How could any forum about tech stuff be complete without talking about Pantip Plaza my still fav first stop every trip. Now keep in mind I'm a computer guy through and through. I actually own a computer consulting firm here in Canada.. but it just staggers me the stuff I can find (and of course the prices) at PP.

It's got the point now that last trip in June my GF and her sister and Mom came out to meet my flight and he mom was asking about if I was going to be stopping by the house the next day and my GF turned and said oh no, first day he's going to Pantip hhahahaha... and that I did.. picked up a great new laptop and a 4 gig thumbdrive that was less than half the price of the same model here in Canada...

Oh I could spend days in there at a time..

Amazingly I have never been there but I pass right by it twice a week For those that live on the other side of town, Seacon Square and SIRI Centre are not bad for computer gear :wink:

I often wonder how such prices differences can be justified. Is it down to tax rates on items being so much lower, workers wages, property prices for the shops selling the products, factory overheads being so much lower or what?

Or, could it just be down to plain old `get what you can for it?` In other words the richer countries will pay more for products simply because they can.

forwardone Wrote:I often wonder how such prices differences can be justified. Is it down to tax rates on items being so much lower, workers wages, property prices for the shops selling the products, factory overheads being so much lower or what?

Or, could it just be down to plain old `get what you can for it?` In other words the richer countries will pay more for products simply because they can.

I think the answer is yes, yes and yes...

I'll tell you a little story, not that long ago when blank DVD's were first becoming popular I contacted a few companies in Asia that made them, the actual manufactors and one of those companies was in Thailand, BKK to be exact. At that time a spindle of 50 Blank DVD -R 4x discs was selling for between 45 and 60 bucks...

I got quotes on prices and I had to buy a minimum lot size of 5k spindles, at that quantity my cost including shipping duty landing taxes, everything all in was about 13 bucks a spindle...

So somewhere between the factory in BKK where they were made and the retail stores in Canada somebody was making 300% profit on them... I ended up buying a couple more orders from them and still under cutting everybody else in the area I lived I was able to get 100% mark up.

Which lead me to dig a little deeper and find out that a certain motherboard that was popular at the time was selling in the 110 bucks range... the board was produced in Tawain for 21 dollars a board.. same thing as long as you took 5k pieces..

It all comes down to if you have $105,000 to buy the boards, pay for their shipping and landing fees etc, you can sell it for whatever you want.. and why would you not get the most you can for it?

I think places like Pantip don't have this issue.. as you all know with pretty much anything in Thailand the "price" is merely a suggestion that goes right out the window the second it looks like you might walk away and not buy it...

Where as in Canada if you ever tried to haggle on a price you'd be laughed out of the store...

Which leads me back to I love Pantip hahahaha... I will have to check out those other places you mentioned, but boy I'm addicted I actually have it now that some of the regulars know me because when I walk in and they see me , they don't hassle me anymore about do I want any "sexy movie" hahahaha...