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How to buy a reasonably priced TV in HK? Can you buy from US and ship over?

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  1. #1

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    How to buy a reasonably priced TV in HK? Can you buy from US and ship over?

    Hi everyone,

    I want to buy a big screen TV for use in Hong Kong but find the selection and pricing in Hong Kong to be suboptimal. Even in those smaller stores (i.e., not Fortress or Broadway), the pricing is at least 2x that in the US and selection is very limited. Is there a cheaper way of buying TVs in HK? Can you buy TVs from the US and bring them back? Can you have TVs shipped over? Are there still compatibility issues?

    Thanks for your help!


  2. #2

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    I price shopped and concluded that the two stores you name were better than others. My TV is not huge though and Philips had a deal on at Fortress. Philips installed/delivered the TV and they didn't like the quality so said they'd come back to see why the quality was not good. They did and it turned out to be some fixture in the cable they fixed for me - not the TV.

    When Philips came back I was blown away - they brought in a higher end TV model than the one I bought. Sadly one of the two guys noticed that quite quickly as I could tell from the pointing while I was going .. aw shit gimme the new one. They weren't giving me as they fixed the problem. The quality for me was not that visible but it didn't meet their standards.

    Not sure about these non-chain places here.

    Bringing in a US TV doesn't make a lot of sense just for shipping and service alone if there are set up glitches.

    Last edited by Football16; 16-09-2011 at 02:57 PM.

  3. #3

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    I want to buy a big screen TV for use in Hong Kong but find the selection and pricing in Hong Kong to be suboptimal. Welcome to HK. Get used to it.

    Even in those smaller stores (i.e., not Fortress or Broadway), the pricing is at least 2x that in the US and selection is very limited. (Ibid)

    Is there a cheaper way of buying TVs in HK? Second-hand. Check the classified ads. Expats are always coming and going and you can find excellent deals, provided you are patient.

    Can you buy TVs from the US and bring them back? Yes you could.

    Can you have TVs shipped over? Yes you could.

    Are there still compatibility issues? Yes there are.

    dear giant and jimbo like this.

  4. #4

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    Part of living in HK is being price-gouged relentlessly for the duration of one's stay. Huja's reply addresses your query pretty thoroughly.

    If you give up and do buy in HK, you may be able to save a bit of cash (perhaps as much as a few thousand or so $HKD depending on the model, though possibly less) by buying at one of the teachers' stores in HK.

    You would have to know a teacher who is a member of the teachers' union and get them to go with you to a teacher's store and hang around while you paged through the catalogs (click-ring binders of sheet protectors filled with poorly xeroxed price lists for various appliances) until you found the model you wanted in the TVs catalog and were ready to go to the counter and pay.


  5. #5

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    I bought all my appliances and TV from this one a couple of months ago

    http://www.sweethome128.com.hk

    Here is how it works, you do your homework to get the lowest price you can find on the market, then send these guys an email stating the brand/model number/lowest price and see if they can even slash down the price further. If yes, depends on the brand, you may need to pay a deposit or the whole sum before they order from the official dealers. As far as I know, all the appliances I got were directly delivered by the local official dealer of that brands, so, none of them are parallel imported stuffs. For example, I was ordering the Panasonic Panasonic TH-P50VT20H Plasma 3D TV and I found the lowest price on the market was HK28000 and they offered me HKD27600 and it was delivered to my door by Shun Hing (the sole authorized dealer of Panasonic in HK)

    dear giant and uncuzillar like this.

  6. #6

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    not to mention TV's in the use use 110v and not 220v.....


  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by dear giant:
    Part of living in HK is being price-gouged relentlessly for the duration of one's stay. Huja's reply addresses your query pretty thoroughly.
    As usual, not entirely true. There are certainly things that are priced above the US or some western countries(which can sometimes be easily ordered online anyway). There are also plenty of things that are as cheap or cheaper than in the US. Very easy to find clothing or common sports equipment at very competitive prices for example. Would also be hard to find a nice bowl of noodles with dumplings for $3USD in any western country. The same cost me three times as much when I was in Vancouver with taxes... Personally, I would never say I feel relentlessly price gouged in HK except for accommodation.

    However some big ticket luxury items can certainly be very expensive...
    Last edited by gilleshk; 17-09-2011 at 12:41 PM.

  8. #8

    Man do I miss uncle Sam...


  9. #9

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    Try this site
    http://builtinpro.hk/en/Other+Appliances/TV
    They seem to have cheaper prices than Fortress. etc. I found a good price model on their site, then showed the guy at fortress and they matched it plus threw in freebies.


  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by packy_crusher:
    not to mention TV's in the use use 110v and not 220v.....
    90% of modern electronics takes 110-240v, not an issue. You don't think 110v means lower electricity consumption do you?

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