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Show HN: Berlin Swapfest – Electronics flea market
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Re: Show HN: Berlin Swapfest – Electronics flea market
#62> find pre-owned equipment and getting frustrated That's the problem - in the US there's an abundance of surplus electronics equipment at low prices. In Europe there isn't, and it's priced too high. I.e. the problem is not the market venue, it's the amount of available stuff.
>I.e. the problem is not the market venue, it's the amount of available stuff.
Which is a direct consequence of the local purchasing power and consumer spending habits.
Consumer electronics are cheaper in the US, and Americans have a lot more disposable income and a lot more inclination to buy into the latest trend or to experiment with latest and greatest gadgets, even if they don't need it so the used market is full of great stuff at bangout prices.
Consumer electronics cost more in Europe and Europeans are also poorer and need to be more frugal with their spending so the used market has fewer new stuff at rock bottom prices.
Re: Show HN: Berlin Swapfest – Electronics flea market
#63> find pre-owned equipment and getting frustrated That's the problem - in the US there's an abundance of surplus electronics equipment at low prices. In Europe there isn't, and it's priced too high. I.e. the problem is not the market venue, it's the amount of available stuff.
>I.e. the problem is not the market venue, it's the amount of available stuff. Which is a direct consequence of the local purchasing power and consumer spending habits. Consumer electronics are cheaper in the US, and Americans have a lot more disposable income and a lot more inclination to buy into the latest trend or to experiment with latest and greatest gadgets, even if they don't need it so the used market is ful…
Curious conclusions. Which data do you base this on? US median income is 5th in the world. There's Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland before it. Consumer electronics are quite similarly priced in both places once you take sales tax into account in the US. Not to mention it's odd to talk about "European prices" in the first place. There's no euroblock-wide price fixing going on.
Re: Show HN: Berlin Swapfest – Electronics flea market
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I.e. the problem is not the market venue, it's the amount of available stuff. Which is a direct consequence of the local purchasing power and consumer spending habits. Consumer electronics are cheaper in the US, and Americans have a lot more disposable income and a lot more inclination to buy into the latest trend or to experiment with latest and greatest gadgets, even if they don't need it so the used market is ful…
Curious conclusions. Which data do you base this on? US median income is 5th in the world. There's Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland before it. Consumer electronics are quite similarly priced in both places once you take sales tax into account in the US. Not to mention it's odd to talk about "European prices" in the first place. There's no euroblock-wide price fixing going on.
Average yearly salary in the US is about 60k, while in the EU average it's about 37k so of course the US as a market has a much higher spending power than the EU. Sure, individual markets like Luxemburg and Norway might be richer than the US average but they're also orders of magnitude smaller markets than the whole US. Scale matters.
Prices in the EU are higher for the same things.
Why then do you think Apple launched the Vision Pro only in the US and not in Europe if you think everything is the same? Why do gaming consoles first launch in the US and only after in Europe if the market is the same according to you?
It seems like the consumer electronics manufacturers know the markets better than you when they base their sales and marketing decisions.
>There's no euroblock-wide price fixing going on.
There is, it's called MSRP and manufactures have one for USA, Canada, EU, UK at every major product launch.
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd....
Re: Show HN: Berlin Swapfest – Electronics flea market
#65This looks really cool! Might do a few hours travel to join. I did not know about c-base either. Are there similar associations throughout Europe? I'd love to join one — seems to have a very cool hacker-y spirit :)
Yes! There are several others even in Berlin, some of which are much more welcoming than c-base. Generally you can find some sort of space in nearly every city. https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/List_of_Hackerspaces https://web.archive.org/web/20250214091402/https://wiki.hack... (mirror as the wiki is slow to load right now).
Which other ones in Berlin would you recommend?
Re: Show HN: Berlin Swapfest – Electronics flea market
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Curious conclusions. Which data do you base this on? US median income is 5th in the world. There's Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland before it. Consumer electronics are quite similarly priced in both places once you take sales tax into account in the US. Not to mention it's odd to talk about "European prices" in the first place. There's no euroblock-wide price fixing going on.
Average yearly salary in the US is about 60k, while in the EU average it's about 37k so of course the US as a market has a much higher spending power than the EU. Sure, individual markets like Luxemburg and Norway might be richer than the US average but they're also orders of magnitude smaller markets than the whole US. Scale matters. Prices in the EU are higher for the same things. Why then do you think Apple launch…
You're arguing statistics and simultaneously need the difference between "median" and "average" explained to you. Sorry if I don't regard you as an authority of any kind.
Re: Show HN: Berlin Swapfest – Electronics flea market
#67> find pre-owned equipment and getting frustrated That's the problem - in the US there's an abundance of surplus electronics equipment at low prices. In Europe there isn't, and it's priced too high. I.e. the problem is not the market venue, it's the amount of available stuff.
>I.e. the problem is not the market venue, it's the amount of available stuff. Which is a direct consequence of the local purchasing power and consumer spending habits. Consumer electronics are cheaper in the US, and Americans have a lot more disposable income and a lot more inclination to buy into the latest trend or to experiment with latest and greatest gadgets, even if they don't need it so the used market is ful…
Meh, there's no lack of consumer stuff, it's more the test equipment that's too expensive (logic analyzers etc.)
Re: Show HN: Berlin Swapfest – Electronics flea market
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I.e. the problem is not the market venue, it's the amount of available stuff. Which is a direct consequence of the local purchasing power and consumer spending habits. Consumer electronics are cheaper in the US, and Americans have a lot more disposable income and a lot more inclination to buy into the latest trend or to experiment with latest and greatest gadgets, even if they don't need it so the used market is ful…
Meh, there's no lack of consumer stuff, it's more the test equipment that's too expensive (logic analyzers etc.)
There's a lack of niche consumer stuff. Like not iPods and such but stuff like Commodores, vintager Macintoshes, etc
Re: Show HN: Berlin Swapfest – Electronics flea market
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Average yearly salary in the US is about 60k, while in the EU average it's about 37k so of course the US as a market has a much higher spending power than the EU. Sure, individual markets like Luxemburg and Norway might be richer than the US average but they're also orders of magnitude smaller markets than the whole US. Scale matters. Prices in the EU are higher for the same things. Why then do you think Apple launch…
You're arguing statistics and simultaneously need the difference between "median" and "average" explained to you. Sorry if I don't regard you as an authority of any kind.
Do you think if I were to switch the comparison from avenge vs average to median vs median, the gap would be significantly smaller to completely nullify my point on why major consumer electronics launches are always prioritized in the US and also why they enjoy more sales there vs the EU market?
You needlessly insist on pointless semantics in hopes of scoring a cheap "gotcha" over an argument you already lost while my point wasn't to prove you wrong but to share the truth.
Re: Show HN: Berlin Swapfest – Electronics flea market
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to live in the Boston area as a kid and dad used to take me to loads of ham radio swap meets in the city. I loved rummaging around the stuff and finding cool things to try to use with my Commodore 64 (even in the 80s, ham swap fest's had a lot of computer gear proliferating) I really miss the format but I just haven't seen them around for years (decades?) at least in my part of the world...
Here is a way to find hamfests: https://www.arrl.org/hamfests-and-conventions-calendar Note I have found searching by city and state is broken. You need to search by zipcode.
Unfortunately I'm not only not in the BOS area, I'm not even in the US anymore. Though the RSGB probably has a similar listing...
If I get my license I might even find out directly :)