[MediaPi]

RS online
£24.35 (excluding VAT) = $41.49 discrepancy ($41.49 - $35) = $6.49 (£3.81 shipping ??)

cpc.farnell
£22.87 (excluding VAT) = $38.97 discrepancy ($38.97 - $35) = $3.97 (£2.33 shipping ??)

I love my Pi, don't get me wrong but the facts are facts and I don't like being told its one thing when its not. The foundation says a vendor can't sell above $35, but look above. I've used the price without VAT (since this is the norm in USA, but NOT in UK). In UK when we ask for a price we want the price we pay after VAT is added. But I'm sure the quoted price of $35 is meant to be without VAT.

Even without VAT they go above $35, with RS charging $41.49!!!

Both RS and cpc.farnell say its free shipping, if it is free then its simple they are not adhering, to what the Foundation asked, can't charge above $35. but for argument sake, say they include shipping with the free price so thats why its bumped up (then dont say free shipping) that still doesnt explain why the price is so high. MASSIVE companies like those above send millions of items and will have MASSIVE discounts on Shipping, I'm sure its no where near the £2 mark.

First are the distributors allowed to charge this much? and second do NOT say its a $35 computer

In RS case its a $41.49 BOARD thats 18.5% overcharge

[twelvebore]

Regardless of any of the rest of it, RS and Farnell take no prisoners on shipping when you buy their normal stuff from them (as an individual).

We get "free next day shipping" from Farnell at my place of work - well it is free, but the next day bit seems to mean "it arrives the day after the day before it arrives", rather than "the day after we send it", or even "the day after you order it".

As for the Raspberrians, I seem to recall them saying no more than £25 / $35 at some point, though I think that that was before they starting making them in the UK.

Have you tried having a rant over there?

[Smobbo]

How is this relevant in this subforum? Please use the appropriate Raspberry Pi forum for these remarks (even though i question if it is relevant to the foundation what resellers ask for it).

@Mods, please close this thread / remove this thread.

[MediaPi]

yup hahaha just ordered a model b+ to LMAO. I do think they are amazing but... yeah rant over, but I stand by what I say, its not $35

---

How is this relevant in this subforum? Please use the appropriate Raspberry Pi forum for these remarks (even though i question if it is relevant to the foundation what resellers ask for it).

@Mods, please close this thread / remove this thread.

It is relevant, the foundation placed this restriction on the official "sellers", not resellers. They can't charge more than $35 on model B, I should have put this in Raspberry Pi I guess, its still a hardware though so...

[Ned Scott]

I guess people in the UK get the short end of the stick? As long as I order in bulk of over $200 USD worth of Pi's (for free shipping), I can get each Pi at a cost of $35 exactly via MCM Electronics, which gets their Pi's from Element 14/Farnell. Crazy for something that's made in the UK and then shipped across an entire ocean to get to me.

So if you're in the US, get a bunch of people together and order in bulk. Maybe go to your local hackerspace and see if they would be down for a bulk order of 6 or more.



Funny story:

When I originally ordered, they listed the B+ the day before they were supposed to, and I guess things weren't set up correctly because I was able to apply a coupon code, even though coupon codes shouldn't apply to Pi's (found this out later when I tried to use another coupon for someone else). I was able to score B+ w/NOOBs 8GB SD card for $34 each, when their original price was $40. I bought 6 of them to get the free shipping. I'll probably get rid of the ones I don't want on ebay for a fair price, or I might keep them and then giving them out to family/friends as gifts. (Don't worry, I'm pretty sure it's MCM Electronics that has to pay the difference for their mistake, and not the Pi Foundation.)

[MediaPi]

haha nice one Ned, I'm eagerly awaiting my B+, main reason is saw I can use the charger that just about never worked for B but should be okay for B+, plus I want to overlcock it to 1150 .

The thing I dont get is how can the Pi costs £27.44 in Uk when this thing

cost £37.38

comes with a propa box, instruction mauuals, some cables and look at the board. Its even got an intel cpu. and intel are for profit company. I dont mean to disprespect the Pi and what it stands for, but as a consumer I dont understand how the Pi claims to be so cheap yet its not for what you get...

pay like 7-8 pound more and get a quad core board...

Ned thoughts?

[Ned Scott]

While that's a fantastic deal on a motherboard/CPU combo, you have to remember that it's a different product. Plus, when you add everything you need to have it operational, vs everything you need to have the Pi operational, the price difference increases. Size, power consumption, GPIO pins, and more, all matter here. I can't run that MSI board on a battery, but I can run a Pi on a battery. For XBMC, sure, you can compare the two, but over all, they're two totally different products.

x86 chip prices are falling like mad, though. If you want the best value per dollar, then an x86 machine is still going to win, but sometimes the power per dollar doesn't matter. Sometimes it's not a factor in the project that it's being used in, and the additional CPU power isn't even needed.

etc.

[MediaPi]

thanks Ned

[twelvebore]

Ignoring for a moment basic issues of economics, eg scale of production, R&D budgets and all that, Intel as a for-profit company don't have to make a profit on everything they sell. They are quite at liberty to sell stuff below cost price, or even for what is effectively a negative price.

As a UK-based charity, this is not a freedom that Raspberry have (as I understand UK charity law at least). They have to cover all their costs and cannot deliberately make a loss.

[lolwatpear]

I don't even know why raspberry pi even comes up in 2014. It's outdated, overpriced junk. There should have been a worthwhile revision by now.

[MediaPi]

lolwatpear your viewing it from purely an XBMC stance point of view. It wasn't designed for a HTPC, the fact that XBMC works on it and is almost as fast as my old laptop shows how versatile and useful the Pi is. I wrote my first post because I read everywhere that its $35, but as I pointed out, its not. Its great value but its not $35, not for UK anyway. no matter how many times anyone shouts a Pi for only $35 wont make it happen, unfortunately. But everyone has a right to their opinion

[DocG]

For what it's worth, element 14 Australia sells it for A$38 (about $35) to resellers, excluding tax. If you're an end user, you'll end up paying more. They actually sell the B+ at their ebay store for A$48 delivered.

[Milhouse]

The thing I dont get is how can the Pi costs £27.44 in Uk when this thing cost £37.38

Several others have wondered the same. Considering the J1800 SoC has a tray price of $72, either the board manufacturers are getting a very deep discount from Intel or the board manufacturers are selling at a loss.

One look at Intels latest quarterly financial report, specifically the Mobile division which is responsible for the J1800 SoC ($52m revenue, $1.12bn loss), will confirm that it is very likely the former, and Intel are practically giving away these SoCs at cost - or maybe even below cost - in order to maintain market share and stay in the game.

[Milhouse]

@MediaPi: I normally buy from CPC Farnell where the Model B+ (they no longer stock the B) is currently priced at £22.87 ex VAT with free shipping. Allowing for exchange rate fluctuations this comes to $38.86 which is pretty close to $35. Schools - the target market for the Foundation - will be paying the ex-VAT price in which case it seems to be an accurate claim, or at least as accurate as the currency markets will permit.

As an example, if you'd paid £22.87 for a Pi in late July to early August 2013, it would have cost you less than $35, as low as $34.63 in fact. And if you go back to 2012 when the Pi launched Feb 2012, apparently at £21.60 although I'm not sure how accurate that is, the USD equivalent would have averaged $34.24 for the entire year!

The thing is the Foundation have settled on a marketing slogan ("the $35 computer") which is absolutely achievable, although largely outside of their control. Changing the marketing slogan on a daily basis - the $36 computer, the $37 computer - would be silly, and cutting the Foundation margin by lowering the UK price just to hit the $35 price is also bonkers, so you just have to take it all with a pinch of salt. Main distributors in the UK will also be paying the price the Foundation demands which is - probably - also in Sterling (being a UK based charity), and the USD equivalent price will be changing on a daily basis, sometimes to the advantage of the buyer, though more often not.

Arguably, using a foreign currency to market a UK computer was simply a bad idea, given the volatility of FX rates..

[nickr]

What a slogan: "The $35 plus power supply plus SD card plus HDMI cable plus keyboard plus mouse" computer LOL.