4 ms·

Practically speaking, in 2026, are there any big ticket items an American could buy abroad and have the travel economics work out to their favor? The big one I

Practically speaking, in 2026, are there any big ticket items an American could buy abroad and have the travel economics work out to their favor? The big one I do is medical tourism, though I have family in Taiwan. I've done a bit of dental works where the cost in the US is $3k-$5k after insurance, and at Taiwan is maybe $300-$500 (10x diff) cash pay. I've also done scan-all-the-things health spas in a Taiwan hospital for $300-$500, where American equivalents are again 10x.

deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
kotaKat 7mo ago
Weirdly for me: IKEA. I’m within ~240 miles of an IKEA in Canada and an IKEA in the US. While they’ve started to inflate some items to meet currency conversion rates, some items are still cheaper for me to purchase in Canada directly and bring back to the US. For instance, even at small scale: one BILLY bookcase, article number 205.220.46, is $90 CAD (~$65.70 US) at IKEA CA and $79 USD at IKEA US. YMMV coming back across the border but in my experience I just got waived through the border every time I told them I was “just coming back with some cheap crap from IKEA”.
- BizarroLand 7mo ago
  Travelling to a no sales tax state for large purchases. Sales tax is roughly 10%, state with no sales tax is 150 miles away for me. Doing the math, 300 miles round trip, 30 miles per gallon, $4/gallon for gas, if I'm buying something that costs more than $400 I get a free trip to other state. Downside is that you're only breaking even for the time, but if you're making a $1,000+ purchase then it's definitely worth the time for me to make the trip.
  - shagie 7mo ago
    Some states have that as a "you should/need to declare that as a use tax." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_tax It's likely poorly enforced, but it's on the books and it's a complicated one to track. It was more of a concern when internet sales didn't collect state sales. There's also Simplified Sellers Use Tax lawsuit that was recently in the courts.
- echoangle 7mo ago
  Is your time and car free or do you want to make the trip anyways?
  - kotaKat 7mo ago
    Car's 11 cents a mile, that's less than twenty bucks in gas, me spending ~5 to 6 hours total back and forth retrieving it is still worth so much more than waiting days on end for freight shipment (and the hundreds that can cost, combined with the messy scheduling commitment if you buy any large goods -- I just checked, it's $289! for that Billy to be shipped to my doorstep). I have in fact brought a rolled up full size mattress home in the back seat of a Fusion Hybrid (it fit! with room for other things!) and it was a great cost savings. As a bonus at the time there was an additional sale in IKEA CA on the mattress that US didn't have, so I saved even more.
OkayPhysicist 7mo ago
Labor-intensive products. Custom suits, leather jackets, etc., are so, so much cheaper in places with lower costs of living. For individual items, flights might make it a toss-up, but on the scale of an entire wardrobe, flying to Turkey, having a bunch of tailored clothes made up, and then flying home would definitely work out.
- a_t48 7mo ago
  India, too! The suit I got for my wedding was custom, way cheaper there than here. I need to go back and get a second jacket some day.
  - ryandrake 7mo ago
    Yea, same here. I was already in India for other reasons, and I thought--hmm let's see what a tailored suit costs. I ended up decking myself out with a sweet wardrobe for what what so cheap I thought it was an English language mistake.
- ghaff 7mo ago
  That certainly used to be the case. My dad used to get his suits made in Hong Kong all the time although that became less economical relative to other locations. I don't really wear any of that type of clothing any longer. Akihabara in Tokyo also used to be a bargain for electronics but I'm not sure that's really true any longer that I've noticed.
  - snapetom 7mo ago
    As late as 2012-2015 it was still extremely cheap to get suits in HK, but I'm sure that's no longer the case. The last time I did it, I bought fabric for $60 USD at Joann's, flew to HK, and gave a guy the fabric for a suit. The suit cost $45 USD to make.
    - ghaff 7mo ago
      I think, latterly, my dad was getting them made in Seoul and I had some clothing made there and Singapore as well. But I had admittedly not been in HK for years and years and didn't really need suits in any case.
m4rtink 7mo ago
Japanese stationary - and I am not kidding.
adrian_b 7mo ago
Inside the European Union, traveling to other places to buy things from there would only seldom be profitable, when considering the travel expenses. On the other hand, I frequently buy things from online shops located in many of the EU countries, because very often for various kinds of things that I want to buy I find the best deals in different countries. There are no extra expenses but shipping, so it is frequent to order things from far away, because at a local shop near me they would be more expensive than buying from another country, even with the added shipping.
- yurishimo 7mo ago
  I bought a custom couch from Lithuania and got it shipped to the Netherlands after trying a certain brand in a local showroom. The brand is based in Belgium and does some manufacturing in Poland. They even shipped it for free because I met a minimum spend threshold. The NL dealer wanted €5k but Lithuania wanted €2800 for the same exact couch so I then convinced myself it was worth it to pay for a fabric upgrade. Since its made by the same Belgian company, the warranty is identical and valid across the EU. I guess you could say I’ve successfully assimilated to my new adopted home in NL and now I hate to pay full price for almost anything!
m463 7mo ago
I remember decades ago hearing stories of motorcycle racers going to japan to get a honda RS125, put it in their luggage and bringing it back to the US. They are small race-only 2-stroke motorcycles, not sold in the US at all.
NedF 7mo ago
[dead]
profdevloper 7mo ago
A wife

deleted 7mo ago

[deleted]

kotaKat 7mo ago

Weirdly for me: IKEA. I’m within ~240 miles of an IKEA in Canada and an IKEA in the US. While they’ve started to inflate some items to meet currency conversion rates, some items are still cheaper for me to purchase in Canada directly and bring back to the US. For instance, even at small scale: one BILLY bookcase, article number 205.220.46, is $90 CAD (~$65.70 US) at IKEA CA and $79 USD at IKEA US. YMMV coming back across the border but in my experience I just got waived through the border every time I told them I was “just coming back with some cheap crap from IKEA”.

BizarroLand 7mo ago
Travelling to a no sales tax state for large purchases. Sales tax is roughly 10%, state with no sales tax is 150 miles away for me. Doing the math, 300 miles round trip, 30 miles per gallon, $4/gallon for gas, if I'm buying something that costs more than $400 I get a free trip to other state. Downside is that you're only breaking even for the time, but if you're making a $1,000+ purchase then it's definitely worth the time for me to make the trip.
- shagie 7mo ago
  Some states have that as a "you should/need to declare that as a use tax." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_tax It's likely poorly enforced, but it's on the books and it's a complicated one to track. It was more of a concern when internet sales didn't collect state sales. There's also Simplified Sellers Use Tax lawsuit that was recently in the courts.
echoangle 7mo ago
Is your time and car free or do you want to make the trip anyways?
- kotaKat 7mo ago
  Car's 11 cents a mile, that's less than twenty bucks in gas, me spending ~5 to 6 hours total back and forth retrieving it is still worth so much more than waiting days on end for freight shipment (and the hundreds that can cost, combined with the messy scheduling commitment if you buy any large goods -- I just checked, it's $289! for that Billy to be shipped to my doorstep). I have in fact brought a rolled up full size mattress home in the back seat of a Fusion Hybrid (it fit! with room for other things!) and it was a great cost savings. As a bonus at the time there was an additional sale in IKEA CA on the mattress that US didn't have, so I saved even more.

OkayPhysicist 7mo ago

Labor-intensive products. Custom suits, leather jackets, etc., are so, so much cheaper in places with lower costs of living. For individual items, flights might make it a toss-up, but on the scale of an entire wardrobe, flying to Turkey, having a bunch of tailored clothes made up, and then flying home would definitely work out.

a_t48 7mo ago
India, too! The suit I got for my wedding was custom, way cheaper there than here. I need to go back and get a second jacket some day.
- ryandrake 7mo ago
  Yea, same here. I was already in India for other reasons, and I thought--hmm let's see what a tailored suit costs. I ended up decking myself out with a sweet wardrobe for what what so cheap I thought it was an English language mistake.
ghaff 7mo ago
That certainly used to be the case. My dad used to get his suits made in Hong Kong all the time although that became less economical relative to other locations. I don't really wear any of that type of clothing any longer. Akihabara in Tokyo also used to be a bargain for electronics but I'm not sure that's really true any longer that I've noticed.
- snapetom 7mo ago
  As late as 2012-2015 it was still extremely cheap to get suits in HK, but I'm sure that's no longer the case. The last time I did it, I bought fabric for $60 USD at Joann's, flew to HK, and gave a guy the fabric for a suit. The suit cost $45 USD to make.
  - ghaff 7mo ago
    I think, latterly, my dad was getting them made in Seoul and I had some clothing made there and Singapore as well. But I had admittedly not been in HK for years and years and didn't really need suits in any case.

m4rtink 7mo ago

Japanese stationary - and I am not kidding.

adrian_b 7mo ago

Inside the European Union, traveling to other places to buy things from there would only seldom be profitable, when considering the travel expenses. On the other hand, I frequently buy things from online shops located in many of the EU countries, because very often for various kinds of things that I want to buy I find the best deals in different countries. There are no extra expenses but shipping, so it is frequent to order things from far away, because at a local shop near me they would be more expensive than buying from another country, even with the added shipping.

yurishimo 7mo ago
I bought a custom couch from Lithuania and got it shipped to the Netherlands after trying a certain brand in a local showroom. The brand is based in Belgium and does some manufacturing in Poland. They even shipped it for free because I met a minimum spend threshold. The NL dealer wanted €5k but Lithuania wanted €2800 for the same exact couch so I then convinced myself it was worth it to pay for a fabric upgrade. Since its made by the same Belgian company, the warranty is identical and valid across the EU. I guess you could say I’ve successfully assimilated to my new adopted home in NL and now I hate to pay full price for almost anything!

m463 7mo ago

I remember decades ago hearing stories of motorcycle racers going to japan to get a honda RS125, put it in their luggage and bringing it back to the US. They are small race-only 2-stroke motorcycles, not sold in the US at all.

NedF 7mo ago

[dead]

profdevloper 7mo ago

A wife