Marthinus Versfeld at online South African retailer, Kalahari.net, recently posted on his Twitter account regarding the recommended retail price (RRP) for the recently announced slimmed down PS3 in South Africa (which for all intents and purposes will henceforth be known as the PS3 Slim).
Not only did Versfeld announce the price, but claimed that the online retailer would beat it. From the tweet:
“PS3 Slim SA RRP announced - R3799,” read the tweet, continuing on to say, “- look out for k.net price announcement soon, we will beat that :-)”
So, South Africans can expect to pay nearly R4000 for the PS3 Slim when it’s released around the world next week.
While that’s less expensive than the previous model of the PS3, is still a little steep compared to the price that interested parties in the US and Europe will be paying (between R2400 and R3300).
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Comments:
Well, that's good news for them. I hope that they'd do the same in America too =) The best news I got so far is that the PS3 Slim will be out in the market by August 25th a way too earlier than it's announced date which is around September. I expected that it will be launched along with Aion Online but I guess I was wrong =)
Isn't this just typical? While the rest of the world truly enjoys a decent price-cut, we're still getting screwed just that little bit extra... Why is that? Is it Ster-Kinekor's fault? Trying to squeeze an extra few Rands maybe?
Welp, people could pre-order the console and shave an extra R100 off the price, I guess ;) :
http://www.el33tonline.com/past/2009/8/26/ps3_slim_repriced_for_south/
Still, it's too much compared to overseas prices.
Boys and girls, there are also economic factors that affect SA pricing. For example, for Kalahari (who would import directly) will order say 5000 units @ R3,000 each - that's R15 Million rand risk they carry against the ZAR exchange rate which if it changes against our favour - they carry to the risk (not the consumer who has already pre-ordered)! To hedge against this risk, they have to purchase the consignment against a fixed future rate (30 days, 60 days, 90 days etc). Add to that import duties, insurance, shipping costs, taxes and their markup, and it all adds up. Try ordering a single unit directly - and you will soon learn, it's not that easy for many reasons - warranty will be a problem - if it breaks you have to ship it back to US/UK at your own cost; Media zones (US/Africa/Asia) differs, and of course, some retailers (e.g. US/Cananda) won't ship to ZA.
Kevin
Try ordering a PS3 Slim from Amazon.co.uk (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=524836#pc) - you will see they do not allow shipping to SA.
I could not order from amazon.com either - visit this link to learn about their shipping policy:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=596184
well said kevin!!! thats actually true! i wanna get that ps3 slim