The Australian dollar and how we're getting ripped off. - General

It's not just games either, my 5870 for example costed around $600, which on Newegg is $384.

When Modern Warfare was first released on Steam, the same price was given for the Australian steam store. Activision decided that because the Aussie dollar was doing so well, they would increase the price to around 90 USD, just for the Aussies. On the other hand, Valve games generally have the same price on the Australian steam store to that of the US counterpart.

[QUOTE=GunsNRoses;25483372]lol just noticed that. Just did my English HSC today, I can spell however I want now :)[/QUOTE] Fuck yeah. :smugdog: I am going to burn all things English on November 5. I agree, the coin is awesome.

Attatch Australia to a passing ship. Sail to America with Australia. Lower import costs!

People in Australia have higher prices because they can afford it. They get much more money.

If you don't like high prices, come to england Where you're taxed out the ass for basic living then the money is given to jobless slack-jawed chavs who never bothered to go to college Anywho, at least you have nice beaches! :buddy:

Yeah our standard of living owns here. My mate is making $48,000 a year at a call center (I will be soon too) and he is 18, fresh out of high school. That's on average, what someone with a Bachelors Degree makes in the US. [editline]19th October 2010[/editline] Also the funny thing about Australia, is "blue collar" jobs earn alot of money. A plumber can make $100,000 per year.

In norway we also pay 100$ aka 600kr NOK for a new game. :geno:

MW2 is $90 US on STEAM for aussies

[QUOTE=Kamaitachi;25473390]Also, lets not forget the fact that the games you [b]do[/b] manage to buy, have the absolute [u]shit[/u] censored out of them.[/QUOTE] Uh no L4D2 is the only one.

A few examples for our international friends: - Books are heavily overpriced here. A new US$14.00 book will cost us around $AU30 or even 40. - A standard dvd box set in aus will cost you around $300-350, sometimes even higher. Even if its something like M*A*S*H* etc which is 30 odd years old. - Our supermarkets are very limited. There is an almost duopoly in regards to supermarkets here in Aus. In a lot of places you either have Coles or Woolworths (called Safeway in some places). They both tend to have little competition in regards to prices because they don't need it. There are smaller franchises scattered around like Aldi, BI-LO and IGA, but there are fewer of them and they stock a lower variety of groceries compared to the two majors. - Our internet has always been extremely overpriced, and has only recently started to drop in price with smaller, more competitive telco's opening for business. Telstra is our major telco supplier and owns the majority of telco infrastructure. They are also the most expensive. Their prices have recently dropped but still nothing to get excited about. A DSL2+ 50 gig plan is $70 a month, with all uploads being counted towards the quota. (To add - our government plans to introduce forced internet censorship in the near future like that of China or North Korea. All trials and tests have shown that internet speeds will get slower, but they are going ahead with it anyway. The added cost of maintaining such a system will be passed on to consumers, making our internet slower and more expensive.) - Alcohol is very expensive due to Government dipping their hand in and taxing very highly, just as with gambling and cigarettes. Looking online, I can pick up a bottle of Jim beam 750ml in los angeles for $12.99. Here in aus you can expect to pay around $35 at a bottle shop. A six pack of jim beam white cans are about $20. A pack of 25 cigarettes are around $18 depending on brand. I will add that our alcohol, including all american brands like jack daniels etc are not imported but bottled and labeled here in Australia. I could go on all day, but the bottom line is we are charged more because the majority of consumers don't know any different and will pay. There is also a higher standard of living, stores are charged high rent etc, but we are still paying more than we should. Now I shop online and save lots of $$$. [editline]19th October 2010[/editline] [QUOTE=GunsNRoses;25483353]We get payed more on average.[/QUOTE] the figures are higher, but so too is the cost of living. A good example is the latest increase in electricity cost. 3 years ago I paid about $70 a quarter for electricity. Now I switch things off at the wall, use only the lights that I need and have shorter showers and still pay about $250 a quarter. Wage figures have risen as our cost of living has risen. The problem is our minimum wages don't nearly match. Sure, wages in USA are lower, but their cost of living is much, much lower than that.

[QUOTE=Weird_Bartender;25485603]A few examples for our international friends: - Books are heavily overpriced here. A new US$14.00 book will cost us around $AU30 or even 40. - A standard dvd box set in aus will cost you around $300-350, sometimes even higher. Even if its something like M*A*S*H* etc which is 30 odd years old. - Our supermarkets are very limited. There is an almost duopoly in regards to supermarkets here in Aus. In a lot of places you either have Coles or Woolworths (called Safeway in some places). They both tend to have little competition in regards to prices because they don't need it. There are smaller franchises scattered around like Aldi, BI-LO and IGA, but there are fewer of them and they stock a lower variety of groceries compared to the two majors. - Our internet has always been extremely overpriced, and has only recently started to drop in price with smaller, more competitive telco's opening for business. Telstra is our major telco supplier and owns the majority of telco infrastructure. They are also the most expensive. Their prices have recently dropped but still nothing to get excited about. A DSL2+ 50 gig plan is $70 a month, with all uploads being counted towards the quota. (To add - our government plans to introduce forced internet censorship in the near future like that of China or North Korea. All trials and tests have shown that internet speeds will get slower, but they are going ahead with it anyway. The added cost of maintaining such a system will be passed on to consumers, making our internet slower and more expensive.) - Alcohol is very expensive due to Government dipping their hand in and taxing very highly, just as with gambling and cigarettes. Looking online, I can pick up a bottle of Jim beam 750ml in los angeles for $12.99. Here in aus you can expect to pay around $35 at a bottle shop. A six pack of jim beam white cans are about $20. A pack of 25 cigarettes are around $18 depending on brand. I will add that our alcohol, including all american brands like jack daniels etc are not imported but bottled and labeled here in Australia. I could go on all day, but the bottom line is we are charged more because the majority of consumers don't know any different and will pay. There is also a higher standard of living, stores are charged high rent etc, but we are still paying more than we should. Now I shop online and save lots of $$$. [editline]19th October 2010[/editline] the figures are higher, but so too is the cost of living. A good example is the latest increase in electricity cost. 3 years ago I paid about $70 a quarter for electricity. Now I switch things off at the wall, use only the lights that I need and have shorter showers and still pay about $250 a quarter. Wage figures have risen as our cost of living has risen. The problem is our minimum wages don't nearly match. Sure, wages in USA are lower, but their cost of living is much, much lower than that.[/QUOTE] Thanks for detailing this better than me.

Inflation?

everything is cheaper in Russia ( games, cigarettes, alcohol ), though average salary in russia is lower aswell. I live in Estonia, I can get Marlboro, Camel for 3,6$, mite be cheap for americans, but it's actually expensive in here

What is minimum wage in Australia? It's 7.25 in the US.

[QUOTE=Nibwoddle;25484320]Uh no L4D2 is the only one.[/QUOTE] there's more, developers have been forced to rerelease some titles with modifications fallout 3 ;)

[QUOTE=Xolo;25471131]Are you that one mod... Also he's right[/QUOTE] Pr3dator was the one that went wacko, Pred4tor, I have no idea.

[QUOTE=SlickBlade;25472581]Ehh, roughly 2 to 7 bucks for a pack of 20. But don't get me wrong, our prices aren't over the top, its the fact that we tried to have a easy simple dollar, equal to most currencies, however we were tricked into thinking a little silver coin coated in a thin sheet of [U][I]real[/I][/U] gold is worth less than a piece of paper, due to the size of both. A bad play on our part. Since then America's corporate greed has exploited us for a very long time. I have spent a total of 369.2 Australian dollars on Steam games. I thought I spent quite a bit. I had no idea I had really spent over 430 dollars.[/QUOTE] 2 to 7 bucks? Oh, well Coles just ripped me right the fuck off. :frog: Cigarettes are expensive as fuck here. Same deal with alcohol. For a pack of winnie blues nowadays it costs about $17 for 25. The only real way to get value for money anymore is to smoke rollies, and their getting more and more expensive aswell. :saddowns:

[QUOTE=rathat;25482128]Not how it works, the Canadian dollar and the us dollar have different values, you need to find the difference in the amount of each dollar. We can compare things to Australia because currently they have the same value.[/QUOTE] Uh, no. Right now, the Canadian dollar is at par, or very close. Buying American is $1.04 and selling is $0.989 at the bank which sucks ass for exchange rates. $1 US = $1.0165 CAD according to the current rates shown at XE.com. Your Australian Dollar is at 1.008 which is a 1/5th of a cent difference. Do your research next time. So, suck it. There's no big difference, we've been around par for about two years now (I think we first beat the American dollar in recent years in 2008.) P.S: I've never seen the Canadian dollar very far from the American dollar, no less than 90¢ and no more than $1.10 so obviously, double the price is not accurate representation.

while it's not so bad in the Netherlands at the moment, some stuff just really rubs me the wrong way. 1 Euro = 1.39500 U.S. dollars, yet steam still bloody dares to ask the same stuff and certain sites that don't ship international but have a daughter store in europe have the same price, if you are lucky they cut 10% off it. It's because the American console games don't work on the europe models, else I'd buy those from amazon and get so much profit.

[QUOTE=Roo-kie;25493412]there's more, developers have been forced to rerelease some titles with modifications fallout 3 ;)[/QUOTE] Fallout 3's been 'censored' everywhere.

Because you import and the higher taxes there mean the businesses have to charge more for the same proit

If one Yen was worth one Dollar the Yen would be worth far more than the dollar even though they are technically "equal." Right now one Yen is worth much less than the dollar when it comes to Dolar:Yen rations but they also get paid a lot more yen and subsequently things cost more Yen. If the value of the Yen suddenly shot up to a 1:1 ratio with the Dollar then they could buy many American goods at very low cost to them and vice versa.

[QUOTE=1239the;25471818]It's because of America. Publishing companies in the U.S. want to milk us for every dollar we have. So they charge ridiculous amounts to retail in Australia, and get off scott free. Bobby Kotick was once asked why games were so expensive in Australia. His response? "Because we can get away with it" It is not Australia's fault. It's America's fucking corporate greed.[/QUOTE] Yes, because every single problem in the history of the modern world is because of America.

Try living in New Zealand. We get just about everything imported expect for milk and beer and a few other things that we have made here but even with all our home grown stuff is fucking expensive. 1LT of milk is over $2 and that's for the cheap branded stuff. At the supermarket this week it's $2.99 a kg for bananas. You Austrailians have it a bit more lucky because you don't have to pay GST on essentials like milk and bread and whatever else. Where as us New Zealanders have pay for the product and with 15% GST rate on everything. Oh yeah and we have to pay &1.84 a lt here as well.

[QUOTE=Weird_Bartender;25485603]- Our supermarkets are very limited. There is an almost duopoly in regards to supermarkets here in Aus. In a lot of places you either have Coles or Woolworths (called Safeway in some places). They both tend to have little competition in regards to prices because they don't need it. There are smaller franchises scattered around like Aldi, BI-LO and IGA, but there are fewer of them and they stock a lower variety of groceries compared to the two majors.[/quote] Haha, and it's probably worth adding that a lot of the smaller supermarket chains are owned by the bigger companies, for instance, BI-LO is part of Coles Group. Certaintly doesn't help for smaller businesses nor the cost of living in reguards to groceries. [QUOTE=Weird_Bartender;25485603]- Our internet has always been extremely overpriced, and has only recently started to drop in price with smaller, more competitive telco's opening for business. Telstra is our major telco supplier and owns the majority of telco infrastructure. They are also the most expensive. Their prices have recently dropped but still nothing to get excited about. A DSL2+ 50 gig plan is $70 a month, with all uploads being counted towards the quota. [/quote] It's dropped rapidly over the past year. Now you can get unlimited 24Mb/s plans for $29.99 on TPG's infrastructure or $79.99 on Telstra's infrastructure. With the NBN, hopefully, coming into play, we'll have even cheaper prices. [QUOTE=Weird_Bartender;25485603]All trials and tests have shown that internet speeds will get slower, but they are going ahead with it anyway.[/quote] Bull. They don't. They pilot program showed that there was no drop. Problem isn't the speed, it's the censorship. [QUOTE=Weird_Bartender;25485603]the figures are higher, but so too is the cost of living. A good example is the latest increase in electricity cost. 3 years ago I paid about $70 a quarter for electricity. Now I switch things off at the wall, use only the lights that I need and have shorter showers and still pay about $250 a quarter.[/quote] Jeebus. That's ridiculous. There is no reason for electricity companies to increase their prices that much higher than CPI - but they do anyway, and get away with it. [editline]19th October 2010[/editline] [QUOTE=Badballer;25483121]In Perth housing is pretty expensive, one of the most expensive cities in the world apparently to purchase land.[/QUOTE] No, it's certaintly not.

[QUOTE=mr apple;25471449]No idea atm, houses are always really high priced here. (You guys have moderate prices for 2 story houses where a 2 storyhouse in Aus usually goes for $1,000,000+[/QUOTE] there's a 7,500 square foot house perched on the top of a hill near my neighborhood and my mom was considering it it was 1,400,000. if a 2-story HOUSE is almost as much as a three-story MANSION, then i feel sorry for you guys

[QUOTE=aznz888;25499853]there's a 7,500 square foot house perched on the top of a hill near my neighborhood and my mom was considering it it was 1,400,000. if a 2-story HOUSE is almost as much as a three-story MANSION, then i feel sorry for you guys[/QUOTE] 1-bedroom condo that's very small is about $300,000 here. One-story house can easily go from around $500,000-$750,000. Anything 2-3 story is worth about $1-$2 million. The 'mansions' here are all located in the uplands, where all the houses range from $10-$15 million. That's in Canadian DOllars, which is par with american atm. So, Mansion for $1.4 million? GOOD LUCK.

[QUOTE=aznz888;25499853]there's a 7,500 square foot house perched on the top of a hill near my neighborhood and my mom was considering it it was 1,400,000. if a 2-story HOUSE is almost as much as a three-story MANSION, then i feel sorry for you guys[/QUOTE] That guy is talkin' out of his ass. Usually places go for $200-$500k, what really makes the price or the land is where it is, beach houses will cost a lot more, for example. That coupled with the fact there's a shortage of housing for people means there's a large demand. About 10 years back I had a house, large place, big front/backyard, sold for about $170k, now days its up close $300k or so.

[QUOTE=Pred4tor;25471107]It's because you have to [del]import[/del] sensor everything...[/QUOTE]