Incredible Euro / Dollar rate

[Deckard]

Today Euro hit the $1.60 mark, probably an all-time high.

Some of you may already know, but Thinkpad prices are simply ridiculous in Germany. To give you an idea, just take the US prices, replace the $ sign with EUR and there you have the retail prices of a Thinkpad here.

Yes, we are talking about almost 60% here.

I just checked the price of a 15.4" T61p, T9300, FX570M with 160gb HDD on a german price comparo site. It costs EUR 1870. (which is $2.992)

A similar one on the Lenovo website is about $1.800 incl. 3 yrs warranty and all the bells and whistles.

Thinkpad shopping in the US could be soooo much fun for us euro citizens at this time of the year.

[basketb]

hey, you get a German keyboard for the higher price. This must be worth something to you .

[kosse]

TP T61P T9500/15.4"U/2/200/DVDRW/WWAN/VU 2 986,70 € = 4775.7$

This was the cheapest one with those specs that I could find in Finland. And no, this doesn't have all those expensive 5 year warranties nor accidental damage protection.

So, I've been wondering for some time now how can these laptops be so expensive in Europe? Some crappy Acers and other consumer class laptops don't seem to be much more expensive than in US..

[agarza]

In Mexico I think Thinkpads are little bit cheaper compared to Europe:

Sistema Operativo: Windows Vista® Business Original
Procesador: T9300(2.5GHz)
Memoria (est./máx.): 2GB RAM
Disco Duro: 160GB 7200rpm HDD
Monitor/Pantalla: 15.4" 1680x1050 LCD
CD/DVD: CD-RW/DVD-RW
Módem: Modem
Garantía: 3 años en partes / 1 año bateria / Mano de obra en Centro de Reparaciones GDL.
Otro: 256MB nVIDIA Quadro FX 570M
Intel® 802.11agn wireless(n-disabled)
Bluetooth
1Gb Ethernet
UltraNav
Secure chip
Fingerprint reader
9c Li-Ion

$21,300 Mexican Pesos = 1990USD

I'd like to order a T61p from Lenovo USA, but I'd like to know if someone here lives near Laredo or McAllen Texas. This way I can choose a US address and go all the way to the city you live and pick it up.

[Deckard]

hey, you get a German keyboard for the higher price. This must be worth something to you .

Hehe... I had ordered my X31 from the US back in 2003. Of course it came with US layout and I bought a german keyboard from a dealer here in Germany.

You know, with the current exchange rate, I could fly to NYC, buy a Thinkpad and fly back to Germany and I would still save hundreds of $$$.

How weird is that?

[RealBlackStuff]

So what's stopping you from flying over?

I was faced with those problems last year.
My (drastic) solution was to sell an expensive house in Dublin, move to the USA, and buy a cheap house there.
Problem solved

[NorrisCell]

Man, I should get into business buying machines for those overseas and shipping them. For a nominal fee, of course

[aaa]

Isn't a big chunk of it taxes? They're like 15-30% for importing stuff.

[JeriC]

I already thought about buying such stuff in the USA.. but I dont think I will do it in near future.

[RedGreen]

I have been hearing a lot of people talk about huge costs of Thinkpads in different parts of the world. With a trip to Europe coming up (specifically Munich Germany, and Basal Switzerland, and areas nearby) I have wondered if there is any interest in me brining a couple of machines from the States along with me.

I'd love to help out some people, and maybe make a little bit to help me make up my losses in the outrageous exchange rate with the Euro. I'd like to know if anyone is interested in something like that, let me know.

-Brian

[RealBlackStuff]

I lived in Basel, Switzerland for almost 25 years. People there have the money, and computer stuff in Switzerland is even cheaper than in the USA.
So I would suggest to only bother about the German part of your trip.
Post an ad in the Market forum to see if there is any interest.

[JeriC]

This sounds interesting, but at the moment I wont be able to afford even a relatively cheap Thinkpad from the US.
But if you will come to Germany again, maybe next year..