Our site now has the set live! For EU customers - http://groupbuys.mechboards.co.uk/shop/gmk-metaverse/
Yup, like I thought. Most expensive GB set that had an EU proxy yet...
Nothing against you but being in the UK you are one of the worst contenders for the EU proxy, at least for everyone outside of the UK. Currency conversion is being stacked twice and shipping cost is prohibitively high. I thought TA80 was high at 143€ shipped but this is running close to 180€. Was pretty hyped for the set but GB at 180€? That's a solid pass. GLWS
It’s true that the set is expensive, but man, it’s just 10$ more than the US and 10$ less than Asia proxy, don’t think it’s mechboards’ fault here.
Not to mention that price has to include VAT while US and Asia don't, so that pricing really isn't high at all for what the actual costs of the set are.
You really had to make that comment right? Okay fine, I can play that game too.
Metaverse pricing:
US: $160 + domestic shipping (let's assume $10 because your site doesn't let me fetch the real number) = 170$
EU(buying from a country that uses the Euro): £130 + £15 shipping = £145 = 171€ (using PayPal's currency conversion) = $198.79 (using the current normal conversion rate)
Or about 17% more expensive. Keeping in mind that there's 21% UK VAT included that's a great deal isn't it?
Well, let's compare to GMK TA90 prices(EU via mykeyboard):
US: $169 + domestic shipping (let's use the same $10 in order to keep things equal) = $179
EU: 139€ + 4€ = 143€ = $166.21 (using the current normal conversion rate)
Or about 7.7% cheaper.
Let's compare Burgundy prices(EU via candykeys):
US: $149 + $10 shipping + PP fee ( 4.4% (+ a few cents we'll leave out) so $7) = $166
EU: 135€ + 12€ shipping (to any EU country, germany is cheaper but that's cheating) = 147€ = $171
or about 3% more expensive
And for good measure, let's also do Phantom (EU via mykeyboard):
US: $145 + $10 shipping = $155
EU: 135€ + 4€ shipping = 139€ = $161.60
or about 4.2% more expensive
Pretty wild spread, but on average those EU buys were 0.167% cheaper than Metaverse compared to the US price. Okay, granted, TA90 is a heavy hitter.
If we discard TA90 in the equasion to only use the US-based GBs the EU buys were on average 3.6% more expensive which is still a huge difference to 17%.
Here's my theory where this difference comes from:
1. The sets are made in Germany shipping them to Germany or Belgium from GMK should be cheaper than shipping them across that bit of water to the UK which impacts the base price.
2. The UK uses a different currency and the vendor collects orders in that currency. Meaning any EU buyer who's not in the UK is paying the currency conversion from their currency (most likely €) to GBP and the one from GPB to € so the vendor can pay GMK.
3. Shipping. It's 15gbp which is 16.82€, that's a little bit more than candykeys' EU shipping and a significant amount more than meykeyboard's EU shipping.
So mechboards isn't really to blame for the pricing, it's just the location they are at that's causing a lot of the price difference, that stuff adds up quickly.