Why are the prices in the UK so high?

[ONEnONLY]

I wanted to buy the GTX 970 but when i compared the us and the uk prices ive seen a massive difference. The asus 970 strix is only $350 in the us but its £320 in the uk. When it should be around £240 but its not. It's the same with the r9 290x. Soooo why are the prices so stupid?

 

I don't really know what to do because i want to buy a new GPU and i want to spend around £200 should i wait for the 960? Is there any new cards from AMD that are coming out? I really want to play Archeage without lag, would i also need a new CPU, i have the fx 4170 4.2GHz quad core. 

[Guest]

It's not quite as simple as a currency conversion. 

[Manny Calavera]

yea, better wait until you have money to upgrade and prices drop / new gpus drop

[Ssoele]

VAT or Value-added Tax.

[ZetZet]

taxes taxes taxes

 

VAT or Value-added Tax.

also import taxes

[Soplias]

Yeah its supposed to be January Sales, NOT  January Give us all of your Money. 

[Firearm2112]

import taxes!

[Laputacake]

Because we have 20% VAT (Value Added Tax) to pay for things like the NHS and public schools and because when the products are imported they have Import Tax. About the graphics card. I'd say wait for the 960s and upgrade that Piledriver CPU.

[jam1234]

The UK provides really useful services like the NHS and public education so they have to charge taxes to pay for them 

[jbr]

The royal family have big appetites.

[ZetZet]

The UK provides really useful services like the NHS and public education so they have to charge taxes to pay for them 

 

The royal family have big appetites.

oh and if you didn't know royal family actually reduces taxes that you pay.

 

You pay about the same tax as people in the US it's just different methods of taxation.

[small2cats]

Import taxes, customs, plus the sellers keep their profit. In countries where the companies don't supply the stuff officially, it has to be imported and that it adds a lot of money. In my country, Pakistan, a G1 970 is available for PKR 52000 which is roughly £360 or $500, while the G1 980 is going for PKR 77000 which is roughly $770 or £500. And there is no variety at all, only a couple of vendors have any websites, if you want other variants than Gigabyte, you have to roam the markets, and even then you hardly find what you are looking for at a reasonable price. UK doesn't seem so bad now, huh?

[EvelynX]

Like everyone is saying, It is and always has been taxes.