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Post by zephyranthes on Mar 12, 2008 0:44:59 GMT -5
Has anyone else in the States been feeling the pain of the drop in the value of the good ol' dollar? The economy is tanking, stocks are down, gas & food prices are up, and our purchasing power for international goods is sinking fast. I've scaled back on my purchases of imported goods this year. Gotta earn more and ride this recession (if we're not in one, we're sure as heck headed towards one fast). Still want that SOC Daimos though.
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Post by Ben-Ohki on Mar 12, 2008 12:16:14 GMT -5
The strange side-effect of this is Canadian confusion. We're so conditioned to look at international prices in US dollars. But when I import stuff from Hong Kong or Japan, I need to make a double-conversion to understand what the price should be in US Dollars and how much the price might be in Canadian dollars. These days both our currencies are pretty much holding steady with each other (but buying American is better for us because domestic retailers still haven't been able to catch up the difference in stores). Sadly, at the industrial level, because Americans are no longer wheeling and dealing in Canada, our industries have suffered a lot.
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Post by mannix143 on Mar 12, 2008 23:54:49 GMT -5
*sigh... same here in NY, everything goes up except my salary.
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Post by zephyranthes on Mar 13, 2008 1:19:12 GMT -5
It has truly become a global market. Economies are becoming more and more interlinked. When American purchasing power declines other national economies will undoubtedly suffer. Hopefully this apparent recession won't last too long.
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Post by micromanzone on Mar 16, 2008 21:30:36 GMT -5
Just won some stuff on Yahoo! Japan and was a bit taken aback—despite the fact I know the exchange rate—by how much it’s going to cost me.
If it’s any comfort to anyone, it’s not just the exchange rate that sucks. Prices for EVERYTHING in the U.S. stink nowadays. Heck, the price of bread has gone up because the price of flour has gone up. And does anyone remember when buying a carton of orange juice was somewhat reasonable?
The good side of a recession/bad-economy is that it will turn around eventually. But you just need to tough it out for the bad part... Let’s just hope that bad part doesn’t last too long.
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Post by Dragonclaw on Mar 16, 2008 22:52:53 GMT -5
On the flip side I have been able to score some good deals from domestic dealers. I was budgetting for the CMS Patlabor Griffon and the Yamato Bryger for the next 2 paychecks but managed to score both for $5 more than I had seen each one going for recently Yeah, buying from Japan is tougher, but there are still deals to be had
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Post by zephyranthes on Mar 17, 2008 1:28:14 GMT -5
Are these local dealers or online dealers? I have seen some good deals also from domestic online stores and even eBay sellers for Japanese goods.
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Post by Yom on Mar 17, 2008 1:36:56 GMT -5
I need to make a double-conversion to understand what the price should be in US Dollars and how much the price might be in Canadian dollars. You can use this site for conversions : www.xe.com/*sigh... same here in NY, everything goes up except my salary. I think everyone feels the same, all over the world...
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Post by Dragonclaw on Mar 17, 2008 10:22:07 GMT -5
Are these local dealers or online dealers? I have seen some good deals also from domestic online stores and even eBay sellers for Japanese goods. Both those I scored on Ebay from sellers in the US...Bryger for $70 and the Griffon for an $85 BIN
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Post by micromanzone on Mar 17, 2008 11:36:05 GMT -5
The other silver lining to this mess is that overseas/non-U.S. buyers are still bargain hunting, but seem to be willing to pay more for some things since it’s still a bargain for them.
So my advice: If you sell on eBay and don’t normally ship overseas, you might want to start doing that nowadays. The dollar may be down, but overseas collectors are more active than ever.
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Post by micromanzone on Mar 18, 2008 0:33:02 GMT -5
Slightly gut wrenching update, but man is the dollar weak against the Yen today.
For example back on 3/17/2007: $1 U.S. could get you 117 Yen
Now on 3/17/2008: $1 U.S. could get you 97 Yen
Good lord! And of course this happens the first time in months I've decided to bid—and win—on Yahoo! Japan Auctions.
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Post by toystarr on Mar 18, 2008 8:56:23 GMT -5
holy cow! the dollar is almost on par with the swiss franc!!!! did not see that in my 40 years before...... and micromanzone is right, because of this european collectors are in a buying frenzy (I at least have not ordered that much stuff before)
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Post by zephyranthes on Mar 19, 2008 0:07:52 GMT -5
Slightly gut wrenching update, but man is the dollar weak against the Yen today. For example back on 3/17/2007: $1 U.S. could get you 117 Yen Now on 3/17/2008: $1 U.S. could get you 97 Yen Good lord! And of course this happens the first time in months I've decided to bid—and win—on Yahoo! Japan Auctions. Some other ways to put this: The dollar has lost 17% of its purchasing power for Japanese products compared to 1 year ago OR The dollar can only buy 83% of what it did 1 year ago in terms of Japanese products. Yikes! I haven't seen the dollar drop below 100 Yen in quite a while.
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