12 ms·
Fair enough, but the problem is mainly when you are in a third world country and parts are very difficult to get, and where Mac stores are non-existent.
by aneutron 6y ago
Fair enough, but the problem is mainly when you are in a third world country and parts are very difficult to get, and where Mac stores are non-existent.
- littlecranky67 6y agoPeople in third world countries buy Macbooks - really? A decent macbook is several times above an average monthly income in a first-world country already...
- ThatsWhatImSayn 6y agoWhat else are they going to spend our trillions of tax dollars on? Not much we can do, UN votes are expensive.
- bArray 6y agoSecond hand devices they may, although I'm not sure how many people are shipping Apple products out of the Country given the large scam risk.
- withinboredom 6y agoOh, prepare to be mind-blown. Let me tell you how it works. Someone goes to the US (such as a direct flight to NY or ATL), they hop off the plane, load a backpack full of laptops, then fly back and resell them without paying import taxes or VAT. It works even better if the person flying is flying for work and someone else buys the ticket. It's not scalable, but works pretty good when a group of friends purchases them. Cost of MBP in the US: $2,799 (€2,390) Cost of MBP in NL: €3,199 ($3,746) Cost of plane ticket from NL to US: (pre-covid) ~€600
- consp 6y agoYou have to get rid of the packaging, and dump all the manuals etc or otherwise you might get a date with customs to explains why you have 10 unopened MBP's in your backpack and you get a nice import fee + VAT or you can leave them at the customs office. Also, you get about 10% tax added when buy.
- bluedino 6y ago>> You have to get rid of the packaging, and dump all the manuals Good thing Apple laptops don't come with manuals. There isn't much much more than a couple stickers and a microfiber cloth in the box.
- alchemism 6y agoLast time I did this, when the officials saw the number of laptops in my carryon they sent me over to the diplomat line for faster processing.
- andrewnicolalde 6y agoLOL, what happened then?
- alchemism 6y agoThere is only anticlimax :) The ‘executive’ screener was kindly about helping me sort them into a line of individual trays and then back into the luggage and didn’t show the slightest curiosity about any of it.
- withinboredom 6y agoThat's funny, when I flew in LA from Bali, I got stuffed in a room for four hours because I had a rock in my suitcase.
- dliff 6y agoReturning from Singapore I was asked if I had any "rare feathers"... I said no but was still taken aside and searched.
- alchemism 6y agoI like processing through Newark, New Jersey the best. They seem to have the least propensity for wasting your (their) time, or else a very good nose on who the actual problems are in the crowd and focusing their attention on them. [edit: and these use beagles to check luggage! How cute is that.]
- literallycancer 6y agoOn the topic of exploiting the VAT system, it's interesting to read up on the missing trader fraud and carousels in general.
- alchemism 6y agoI do exactly this for our US/EU startup, which is located a few countries away from the nearest Apple Store.
- babayega2 6y agoOf course we buy them! The same way in your country there are rich peoples able to afford yachts, we also have an upper class capable of buying all the Apple stuffs.
- semi-extrinsic 6y agoI'd guess many in third-world countries buy second-hand Macbooks, as they have a reputation (at least in the past) for lasting a long time? And are there any first-world countries (except maybe the US^^) where a 13" Macbook is several times the average net monthly income? In Germany, for instance, the monthly average net wage (MANW) is €2500, while the price of a 13" Macbook starts at €1300. Italy: MANW is €1700, Spain: €1800, France: €2400, UK: €2200. Go to the Nordic countries, Switzerland, Ireland, Austria etc. and we're talking MANW of €3000+. Canada has MANW of around US$3400. ^^ If the US is the only first-world country matching your statement, one could argue this is further evidence that the US is no longer a first-world country.
- rurban 6y agoYou mixed that reputation up with Lenovo thinkpads. Apple keyboards break down after several years with the touchpad and butterfly keyboard disasters are even unusable afresh. You cannot replace anything, and are way overpriced. Thinkpads on the other hand are like Toyota's
- AYBABTME 6y agoMy 2016 MBPr was of the first gen with all these changes and it's doing fine as I type this message.
- bartvk 6y agoIt can be a business investment. I sometimes send work to third-world countries via Fiverr, and these people definitely have decent hardware. They buy and write off their machines like any other business in the world.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- brianxp 6y agoOFC we do, that's just plain xenophobic. I'm a Colombian software developer and my company has given me Macbook Pro.
- carstenhag 6y agoGuess what, there are rich people in 3rd world countries too. I once met a Bangladesh teenager on IRC, who was the son of someone popular in that country, and he did have enough money to buy pretty good parts to assemble a pc. His problem was not the money, rather the availability of the parts.