lives in the country of origin. And countries like Australia have a much smaller market for ponies for sale locally, and 9/10 times the only ponies for sale are super common and not the ones you're looking for. Which means you ship in almost every pony you want. I've probably imported 94% of my collection, as those ponies just do not come up for sale here. Like, ever. So many international collectors operate at a disadvantage due to their geographical location as well as the currency conversion expenses. If I lived in the US or Europe I am certain I could afford twice as many ponies as I can now. Everything just costs so muh money to bring to Australia
With all the budget minded people on this thread, I'm wondering who keeps winning those stupid expensive auctions on ebay:p
Quote from: starstrider on May 26, 2018, 09:45:34 AMQuote from: goddessofpeep on May 22, 2018, 08:20:40 PMWith all the budget minded people on this thread, I'm wondering who keeps winning those stupid expensive auctions on ebay:p I know, right? Apparently you and me and just a few others here appear to be paying too much for ponies, everyone else seems to find them somewhere cheaper! It's hard being a collector in a country like Australia, where the US Dollar is considerably stronger than our local currency, because by the time you factor in the currency conversion AND the outrageously expensive international shipping costs, a single not-super-expensive pony which may originally have cost $10 USD often ends up costing $30+ Australian dollars. That's per pony. Consider that any rare ponies purchased overseas in USD or GBP once converted to AUD will end up cost one third to double as much as it would for someone buying the pony who lives in the country of origin. And countries like Australia have a much smaller market for ponies for sale locally, and 9/10 times the only ponies for sale are super common and not the ones you're looking for. Which means you ship in almost every pony you want. I've probably imported 94% of my collection, as those ponies just do not come up for sale here. Like, ever. So many international collectors operate at a disadvantage due to their geographical location as well as the currency conversion expenses. If I lived in the US or Europe I am certain I could afford twice as many ponies as I can now. Everything just costs so muh money to bring to Australia I completely agree starstrider, in South Africa we have currency conversion rates of $1-00 to ZAR13-00 and up. So I have to times the lot price by at least 13, and that does not include shipping. The British Pound is worse, for that I have to times by just over 17. We do have a limited amount of ponies for sale locally, but their prices have doubled in the past year.
Just to say that being in Europe is not really that advantageous. I mean, there are so many ponies that are not available here in all countries so trying to track them down is a pain.And the cheap auctions are always the US only ones.Our exchange rate to $ and Euro has been shot since the Brexit vote, there's the problem of customs duty which we might soon have for Europe as well as the US/everywhere else...and then there's the GSP.US ponypeople are the truly blessed ones. No import duty, plenty of ponies within the US to choose from...cheaper prices overall for new stuff :/
Quote from: Taffeta on August 03, 2018, 04:39:14 AMJust to say that being in Europe is not really that advantageous. I mean, there are so many ponies that are not available here in all countries so trying to track them down is a pain.And the cheap auctions are always the US only ones.Our exchange rate to $ and Euro has been shot since the Brexit vote, there's the problem of customs duty which we might soon have for Europe as well as the US/everywhere else...and then there's the GSP.US ponypeople are the truly blessed ones. No import duty, plenty of ponies within the US to choose from...cheaper prices overall for new stuff :/Try being Canadian. We got the same ponies as the US but far fewer of any given pony, no real exclusives. Shipping is an arm and a leg, anything over 20$ gets hit with taxes, customs, import duty handling (fees often total more than the item!), we're excluded from US only auctions despite being practically on top of each other, and our dollar is worth less. There's no way I could come close to affording my G1 collection today if I hadn't started back in the early 90's.
Quote from: Baby Sugarberry on August 03, 2018, 11:42:14 PMQuote from: Taffeta on August 03, 2018, 04:39:14 AMJust to say that being in Europe is not really that advantageous. I mean, there are so many ponies that are not available here in all countries so trying to track them down is a pain.And the cheap auctions are always the US only ones.Our exchange rate to $ and Euro has been shot since the Brexit vote, there's the problem of customs duty which we might soon have for Europe as well as the US/everywhere else...and then there's the GSP.US ponypeople are the truly blessed ones. No import duty, plenty of ponies within the US to choose from...cheaper prices overall for new stuff :/Try being Canadian. We got the same ponies as the US but far fewer of any given pony, no real exclusives. Shipping is an arm and a leg, anything over 20$ gets hit with taxes, customs, import duty handling (fees often total more than the item!), we're excluded from US only auctions despite being practically on top of each other, and our dollar is worth less. There's no way I could come close to affording my G1 collection today if I hadn't started back in the early 90's. Ah yeah. You guys have it rough too. :/ In the early days having exclusives really helped with filling all the gaps. But you do at least have a chance of finding some of the cool MO ponies in the wild, which is really unlikely here. I think it's just back to that same thing. US ponypeople are really blessed...