4 ms·

> In my EU country second hand hardware prices are through the roof. Curious - any thoughts on why?

• ChuckNorris89 6y ago
  Small country, small market. Small market, low supply. Low supply, high prices.
  • skissane 6y ago
    Wasn't the EU single market supposed to fix that?
    • ChuckNorris89 6y ago
      The EU single market has no positive or negative effect here as it's a private purchase not subject to any regulations. I am free to buy and sell to and from any country in the world, the issues is not everyone is willing to deal and pay for international shipping which ends up quite high for a cheap SFF tower system.
      • skissane 6y ago
        > not everyone is willing to deal and pay for international shipping In principle, shouldn't one of the consequences of the EU project be that intra-EU shipping rates should, for the same distance, be identical between within the same country and between EU countries? (Of course, I realise that outcome may not yet have actually been achieved in practice.)
        • bluGill 6y ago
          In theory. In practice roads between counties are not as good so cost goes up.
          • skissane 6y ago
            One of the EU projects is trying to improve the transport links (including road network) between EU countries – https://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/infrastructure/ten-t_en https://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/infrastructure/ten-t_e... One would hope that if they are successful in improving those transport links, shipping costs will reduce as a result.
            • bluGill 6y ago
              Somewhat. Population also tends to be centered around the country so it even if transportation is better people still have their lives setup such that practically shipping in their country is cheaper.
    • _ph_ 6y ago
      The EU is a single market, but that doesn't stop all the countries having different languages and consequentely different keyboard layouts. So you are looking in your country, perhaps in a second, which shares your keyboard layout.
      • skissane 6y ago
        About laptops, I mostly agree. (While the wrong keyboard layout is something you could learn to live with or workaround, in practice it may well be too unpleasant to be worth it.) For desktops, it shouldn't really matter. One quite likely already has a spare USB keyboard with the right layout, and if one doesn't, it shouldn't cost much to buy one (whether new or second-hand).
  • bouk 6y ago
    Small market, low demand. Low demand, low prices
    • ChuckNorris89 6y ago
      Except the reality says otherwise. Big markets like US, UK and Germany have low prices on consumer products and in small markets like Austria and BeNeLux countries consumer products cost more.
• bildung 6y ago
  As this field is labor intensive and only marginally automatable, I'd assume the wage floor is a reason.
• Zenst 6y ago
  Supply and demand or in this case, a bottleneck hold on a supply network that has shifted from warehousing months towards a just in time production/distribution model and with that, more susceptible to any bumps. This causes shortage spikes and price rises of new, which drive up the corresponding second hand offerings. Same way hard drives a few years back increased in price, supply and demand as a factory went out of action for a while, curtailing market supply. Also why external USB drives became source of HD's as they had a larger supply buffer as less popular at the time and more in warehouses/stores.