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Various retailers used to call the UK "Treasure Island", because they could pretty well charge what they like, and the Brit public would willingly pay.

http://www.rip-off.co.uk/island.htm

And I guess Apple are playing the same tune.

Is it just me or is the UK iPhone deal seriously more expensive than the US deal?

It's not called Rip Off Britain for nothing you know.

Seriously though, yes our prices include VAT at 17.5% which people often forget to take into account but, even so, there are plenty of products which have such a colossal additional mark-up on them (Windows Vista is twice as expensive which tax and shipping costs cannot explain away) compared to our European and American counterparts that it is hard not to feel cheated.

The Wikipedia article on it is worth reading and notes that these items cost significantly more in the UK:

• CDs and DVDs
• iTunes Store songs, tv programmes, iPod, and iPod games
• Computer Software - the most notable example being Microsoft Windows Vista
• Books
• Electrical Goods
• Houses
• Petroleum and diesel fuel

Unfortunately as we put up with paying those prices, we allow companies to continually screw us.

Some other links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rip-Off_Britain http://www.rip-off.co.uk/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/476050.stm

The decline in the dollar may have something to do with it, but the US has for over 30 years had a far better deal on most products than here in the UK.

It is very well known that the "real" exchange rate on a lot of products is about 1 dollar to 1 pound. So when you all moan about paying 10 dollars for something, we're actually paying 10 pounds for it (which equates to around 18 dollars).

Apple have done it with the music on iTunes store, Sony on all their hardware, Microsoft on software, cars, cigarettes even coca-cola ... the list goes on.

Welcome to Rip-Off Britain!

Seriously - what the hell is up with Computer equipment prices in England? Is their economy so strong that $5519.37 is a reasonable price for a 3.6 ghz P4 with a Radeon X800?

The problem in the UK is two things. First of all, we have to pay import duty on anything manufactured abroad (+0% to +85%). Then, we also have to pay VAT (+17.5%). Then there's the middle man tax for the company that's doing the importing, and warehouse storage. Not forgetting the high price of petrol which means that transporting anything becomes increasingly more expensive the further away you are from London. Deliveries in the Greater London area are usually offered "same day", while it can take three days to get to the North of England.
Details can be found at Rip-Off UK.

The combination of the high rates of taxation, and the rapid change of hardware has forced people to become cost-conscious about buying computers. Web based suppliers like Dabs.com are usually the first place people look when comparing prices. Nobody in their right mind is going to waste 400 pounds (600 dollars) on VAT, for a 1600 pound system, if they can help it.

The only people I know who are buying from Dell are the university departments when making a bulk order with educational discounts for a new computer lab.

If you are talking about the UK (the only place I know of that calls it VAT), you are wrong. Only the final sale of the goods has VAT added. That's why if you get a supply catalogue aimed at business, or go to a cash and carry like Macro, you don't see VAT on the prices automatically.

Sales taxes vary by state too.

That explains the problem in the States for this kind of thing. The UK has a VAT rate of 17.5%, which is the same across all of the countries that make up the UK. Makes the taxing of internet goods pretty simple.

It also makes me import a lot. My hope is that the global free market will finally stop things like this, and put an end to Rip Off Britain

If you have to pay shipping and taxes, you're better off buying something locally

Not necessarily. In the UK, we have to pay vat (sales tax) on online purchases from uk companies (technicially, customs can charge you the vat on imports too.) If I were to buy a set of Lord of the Rings books (for example) from amazon.co.uk, I save £6 on the list price of £19.99, which is what a local bookshop would charge. Amazon woulod charge me £3.93 for delivery, making a saving of £2.07, or just over 10%
Even if I look at something that's nowhere near the best-selllers list (I used the nearest textbook to my computer) I can get a saving of £2.61 on the list price, which is just under 10%
Maybe it's just rip-off Britain, but here, it's very common to be able to get a saving by buying online, even though that means paying both vat and delivery.

Some facts:

Average Family car in UK- £12,000
Average Family car in Holland - £9,000

To fill an Average family car with petrol in the UK costs £50 or $80
To fill the same car with petrol in the USA costs £15.07 or $24.11

Pack of 20 cigarettes in the UK - £4.20
Pack of 20 cigarettes in Spain - £1.60

Pint of beer in pub in UK- £1.90
Pint of beer in pub in spain - £0.80p

Six pack of beer in UK - £4.20
Six pack of beer in Germany - £2.40

And so on and so on. You can find more facts about it at the rather appallingly designed Rip-off Britain website.

That extra £26 is necessary ... as a buffer for the downwards adjustment that the British Pound will have to make before joining the Euro.

Er, what? So the retail price of an XBox has been deliberately inflated (making it less competitive) against the possibility of a fall in the relative value of the pound against the dollar several years in the future? Somehow I don't think so!

Actually, this type of pricing has been going on since long before the Euro was ever seriously thought of. The UK market simply sustains higher consumer prices (in absolute terms) than the US and much of Europe, and has done for many many years. Never heard of rip-off Britain?