Non-motoring > No more cheap gear from Channel Islands Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Dulwich Estate Replies: 16
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New Wed 9 Nov 11 09:00 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - Dulwich Estate
BBC Website:

"The government is to change the tax rules that have allowed retailers to avoid paying VAT by sending goods from the Channel Islands."

It starts on April 1st and probably means the end of 7 Day Shop, Play.com etc.

Shame.
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New Wed 9 Nov 11 09:01 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - CGNorwich
Only fair to UK mainland retailers though
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New Wed 9 Nov 11 09:12 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - Meldrew
This will be the UK retailers who sell $400 i pads for £400? Win some, lose some!
Last edited by: Meldrew on Wed 9 Nov 11 at 09:12
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New Wed 9 Nov 11 09:32 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - Zero
As the loop hole only applied to goods under £15, its hardly applies to shops selling goods for 400 quid.

And an Apple Ipad2 in Bestbuy in the US is $499 (£311) excluding any state sales tax* and an Ipad2 in tesco is £399 including 20% vat.

* Averages about 7%

7 day shop will survive, their stuff will be cheap even with VAT on.

Play.com will go to the wall tho.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 9 Nov 11 at 09:34
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New Wed 9 Nov 11 23:52 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - CGNorwich
Low Value Consignment relief was originally introduced to help Guernsey's flower industry. Once it started to be abused as a loophole for avoiding duty then the writing was on the wall. Seems foolish for the Guernsey government to foster industry based on something which would inevitably be curtailed.
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New Thu 10 Nov 11 13:04 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - Stuartli
>> Low Value Consignment relief was originally introduced to help Guernsey's flower industry. Once it started to be abused as a loophole for avoiding duty then the writing was on the wall. Seems foolish for the Guernsey government to foster industry based on something which would inevitably be curtailed.>>

Well it's taken a very, very long time for it to be "inevitably curtailed!"....:-)
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New Thu 10 Nov 11 18:37 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - Dave_
>> Play.com will go to the wall tho.

I doubt it. The company was sold a few weeks ago to Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten for £25 million: tgr.ph/pns2lG

I have a relative who works on the web side of things at Play. He says there has been a lot of investment in new distribution technology in recent months, and the recent sale means they are now part of a strongly-funded group which aims to build market share across Europe. A couple of quid extra on the price cheap CDs won't hurt them badly.
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New Thu 10 Nov 11 18:46 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - RattleandSmoke
Tell your mate to tell them to invest in hard drive packaging. They send them out in the normal post in jiffy bags!

Never ordering a hard drive from there ever again, I was simply staggered they could be be so careless.
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New Thu 10 Nov 11 19:04 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - Zero
>> >> Play.com will go to the wall tho.
>>
>> I doubt it. The company was sold a few weeks ago to Japanese e-commerce company
>> Rakuten for £25 million: tgr.ph/pns2lG
>>
>> I have a relative who works on the web side of things at Play. He
>> says there has been a lot of investment in new distribution technology in recent months,
>> and the recent sale means they are now part of a strongly-funded group which aims
>> to build market share across Europe. A couple of quid extra on the price cheap
>> CDs won't hurt them badly.

25 MILLION? show how lowly the company was valued at.
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New Thu 10 Nov 11 19:14 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - spamcan61
>>
>> 25 MILLION? show how lowly the company was valued at.
>>
yeah, I thought there was a zero missing. Still 12.5 million times as much as Comet though (OK not really)
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New Thu 10 Nov 11 19:30 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - RattleandSmoke
It could be because their margins on a lot of goods they sell will be small. Free delivery on everything costs money too, even if they don't bother with things like packaging!
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New Thu 10 Nov 11 19:55 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - Falkirk Bairn
Play.com made their name and profits on CDs & DVDs
CDs and DVDs are a shrinking market which will shrink quicker if you add VAT.
Building their business in other and higher price ticket items will not be easy

Amazon are a formidable challenge, as is the current economic climate.
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New Thu 10 Nov 11 20:12 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - RattleandSmoke
Its why HMV have been buying nightclubs, they realise their business as it is won't exist in five years time.
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New Fri 11 Nov 11 00:08 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - Stuartli
I bought a replacement phone battery through Play.com for a Nokia 3310 recently at a cost of £1.95 including delivery - it was ordered late Saturday night on-line. The battery arrived on the following Tuesday morning by Royal Mail first class post and has proved a first class buy.

Just how do they make a profit on what appear to be very slender margins?
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New Fri 11 Nov 11 09:45 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - spamcan61
>> I bought a replacement phone battery through Play.com for a Nokia 3310 recently at a
>> cost of £1.95 including delivery - it was ordered late Saturday night on-line. The battery
>> arrived on the following Tuesday morning by Royal Mail first class post and has proved
>> a first class buy.
>>
>> Just how do they make a profit on what appear to be very slender margins?
>>
I wonder about this as well, over the last year or two I've bought various bits off Amazon (sellers) and Ebay for silly sums - SD card reader for £1.20 delivered and this sort of thing; USB cable for 2 quid delivered - from China. I'm not sure whether it's just old stock they're getting rid of or they sell stuff really cheap to boost their feedback ratings.
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New Fri 11 Nov 11 14:16 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - Roger.
I've received, yesterday, supplied by an Amazon partner, a scart/audio switchable plug.
Cost, delivered £1.62: how do they do it?
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New Fri 11 Nov 11 14:23 
 No more cheap gear from Channel Islands - Bromptonaut
Some of the stuff is remaindered as technology advances and fashion changes.

A Krussel leather case for my Sony K800i phone cost a couple of quid. Would have been £30+ whn the phone was current.
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