In The Bag - Episode 2 - review by fu_q| Author | Post |
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| floraman Member Germany 224 Posts 8/03 |  Posted - Apr 27 2004 : 9:36AMIt always amazes me that porn seems so cheap in States. While in Europe we can expect to pay something in the region of EUR 25 to EUR 30 on average for a decent porn DVD (either online form a European e-retailer or from a bricks-and-mortar store), you cats in the States are getting your smut for half the price. And I'm not just talking about imported US porn. The home-grown European material is just as pricey. Sometimes prices can soar even higher, for example anyone foolish enough to buy direct from the Marc Dorcel Web site will find themselves forking out around EUR 39 for a single disk!!! Does anyone know why there is this major discrepancy?  [Link] |
| Ramsey Senior Member Trina Michaels fan 10332 Posts 10/02 | Posted - Apr 27 2004 : 10:01AM I can't believe there are people out there who have no problem paying like double or sometimes triple the price for the DVD. I have like a coworker who buys all of his DVD's in this dutch store but I checked the prices he pays with the prices at erodvd.nl and he's actually paying double the price.  [Link] |
| French guy Member 335 Posts 9/01 | Posted - Apr 27 2004 : 10:23AM [Link] |
| floraman Member Germany 224 Posts 8/03 | Posted - Apr 27 2004 : 10:25AM For this reason I tend to buy from European online stores because although I'm paying more, German customs don't interfere with packages originating in other EU countries so at least I can be sure I'll get my goods, whereas buying from the States always carries that risk (they even confiscate R-rated mainstream stuff). But you can be sure that if I lived in a country like Holland where they don't have these idiotic laws, I'd buy my porn online from the States too. [Link] |
| Scott Kinney xxximports.com New Jersey 369 Posts 5/02 | Posted - Apr 27 2004 : 10:38AM The markets are just fundamentally different. Adult entertainment has a different spot in European cultures (he said, generalizing over several countries). The customer psychology is different, and the perception of adult material/adult entertainment as a luxury vs. a commodity (again being a little overly general).
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| charlie Member uk 450 Posts 4/00 | Posted - Apr 27 2004 : 3:13PM Also the US has much more competition between retailers and that also helps keeps prices realistic. [Link] |
| Scott Kinney xxximports.com New Jersey 369 Posts 5/02 | Posted - Apr 27 2004 : 3:53PM 'Realistic' is kind of an interesting term applied retail price competition. Economic theory says that kind of competition will drive prices down to where they make almost nothing per unit sold and the company that survives is the one that can stand making no money the longest. I've seen internet retailers in the States make literally $1 per sale in the name of price competition. Those companies don't even exist anymore. Scott Kinney [Link] |
| charlie Member uk 450 Posts 4/00 | Posted - Apr 27 2004 : 5:12PM I was also thinking along the lines that a US studio would produce a product that would sell equally well in the local market as well as the international market. The same can't be said for European producers. The only one I know off hand that aims to sell globally is Private. As for pricing by retailers it's a fact of life that the big fish will always win out. They buy in bulk, get good discounts and ultimately price out their competition. [Link] |
| Gabriel Nine Senior Member Firecracker 1273 Posts 8/01 | Posted - Apr 27 2004 : 6:11PM Taxation is definitely a factor - bear in mind that a lot of consumer goods seem more expensive, at least here in the UK, compared with the US. I don't know if the European market does compare with the US in terms of economy of scale, as seems more to be the case that movies are produced on a country by country basis, e.g. DVDs of Rocco's latest movie will be issued in different editions by separate companies in several European countries so it's not one massive production run for the whole of Europe. Scott is also on the right track concerning the perception of the goods in particular markets - certainly in this country (the UK) we've yet to get over the association of porn with the illict, the rip-off and the under-the-counter trade. Add this to expensive licensing of sex shops and the fees charged by the BBFC to classify movies, it all adds up on the cost to the consumer. Charlie makes a salient point, as in this country the domination of the sex shop trade by one company (to date, though there are now others) has surely kept prices high, while squeezing the margins available to British producers to make better movies, which is a significant contributory factor in the "cheap and cheerful" mould of much of British porn. But that's another story... [Link] |
| Scott Kinney xxximports.com New Jersey 369 Posts 5/02 | Posted - Apr 27 2004 : 7:38PM (in the US.) Also prices in the stores vary wildly by location. A DVD that I sell online for $40 will be $69 or more in Arizona, and closer in $50 in San Francisco, for example. And yes, a VAT of 16% does dwarf US sales taxes that rarely go as high as 10%. (NJ is 6%, NY is 7%, I think, DE is 0%) Scott Kinney [Link] |
| hardball Member 101 Posts 4/04 | Posted - Apr 28 2004 : 5:56AM [Link] |
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