AUD/USD parity

[Bassman]

NOT directed at any particular Australian retailer, this is happening across the board.

Have noticed that Australian retail prices for flightsim products have not caught up with exchange rate parity nor even 80 US cents/AUD $1.00.

Maybe physical stock that was purchased by retailers say four months ago and has'nt been sold yet, but downloadable software?.

It's cheaper to order direct in USD than order from the Australian supplier in AUD.

What's the go here?

[John Venema]

I don't quite understand your question.

All Orbx prices are indexed to the AUD across the board, and our company runs on AUD pricing. We don't pay much attention to exchange rates since for us, an Australian dollar is an Australian dollar.

So for example, our prices at the flightsimtore.com never fluctuate if you're using their AUD currency pulldown.

As for what conversion rates our resellers charge you if you purchase in other currencies, that's out of our control, sorry. Ideally they should be updating their rates daily, but again, I'm not that close to their process for doing that.

Any queries you have about currency conversions should be directed at the resellers, not Orbx.

Hope that clears things up.

[Markoz]

Depending on where I buy my flight sim add-ons, I normally pay in USD. Because I'm in Australia I have to pay a conversion fee. The higher the price of the product, the larger the conversion fee is.

At the The FlightSim Store, the prices are pretty close to the conversion rate AND I don't get a conversion fee, so I buy a lot from there. I usually buy elsewhere only if The FlightSim Store does not stock it. This is often the case with some download (online) versions, which tend to be cheaper than the boxed product. The Flight Sim Labs - ConcordeX is a good example.

Mark

[Bassman]

First off I specifically did not refer to any product or it's pricing.

I have not even looked at ORBX/FTX prices.

Response compels me to give examples of pricing which is not outside forum rules as I am not comparing products nor their pricing with other products nor commenting on subjective qualities.

Well well known brand of  Rudder Pedals are advertised at USD$119.95 or AUD$219.95; that is a rate of 0.5454.

Ok, they are hardware which could be stock held by Australian retailers prior to the large movement in exchange rates, however there are numerus examples of software suffering the same disparity in exchange rate pricing.

I could go on and on quoting actual prices from the most widely read simming magazine in Australia.

These rates are way out of line with USD mid rates of ~0.9500 so again I am questioning (in the general Discussion forum)  why the disparity.

[Bassman]

PS: just looked at FTX NA pricing for example. USD$39.95...AUD$42.95 this is how it should be; nearly $ for $ yet so man other products do not show this parity.

[Matthew Kane]

We see this all the time in Canada as well in every retail sector. I can't answer for the FS Retailers however I can say that even when the Canadian Dollar goes over the US Dollar most items are still more expensive in Canada.

Their is a few reasons for this, When the retailer bought it from the Wholesaler that was usually before when the dollar was lower. But the main reason is simply due to supply and demand. There are 310 million people in the USA so they tend to sell at a lower price in that market as that is a large supply and demand.

In Canada we are the second largest land mass in the world with only 34 million people. Much larger distribution area with a much smaller population. So that is why things cost more in Canada regardless of the exchange rate.

Australia is fairly remote and even smaller population so I would suspect that has something to do with pricing as well.

FS Products are distributed over the Internet but perhaps it is less expensive to network in the North America market over some other markets.  But I think it will always come down to the lower costs of doing business in the USA regardless of the exchange rates.

[Bassman]

Yes that makes sense..I suppose that I am saying that it is disappointing that I have to order on line from a suppliers USA site instead of the same suppliers Australian site. Obviously I would like to support the Australian site however it comes down to whoever is the cheapest.

[Ian Routley]

One of the key development tools we use to develop textures (no names!) costs 60% more to buy from the Australian online shop, than the US one.

This would be ok ... apart from the fact that the package is a download, and comes from the same server, and purchased from the same (large) company!

Globalisation has its' up and down sides.  We can only draw our own conclusions.

[Maurice_King]

Do what I do put money in an off shore account in USD while the $ is good abd that way when the AUD falls you still have US funds available.

[overshoe]

Or do what I do. If the price is more than I am willing to spend, I don't buy it.

[Maurice_King]

What we are refering to Tom is the apparent disparity with various Hardware. Like a G27 Logitech wheel for instance depending on the store anywhere from $380-$500 AUD currently  I can purchase from the US have it mailed to a friend and then sent on here for less than $300 AUD  even better now the AUD and USD are just about on par.

[Matthew Kane]

What we are refering to Tom is the apparent disparity with various Hardware. Like a G27 Logitech wheel for instance depending on the store anywhere from $380-$500 AUD currently  I can purchase from the US have it mailed to a friend and then sent on here for less than $300 AUD  even better now the AUD and USD are just about on par.

Even easier for us in Canada as Buffalo, NY is just a short drive from Toronto and Seattle is a short drive from Vancouver. With Parity between the Canadian Dollar and the US Dollar it is times like these when we go cross border shopping 

It is too bad Australia is far from the California Coast. Some great deals to be had at Fry's Electronics right now.

[Bassman]

I'll have to check out Fry's and see if they do mail order :)