12 Christmas Gifts Not To Buy Online

nsingapu writes "While online shopping is booming this Christmas, niche products like "two turtle doves" purchased on the Internet are becoming increasingly more expensive then their non e-tailed counterparts. PNC bank has updated their annual tongue-in-cheek economic analysis, based on the cost of goods and services purchased by the True Love in the holiday classic, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." The analysis compares the cost of traditional goods against their cost thoughout the past 20 years and against the price when purchased online. PNC concludes that most items are more expensive to buy over the Internet, primarily due to the cost of shipping, and that the abundance of cheaper labor in countries such as India and China has resulted in pressure on U.S. manufacturers to outsource."

Comments

Re:"Core" Index?

[jhobbs]

Over the years the broadest swings have been in the swans which apparently are somewhat difficult to breed. Some years there are huge shortages other years gluts in availability. Excluding the swans from the core index allows for a more stable and truthful economic indicator that is not tied to supply-demand related swings in swan pricing.

Re:Google Cache

[whoever57]

$600 for a 20gig ipod wouldn't sell in the US.. why does it in the UK?

Simple: because people are prepared to pay that price. Products generally retail at the price that will bring the most profit, increased prices will reduce the volume, but increase the gross profit. There is a optimum point somewhere and it would appear that for many electronics devices, it is higher in the UK.

There is also the factor that the UK price includes VAT (17%), while the US price does not include tax.