Isn't there sometimes a problem in getting a warranty that is valid in Hong Kong, on electrical/electronic goods purchased in the US?
to an earlier post, Braun makes some products in Germany and others in China.
Generally the higher end stuff is made in Germany.
Yup, the cost differential is just about always worth ignoring any potential lack of warranty. Looking at an extreme example for something that I bought last year:Original Post Deleted
Cost of item in US = $6,000. No warranty coverage.
Chance of it breaking down within 5 years = 5% (this is being pessimistic, it should be less than 1%)
Value of a five year warranty = 6,000 x .05 = $300
So a locally sourced item including a warranty should be $6,300 for it to be competitively priced.
Cost of item in HK: $12,000
Admittedly I did have to carry it over as part of my baggage allowance on my last flight, and I did have to buy a $500 transformer, but I'm still vastly ahead in terms of savings.
The 'secrets' seem to consist of a mixture of buying grey market or just buying low quality shite via Taobao. It's not like Fortress caters exclusively to cashed up expats. They sell made-in-China goods to locals.
Even some of the crap on Aplui St is available in overseas markets for similar or even lower prices than it is in HK. Two of the few classes of good which I've managed to identify as exceptions are knockoff camera accessories and airsoft equipment- in both cases, low quality gear made just across the border.
An earlier post nailed it- small local market + cartel control over supply + rents = high prices.
Last edited by jgl; 13-04-2012 at 04:24 PM.
We use myus.com currently and have not had any significant negative experiences with them, though I recall seeing some posts from dissatisfied customers online at the time that we were hunting for a remailer to use. At the time, every remailer we googled had some negative comments and we decided to give myus.com a shot. If we start having problems, we'll switch to another service.
Usually, it has been cheaper to have retailers ship purchases directly to us. We only use the remailer when the retailer won't ship outside the USA. We've had to go the remailing route for things like vitamin D-3, big bottles of aspirin, clothes and shoes, some electronics, and even some hard-to-find used books. In those instances, it was a choice between remailing or not getting them unless/until we went back on vacation.
We haven't bought anything from Best Buy but, if their policy is not to ship to remailers, then that sucks, frankly.
Last edited by dear giant; 13-04-2012 at 04:38 PM.