Shreddoc wrote on 2021-06-27, 22:21:

e.g. when I bought my Sound Canvas 1-2yrs ago, as a New Zealander, almost every ebay auction is categorised as "Will not ship to your country", or with shipping fees rivalling the item price itself. The same could be said for almost every marketplace.

Are forwarding services available? I guess it could be related to a massive hassle with importing regulations. But if regulations why would they be so bad on tech when the countries economy is based on sheep, small birds, and films fantasy TV shows, and movies?

SScorpio wrote on 2021-06-28, 00:29:

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-06-27, 22:21:

e.g. when I bought my Sound Canvas 1-2yrs ago, as a New Zealander, almost every ebay auction is categorised as "Will not ship to your country", or with shipping fees rivalling the item price itself. The same could be said for almost every marketplace.

Are forwarding services available? I guess it could be related to a massive hassle with importing regulations. But if regulations why would they be so bad on tech when the countries economy is based on sheep, small birds, and films fantasy TV shows, and movies?

I assume that it's for the same reason there's an Australian version of Amazon, but no New Zealand version : below a certain market size, most businesses simply don't bother. Especially if you're geographically off the main shipping and trade routes.

"Within reason" still applies re: pricing, naturally. My particular SC-55Mk2 came from Japan via Amazon - one year ago - and was about US$205 to my New Zealand door, including a very-cheap-in-the-range $30 shipping, and $25 import tax. It could have been done cheaper another way, in which case I would have instead paid in alternative ways like extended effort, going without for longer, and service reliability. Realise, for example, that there's no viable option of "sending it back" if something isn't quite to your liking, when the shipping is so far. And there's no legal access to the seller if they turn out to be dodgy in any way, from the other side of the world.

My point was that, along with the aforementioned suckers, there are also certain other minorities making up the customer base of seemingly high priced Buy It Nows, Amazon sales, and other such. For reasons.

Everything said : these things (the original hardware, at least) aren't getting any more common as time passes!

Shred, there's a ton of Sound Canvases on Australian eBay over the course of a year. Do none of those ever ship to NZ? Although, the price for most would probably come out the same.

Spikey wrote on 2021-06-30, 14:30:

Shred, there's a ton of Sound Canvases on Australian eBay over the course of a year. Do none of those ever ship to NZ? Although, the price for most would probably come out the same.

It's an option, for sure. With enough patience, I'm sure a reasonable deal (and sometimes even a real bargain) could still be had. Trouble is, buyers I'm competing with on auctions don't have my international overheads. ​Being really keen to have one rightnowtoday was also a factor in my decision to spend more than I had to - the Desperation Tax has no mercy!

But you're right, the final prices more-or-less even out across the main options, when international shipping & import GST are being levied onto most options. Still today it seems, the best deals for one in my situation are often the ones from Japan who, along with generally having the best BIN prices, sometimes even offer free international shipping - just need to replace the power brick with a local one which is trivial.

I just saw a bunch of Japanese SC-88's on ebay au, in the AUD 180-230 range with free international shipping, which seems more than reasonable.

MT-32's are a different story! Doubt I'll ever be owning a real one of those, now. A few years too late. Munt + mt32pi is a nice consolation prize.

It's not just the MT-32, I bought an Aureal Vortex 2 for like $50 a few months ago and now all the listed ones are north of $100.