shipping cost!, goverment taxes!
HERE is 50% for individual importation! at Argentinia, at brazil is close or same tax.
And shipping!, and bank transfer taxes that is about 20%!

letme calculate
i thinks it is more like E15

145msx
+ 29bank (20% of 145e)
+ 15shipment
+ 72.5 gov taxes (50% of 145)

that makes 261.5euros
now , thinking about change = 1e = 3.7$ here
967.55$$$$$$$$$$$$
one industrial salary!
with that pay i can buy a Athlon 64 + a MSI kt6 and 512mb ram + an HD 40gb!

what you thinks (for outside EU) ppl?

and for inside it only saves the 50% import tax.

I don't know what bank you are with, but if they charge you 29 euros for a payment of 145 euros you are either lying or full of shit! Did I just say that out loud!?!

Seriously though, a normal bank transfer to .jp should cost you something in the order of $5 - $10 for an amount like that. Shipment is prolly expensive indeed, maybe even a little more than 15 euros if packed with manuals and insured properly. Of course you can't blame the rest of the world for the fact that your stupid government charges 50% taxes on everything you import. Go shoot a congressman or something! (kidding! do not, I repeat do not shoot a congressman... or anyone else for that matter...)

I don't know much about those mickey-mouse dollars you people use over there, but something tells me that with bank-transfer rates and import taxes what they are, you're not going to buy an Athlon 64 with 512MBs and 40GBs with that industrial salary either, whatever that might mean... Don't forget you'd be buying one brand-new piece of MSX hardware though

On a side-note. Most latin-american countries charge very low taxes on computer hardware and pheripherals. In Costa Rica, for instance, I only had to pay sales-taxes on anything computer-related I imported. Are you sure there's not some kind of similar regulation in Argentina?

Also, if it keeps you from shooting a congressman , have you considered perhaps asking someone to send it to you with a.. uhm... 'slightly different' invoice? I somehow doubt the Argentine customs department has the oneChip MSX on a list with it's value next to it.

o.t.o.h., shooting a congressman could be fun... with paint ^_^

Quote:

shipping cost!, goverment taxes! HERE is 50% for individual importation! at Argentinia, at brazil is close or same tax.

Actually in Brazil it's 70%..... the one chip bought from Japan to Brazil *legally* should be around R$1.100 to R$1.300 - more than a PS2/X-Box/GameCube or the same as a "entry-level" PC...

Unfortunaly nothing we can do about it

Well, then instead wait for 1chip-msx emulators ^_^

o_O

unless they pay taxes per CPU-cycle too!

I understand that you don't like it that the One Chip MSX becomes so expensive to you, but I fail to see what it's got to do with the One Chip MSX. It's more a problem of your country, and affects all (electronical) goods that are imported to it. That doesn't make the situation any nicer, tho

Quote:

Actually in Brazil it's 70%..... the one chip bought from Japan to Brazil *legally* should be around R$1.100 to R$1.300 - more than a PS2/X-Box/GameCube or the same as a "entry-level" PC... Unfortunaly nothing we can do about it

What I fail to understand is why this 70% taxe would apply to 1chip MSX and not to PS2/X-Box/Gamebubes and PCs ? They are also imported electronic goods in Brazil, aren't they ?

Ofcourse Maggoo, but whining about PS2 import prices is not as much fun as whining about 1CM import prices.... You see the difference?

I'm sarcastic, ofcourse...

Well, taxes in Brazil are high, but they are not 70% ... the taxes depends on the price of the computer being imported. And the comparison saying that 1CM would cost more than a PS2/XBOX/GameCube is not fair, those videogames *legally* costs more than 1100 or 1300 for sure. Videogames with those prices can only be found if you are not paying import taxes.

one last thing, I don't know about Argentina, but when it comes to Brazil, it is not fair to say that taxes will make 1CM too expensive to be bought in Brazil. Most of the MSX computers and hardware (if not all, what I believe should be true) bought by MSX users enter in Brazil without paying import taxes (people use tricks like saying the computer or hardware is used and it was a gift). I did that myself. If people doesn't buy 1CM in Brazil it will be because they didn't like it ( I already told you about that), not because taxes made it too expensive. People in Brazil always find a way (when they really want).

First at argentinia IS:

IF you are a "final consummer" you will pay 50% of custom taxes of every thing that you import. BUT, you can import up to u$s25 per calendar year free of taxes.

Sencond, IS ILEGAL import used things, you can makes it legal paying taxes as for NEW.

BY other hand, large scale importers dealers that are registered in AFIP / IB / DREI goverment's taxes departament have others low taxes rates.

and by other hand, i can buy a new brand athlon 64 plus a MSI KT6 AV mother, plus 512mb DDR 400, plus 40gb HDD 7200rpm (normal IDE) with less than will costme the 1CM.

because it costs 120u$s for the CPU, 63u$s for the mother, 43u$s for the memo, 48u$s for the HD.
and if i not have CASE i can add a case for 33u$s (case with 300W psu).

ALL an average industrial month payment.

how i know all about custom laws?

i already imported the IDE sunrise!

and FREE OF TAXES!!!.. why?, because the custom guy toldme that for video games cartridge is acceptable to declare like 20E (25u$s) as price, so i used my free of taxes 25u$s the last year and ofcourse i shut up my mouth.

ahh, about BANK transfer taxes..
when i study how costme for send money to other country!

first i check several banks, the bank transfer costs is normaly a BASE of 170$ up to 200$ (== like 56u$s up to 86u$s), plus like 3% of the money sended!.

AND I CHECK ALSO THE BANK where I AM CUSTOMER.

now WESTERN UNION IS OTHER THING!

it have a more low BASE, like 50$ (16u$s), but have a very high % of the money sended!. And when you more sends less is the %. So sending little ammounts of money will costs more than sending big ammounts. For calculate the % the officer see a chart that depends of the destination and of the ammount of money sended.

Ah!!! by the way, money EXCHANGE like; $ to u$s or $ to EUROS, is another point of one being stolen!. WESTERN UNION SUCKS!