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Komii

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,554
Goddamn, I'm sorry. Is importing not an option at all?
Importing is tricky... in theory anything you bought from outside that's under 50USD shouldn't be taxed. In practice it does, and it's 70% of the value. Any game you buy from outside is going to be converted 1usd to 4brl x1,70, so it can get expensive as hell.

60USD price tag for launch titles can fuck this up legally, and that's the nintendo price tag iirc.

Eshop prices are "reasonable" 230reais for a new game is more expensive than the 150-200 sony charges for launch titles, and there are ses, but only titles published by nintendo make the cut, so it's severely lacking in terms of games, also there's the thing i explained, there's no in switch store, only a page where you write the codes for stuff you bought on a web browser(which the switch doesn't have yet i think?)

As for consoles, the shipping price+ taxes(70%)+ conversion makes importing not an option at all, so you need to rely on grey market importers, they can get switches for a similar price than they do for you in turkey, even a bit lower, but it depends on their products being stoppe by taxes or not.

Other options would be travelling abroad and bringing one with you, or asking for relatives.

Compare that to sony and microsoft that allow you to buy everything legally for mostly reasonable prices and you'll get to the conclusion only crazy people buy nintendo games.

We have a surprising amount of crazy people though

Also, it's ok, as i said i was venting xD, just think about how bad it is to not have the legal stuff in your country and try to at least buy stuff when they get a reasonable pricing xD, really you don't wanna go back to that
 

Deleted member 4247

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,896
And where exactly is the problem? 320€ or even 325€ was the exact start price here in Europe (Germany) so, seems pretty normal?

Probably because their wages are much lower than in western Europe, so it becomes a luxury item for the well off. But yeah, the price itself is about what I paid here in Sweden. Actually it was even more expensive here, like €370.
 

Madao

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,683
Panama
these price differences are bullshit. something is very wrong when importing from a different place is cheaper even with import tax.
if an individual can buy at a lower import price, why can't they sell it at that price at least? are they so corrupt they want to rip off people without shame?
 

Green Yoshi

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,597
Cologne (Germany)
Wouldn't it be cheaper when their relatives in Germany buy the Switch for 299€ and then it sell it to them in Turkey during their summer vacation?
 

unicornKnight

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,169
Athens, Greece
Uh, yeah, I never said it was? OP's situation is way worse and crazy, I was just saying that CD Media does it like that in every country they operate in. I think it's even worse in Greece.
No it's normal here, Switch 340 eur, games 60, the controllers were 10 eur more expensive but a lot of retailers have them for much less than RRP (maybe those retailers import on their own and don't buy from CD media).
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 8861

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,564
Wouldn't it be cheaper when their relatives in Germany buy the Switch for 299€ and then it sell it to them in Turkey during their summer vacation?
I fucking wish I had relatives in Germany mate lol

Importing is tricky... in theory anything you bought from outside that's under 50USD shouldn't be taxed. In practice it does, and it's 70% of the value. Any game you buy from outside is going to be converted 1usd to 4brl x1,70, so it can get expensive as hell.

60USD price tag for launch titles can fuck this up legally, and that's the nintendo price tag iirc.

Eshop prices are "reasonable" 230reais for a new game is more expensive than the 150-200 sony charges for launch titles, and there are ses, but only titles published by nintendo make the cut, so it's severely lacking in terms of games, also there's the thing i explained, there's no in switch store, only a page where you write the codes for stuff you bought on a web browser(which the switch doesn't have yet i think?)

As for consoles, the shipping price+ taxes(70%)+ conversion makes importing not an option at all, so you need to rely on grey market importers, they can get switches for a similar price than they do for you in turkey, even a bit lower, but it depends on their products being stoppe by taxes or not.

Other options would be travelling abroad and bringing one with you, or asking for relatives.

Compare that to sony and microsoft that allow you to buy everything legally for mostly reasonable prices and you'll get to the conclusion only crazy people buy nintendo games.

We have a surprising amount of crazy people though

Also, it's ok, as i said i was venting xD, just think about how bad it is to not have the legal stuff in your country and try to at least buy stuff when they get a reasonable pricing xD, really you don't wanna go back to that
I feel you.

Though somehow here they've overpriced it so steeply, importing or even flying to europe to buy one and coming back costs about the same or less. So basically we don't even have the comfort of thinking it's at least not as bad as importing. lol

By comparison, what did an Xbox or PS4 go for there?
Checking Media Markt prices and an XB1 S with two games (PUBG-MCC) and a second controller is 2200 TL. XB1X is 2700 TL. A 1TB PS4 with God of War is 2050 TL.
 

faced

Member
Dec 17, 2017
177
Turkey is incredibly hard to do business in for a couple of reasons:

Insane inflation means your prices change constantly. They probably set the price thinking the dollar will be 6 or 7 TL soon and honestly given history I don't blame them.

The government is super protectionist on imports as you covered already. We have to have a local partner which basically exists to sign a paper saying "I have a Turkish partner" and then on top of that we are forbidden from importing certain products ENTIRELY if there is seen to be a Turkish replacement.

Despite this the company I work for prices cheaper in Turkey than the other markets we run but it's food. Logic being that yeah, wages are lower and we don't want to sell to only tourists. We do have to increase annually there though just to keep up with inflation, and Tourism numbers are insane and keep growing YOY which means that even if the average wage is not high at all you can get away with selling to tourists for certain items
 

Komii

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,554
I feel you.

Though somehow here they've overpriced it so steeply, importing or even flying to europe to buy one and coming back costs about the same or less. So basically we don't even have the comfort of thinking it's at least not as bad as importing. lol
Lol i wished we were closer to europe... honestly gray market here can be good but can also be pretty abusive, i've seen games sold by about 350brl(100usd) and digital codes that should be 230 being sold by 300 because they abuse the fact of how convoluted the store works to scam people.

Some people are "priviledged" and can go to paraguay or argentina on a car trip to buy goods, but considering the size of the country and location that's definitely not an option for everyone, tbh i'm one of the half priviledged since i live on a state the imports come in...otherwise I'd have to pay transport taxes and a bit more for the games sonce buying them on card has taxes while with money it doesn't

Octopath on the same reseller could cost 290BRL if you pay with money or 310 on card, shipping to my region which is the same of the seller is 14BRL, i believe i i lived on Bahia or another state ot could go up to 30BRL

There was a reseller charging 350BRL, plus taxes/shipping.

Also we had a truck driver strike this year that made any shipping through mail take more than 30 work days even though you live next door

Traveling to europe or US with the euro costing 5reais and the dollar 4 is definitely not a cheaper option as you need to spend the price of an overpriced switch to go buy a half reasonable priced switch, could work for the classic snes as the price it got here was definitely abusive(close to 1000brl)

Tl;dr if we got your regional prices we'd be spending about the same as our gray market charges us for stuff so it is a freaking deal imo Dx in reality we'd get your prices but doubled or tripled because of how our taxes work, look up the 4000brl playstation fiasco if you need to know more about that, luckly sony managed to work that out
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 8861

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,564
Turkey is incredibly hard to do business in for a couple of reasons:

Insane inflation means your prices change constantly. They probably set the price thinking the dollar will be 6 or 7 TL soon and honestly given history I don't blame them.

The government is super protectionist on imports as you covered already. We have to have a local partner which basically exists to sign a paper saying "I have a Turkish partner" and then on top of that we are forbidden from importing certain products ENTIRELY if there is seen to be a Turkish replacement.

Despite this the company I work for prices cheaper in Turkey than the other markets we run but it's food. Logic being that yeah, wages are lower and we don't want to sell to only tourists. We do have to increase annually there though just to keep up with inflation, and Tourism numbers are insane and keep growing YOY which means that even if the average wage is not high at all you can get away with selling to tourists for certain items
I really value your input on this, thanks.
 

Al3x1s

Banned
Nov 13, 2017
2,824
Greece
Seems like the price is similar to other countries in the region if converted to euros but the turkish lira exchange rate sucks right now so you're sol. They wouldn't sell it so much cheaper there and have neighboring countries import it for a fraction of the price in their home turf. Maybe there's a possibility your coin will get better exchange rates in the future and prices could adjust? I dunno but it really doesn't seem like Nintendo's fault here, it's a general economy thing. Nortec sucks though, I can vouch for that, had them in Greece too and availability/marketing was shit even in Nintendo's best days in the rest of the world. CD media that succeeded them isn't better. Well, Switch is too expensive for me too for now given wages here even if we use the euro. And they sell it or about 325 iirc. Part of why I've been a PC gamer only (love it too though).
 
Last edited:
OP
OP

Deleted member 8861

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,564
Lol i wished we were closer to europe... honestly gray market here can be good but can also be pretty abusive, i've seen games sold by about 350brl(100usd) and digital codes that should be 230 being sold by 300 because they abuse the fact of how convoluted the store works to scam people.

Some people are "priviledged" and can go to paraguay or argentina on a car trip to buy goods, but considering the size of the country and location that's definitely not an option for everyone, tbh i'm one of the half priviledged since i live on a state the imports come in...otherwise I'd have to pay transport taxes and a bit more for the games sonce buying them on card has taxes while with money it doesn't

Octopath on the same reseller could cost 290BRL if you pay with money or 310 on card, shipping to my region which is the same of the seller is 14BRL, i believe i i lived on Bahia or another state ot could go up to 30BRL

There was a reseller charging 350BRL, plus taxes/shipping.

Also we had a truck driver strike this year that made any shipping through mail take more than 30 work days even though you live next door

Traveling to europe or US with the euro costing 5reais and the dollar 4 is definitely not a cheaper option as you need to spend the price of an overpriced switch to go buy a half reasonable priced switch, could work for the classic snes as the price it got here was definitely abusive(close to 1000brl)

Tl;dr if we got your regional prices we'd be spending about the same as our gray market charges us for stuff so it is a freaking deal imo Dx in reality we'd get your prices but doubled or tripled because of how our taxes work, look up the 4000brl playstation fiasco if you need to know more about that, luckly sony managed to work that out
Goddamn. Hang in there
 

jett

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,653
Those prices seem par for the course for imported consoles and such in small countries where these manufacturers don't have that big of a presence. It's a similar conversion in my neck of the woods.

1700 turkish liras is like $340? You were expecting your local distributor to make like no money on these things? It's just the way it is.
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 8861

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,564
Those prices seem par for the course for imported consoles and such in small countries where these manufacturers don't have that big of a presence. It's a similar conversion in my neck of the woods.

1700 turkish liras is like $340? You were expecting your local distributor to make like no money on these things? It's just the way it is.
2400 liras is still extortionate.
 

rzmunch

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
1,800
Argentina
Here in Argentina they are 14000 pesos or 500 dollars. Twice the minimum monthly salary. The PS4 and Xbox are near that price too. So yeah electronics here its problematic.

The problem is Nintendo doesnt have the same international presense that Microsoft and Sony have.
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 8861

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,564
Here in Argentina they are 14000 pesos or 500 dollars. Twice the minimum monthly salary. The PS4 and Xbox are near that price too. So yeah electronics here its problematic.

The problem is Nintendo doesnt have the same international presense that Microsoft and Sony have.
Twice the minimum monthly wage?

Goddamn.
:(
 

MesaEterna

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
906
Here in Mexico it costed around 500 dollars at launch, now it can be had for 300-350 dollars, I suggest waiting until it drops to an acceptable price
 

C++

Banned
Aug 2, 2018
216
To be fair you say that and Spider-Man PS4 is 300 TL = 5 TL x 60$ .
You can buy shared accounts on PSN lot cheaper like 100-150 TL though.
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 8861

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,564
To be fair you say that and Spider-Man PS4 is 300 TL = 5 TL x 60$ .
You can buy shared accounts on PSN lot cheaper like 100-150 TL though.
PS4 releases have been sold for upwards of 300 TL for at least a year, when USD/₺ was around 3.5. So that price isn't justified (or, well, justified now).

The dollar hadn't been 5-per-lira until yesterday.
 

C++

Banned
Aug 2, 2018
216
PS4 releases have been sold for upwards of 300 TL for at least a year, when USD/₺ was around 3.5. So that price isn't justified (or, well, justified now).

The dollar hadn't been 5-per-lira until yesterday.

I think console developers should force region pricing but they probably dont care. Honestly missing on 80Million market even if they like say sell to targeted 1 million userbase is miss. I think there are 800K-ish ps4 users in Turkey.
 

C++

Banned
Aug 2, 2018
216
Here in Argentina they are 14000 pesos or 500 dollars. Twice the minimum monthly salary. The PS4 and Xbox are near that price too. So yeah electronics here its problematic.

The problem is Nintendo doesnt have the same international presense that Microsoft and Sony have.

Neither does the Valve. They do it though? I know one is digital product vs other but they could always offer digital sales for that country or cheap bundles etcetera.
 

Sman1

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
29
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
That's the norm in every third world country though. I fail to understand why people residing in third world countries think that these electronics are being marketed towards them. They are being marketed towards middle and upper class families. Before anyone says anything, i am not a Saudi but I was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, before the new laws, the minimum wage for a worker was 1300SR, the PS3 launched at a retail price of 4999SR.
 

C++

Banned
Aug 2, 2018
216
This is why services such as Xbox Game pass is vital to succeed. It is match for this situations.
 

FlintSpace

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
2,817
Nintendo has historically such poor global coverage, it is insane for a company older than time when it comes to video games. Still has no official support in India.
 

Alex840

Member
Oct 31, 2017
5,114
Don't rise to their bullshit.

Just import the console and use the US/UK/South African eShop.
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 8861

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,564
Don't rise to their bullshit.

Just import the console and use the US/UK/South African eShop.
I'm gonna buy a Switch from Canada if I ever buy one. Hell, I might even buy a few and sell them for profit over here lmao. They deserve no one's money with this price policy

Oh btw Erdoğan declared a boycott on American electronics this morning I think so this might be RIP Xbox
 

AkiraGr

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
17
Athens
I know how you feel OP. I am Greek and also an owner of a nintendo only news website. Before we had Nortec LTD as a distributor which I worked there part time, also they helped build our Super Smash Bros. Tournament scene by sponsoring our tournaments with Wii U consoles and games.

Our website had a perfect working relationship with Nintendo and Nortec at the time when they were still in bussiness, we had review codes, inside information and we made a lot of friends from the company that were really awesome people.

The prices were normal as the rest of the European Market but after the 2008 capitalistic economic crisis things changed for the worst. After Nortec Multimedia closed their gates after 20 years, we worked directly with Nintendo of Germany. The greek market didn't had any nintendo products but we still operated as news information channel for the company and we were working close with them and still supporting our smash scene.

After CD Media took over because it is the biggest Greek videogame distributor in the balkans having names in their brand like Capcom, Koei/Tecmo, Ubisoft, T2 and now Nintendo it is a very bad situation.

They completely ignore everything about the Greek Nintendo fanbase, the prices sky rocketed, our website that worked close with Nintendo now doesn't get any review codes(not that matters to us anyway we prefer paying nintendo products so we can have honest opinions and reviews). They only sent us untranslated press releases and they expect we do the job, no presentation of new games or products(Nortec did events to present the games to the public) and the list goes on. Especially customer support is ten times worst than Nortec. I asked one time to buy a replacement battery for my new 3DS and they asked 30 euros plus the battery cost because they wanted to make the replacement themselfs, they do not sell the battery as an item only as a service replacement. Nortec would do that free of charge!

The only event CD media did was one day before the launch of the Switch and I was lucky enough to get access as a press representative the second day and spoke with Takasi Takemura which is the general manager of distributors in Nintendo of Europe and inform him about the situation and did a mini off the record interview with him which confirmed that Nintendo at the time did not see themselfs as a strong powerhouse in the console market with the failure of the Wii U so they didn't feel confident to distribute the Switch in markets or create a subsidiary in Greece or in the balkans in general.

So we endure with this policies that can not create growth for nintendo products in our territory maket. Plus CD Media profits are in millions of euros only from videogame distribution. The fun thing is that they have the hottest console on the market right now and their annual report showed less profits than last year because of their price policies. The sales dropped across all games they distibuted.
 

Facism

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,918
I know how you feel OP. I am Greek and also an owner of a nintendo only news website. Before we had Nortec LTD as a distributor which I worked there part time, also they helped build our Super Smash Bros. Tournament scene by sponsoring our tournaments with Wii U consoles and games.

Our website had a perfect working relationship with Nintendo and Nortec at the time when they were still in bussiness, we had review codes, inside information and we made a lot of friends from the company that were really awesome people.

The prices were normal as the rest of the European Market but after the 2008 capitalistic economic crisis things changed for the worst. After Nortec Multimedia closed their gates after 20 years, we worked directly with Nintendo of Germany. The greek market didn't had any nintendo products but we still operated as news information channel for the company and we were working close with them and still supporting our smash scene.

After CD Media took over because it is the biggest Greek videogame distributor in the balkans having names in their brand like Capcom, Koei/Tecmo, Ubisoft, T2 and now Nintendo it is a very bad situation.

They completely ignore everything about the Greek Nintendo fanbase, the prices sky rocketed, our website that worked close with Nintendo now doesn't get any review codes(not that matters to us anyway we prefer paying nintendo products so we can have honest opinions and reviews). They only sent us untranslated press releases and they expect we do the job, no presentation of new games or products(Nortec did events to present the games to the public) and the list goes on. Especially customer support is ten times worst than Nortec. I asked one time to buy a replacement battery for my new 3DS and they asked 30 euros plus the battery cost because they wanted to make the replacement themselfs, they do not sell the battery as an item only as a service replacement. Nortec would do that free of charge!

The only event CD media did was one day before the launch of the Switch and I was lucky enough to get access as a press representative the second day and spoke with Takasi Takemura which is the general manager of distributors in Nintendo of Europe and inform him about the situation and did a mini off the record interview with him which confirmed that Nintendo at the time did not see themselfs as a strong powerhouse in the console market with the failure of the Wii U so they didn't feel confident to distribute the Switch in markets or create a subsidiary in Greece or in the balkans in general.

So we endure with this policies that can not create growth for nintendo products in our territory maket. Plus CD Media profits are in millions of euros only from videogame distribution. The fun thing is that they have the hottest console on the market right now and their annual report showed less profits than last year because of their price policies. The sales dropped across all games they distibuted.

Incredible insight. Nice one bruv.
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 8861

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,564
I know how you feel OP. I am Greek and also an owner of a nintendo only news website. Before we had Nortec LTD as a distributor which I worked there part time, also they helped build our Super Smash Bros. Tournament scene by sponsoring our tournaments with Wii U consoles and games.

Our website had a perfect working relationship with Nintendo and Nortec at the time when they were still in bussiness, we had review codes, inside information and we made a lot of friends from the company that were really awesome people.

The prices were normal as the rest of the European Market but after the 2008 capitalistic economic crisis things changed for the worst. After Nortec Multimedia closed their gates after 20 years, we worked directly with Nintendo of Germany. The greek market didn't had any nintendo products but we still operated as news information channel for the company and we were working close with them and still supporting our smash scene.

After CD Media took over because it is the biggest Greek videogame distributor in the balkans having names in their brand like Capcom, Koei/Tecmo, Ubisoft, T2 and now Nintendo it is a very bad situation.

They completely ignore everything about the Greek Nintendo fanbase, the prices sky rocketed, our website that worked close with Nintendo now doesn't get any review codes(not that matters to us anyway we prefer paying nintendo products so we can have honest opinions and reviews). They only sent us untranslated press releases and they expect we do the job, no presentation of new games or products(Nortec did events to present the games to the public) and the list goes on. Especially customer support is ten times worst than Nortec. I asked one time to buy a replacement battery for my new 3DS and they asked 30 euros plus the battery cost because they wanted to make the replacement themselfs, they do not sell the battery as an item only as a service replacement. Nortec would do that free of charge!

The only event CD media did was one day before the launch of the Switch and I was lucky enough to get access as a press representative the second day and spoke with Takasi Takemura which is the general manager of distributors in Nintendo of Europe and inform him about the situation and did a mini off the record interview with him which confirmed that Nintendo at the time did not see themselfs as a strong powerhouse in the console market with the failure of the Wii U so they didn't feel confident to distribute the Switch in markets or create a subsidiary in Greece or in the balkans in general.

So we endure with this policies that can not create growth for nintendo products in our territory maket. Plus CD Media profits are in millions of euros only from videogame distribution. The fun thing is that they have the hottest console on the market right now and their annual report showed less profits than last year because of their price policies. The sales dropped across all games they distibuted.
.
Thanks so much for this. Great insight.

Also yeah our game distributors are 99% shit too. A company called Aral exploitatively prices everything, upwards of 300 Liras for a single game. Some company called Bilkom or something sold The Witcher 3 here for 70 Lira instead and I believe it was a huge success.