Have you bought anything because of the high NZD?

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1985 posts

Uber Geek

#497987 26-Jul-2011 12:59

khull:
sbiddle: Best advice if you buy stuff regularly is to buy a $US prepaid credit card such as the ANZ Travel Cards and load it up with money. If the $ falls to 50c you're still buying stuff at the current ~85c rate.

Careful though - some online stores will not accept prepaid cards (presumably due to fraud etc).

Use a US bank issued card instead as retailers can often tell if you are using a local or overseas card for the transaction

Proof/evidence? I was told that they are exactly like a credit card so there should be no issues whatsoever.

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grant_k

3539 posts

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#497999 26-Jul-2011 13:16

I have bought myself a new Davis Weather Station:

http://www.davisnet.com/weather/

These are the "Gold Standard" in pro weatherstations, and are used by the MetService among many others. Buying from a US distributor has saved me well over $1k compared to what it would cost from the local importer.

timmmay

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#498004 26-Jul-2011 13:28

grant_k: I have bought myself a new Davis Weather Station:

http://www.davisnet.com/weather/

These are the "Gold Standard" in pro weatherstations, and are used by the MetService among many others. Buying from a US distributor has saved me well over $1k compared to what it would cost from the local importer.

Wow, fancy! I'd quite like a better temperature monitoring system than the one I have, which only has two sensors. I'd quite like a half dozen wireless sensors, including one waterproof, with the data able to be transferred to a PC (I don't leave the PC on 24/7).

grant_k

3539 posts

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#498014 26-Jul-2011 13:38

timmmay: Wow, fancy! I'd quite like a better temperature monitoring system than the one I have, which only has two sensors. I'd quite like a half dozen wireless sensors, including one waterproof, with the data able to be transferred to a PC (I don't leave the PC on 24/7).

The Davis would do that for you, if you order the "Data Logger" option. It will keep recording the data for up to about 24 hours IIRC, without mains power. My existing station also has a datalogger, but it doesn't have so much memory, and runs out after about 8 hours. It has been sufficient for short power outages though, and is definitely worth getting as opposed to the budget-priced stations that don't have it.

timmmay

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#498016 26-Jul-2011 13:39

grant_k:
The Davis would do that for you, if you order the "Data Logger" option. It will keep recording the data for up to about 24 hours IIRC, without mains power. My existing station also has a datalogger, but it doesn't have so much memory, and runs out after about 8 hours. It has been sufficient for short power outages though, and is definitely worth getting as opposed to the budget-priced stations that don't have it.

Given you saved $1K, and my budget for a toy like this would be a few hundred, I think i'd have to look elsewhere!

rattewisday

203 posts

Master Geek

#498021 26-Jul-2011 13:51

Satch:
khull:
sbiddle: Best advice if you buy stuff regularly is to buy a $US prepaid credit card such as the ANZ Travel Cards and load it up with money. If the $ falls to 50c you're still buying stuff at the current ~85c rate.

Careful though - some online stores will not accept prepaid cards (presumably due to fraud etc).

Use a US bank issued card instead as retailers can often tell if you are using a local or overseas card for the transaction

Proof/evidence? I was told that they are exactly like a credit card so there should be no issues whatsoever.

I have experienced this myself. Tried to buy something from Newegg while I was in the states but they wouldn't accept my National Bank travel card (well it got stuck forever in verifying card details, apparently they wanted to call National Bank but wouldn't call during NZ business hours).

throbb

675 posts

Ultimate Geek

#498196 26-Jul-2011 19:31

LookingUp:
throbb: Been trying to find myself a decent telescope, cant seem to find anyone that ships to NZ at a decent price.

What sort of telescope are you after?

Something like an 8" reflector, that can take a webcam/camera.

porche20002

72 posts

Master Geek

#498213 26-Jul-2011 20:11

blakamin:
wreck90: I wonder why the car dealerships don't cut their prices?

eg, BMW. Selling at same or greater price as when the USD/NZD exchange rate was 0.60.

Sure, they have hedging, but, this is a long term trend where hedging does not cover.

Because we don't get any american vehicles???

BMW are ze germans! :D

The prices of Minis went down by about NZ$4,000 i think.

LookingUp

411 posts

Ultimate Geek

#498343 27-Jul-2011 08:39

throbb:
LookingUp:
throbb: Been trying to find myself a decent telescope, cant seem to find anyone that ships to NZ at a decent price.

What sort of telescope are you after?

Something like an 8" reflector, that can take a webcam/camera.

OK - was just wondering, as I've got a couple of "spare" scopes I'd be interested in re-homing. They're a 150mm refractor (Skywatcher = good for visual but not good enough for astrophotography) and a 13.5" Dob. Thye're both quite large so would have to be pick-up from Chch.

On the buying front - I've bought gear from William Optics in Taiwan, and found them excellent to deal with. That would be my suggestion if you were looking for a refractor. If you're just looking at getting into astrophotography I'd recommend a small refractor as a starting point.

I've bought other gear from OPTCorp in the US, and they're ok, but you pay a fortune for shipping - I think it cost something like US$700 to ship a mount, but then it was ~40kg and a lot of big boxes.

Recently I bought a GSO RC10 via a chap in Wanaka who's importing them directly. Think it was <NZ$3K all up, which is a BARGAIN. I can give you his details if you're keen to see if he's going to import another batch.

The key thing, if you're going to do atrophotograhy, is to get a good solid mount. This is especially important if you're looking at a long focal length, as any errors will be hugely magnified.

Astrophotography has been a learning curve for me, and I'm happy to share some of my learning experiences....

Things are LookingUp.... A photo from my back yard :-)

wreck90

780 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#498362 27-Jul-2011 09:33

porche20002:
blakamin:
wreck90: I wonder why the car dealerships don't cut their prices?

eg, BMW. Selling at same or greater price as when the USD/NZD exchange rate was 0.60.

Sure, they have hedging, but, this is a long term trend where hedging does not cover.

Because we don't get any american vehicles???

BMW are ze germans! :D

The prices of Minis went down by about NZ$4,000 i think.

Actually, some BMW models are built in the USA.

crackrdbycracku

1168 posts

Uber Geek

#498393 27-Jul-2011 10:33

wreck90:
porche20002:
blakamin:
wreck90: I wonder why the car dealerships don't cut their prices?

eg, BMW. Selling at same or greater price as when the USD/NZD exchange rate was 0.60.

Sure, they have hedging, but, this is a long term trend where hedging does not cover.

Because we don't get any american vehicles???

BMW are ze germans! :D

The prices of Minis went down by about NZ$4,000 i think.

Actually, some BMW models are built in the USA.

Please correct me if I am wrong but isn't the salient point that all international trade is in US dollars?

My understanding is that it if a New Zealand company buys something from a Chinese company the trade happens in US$. This is so everybody is trading in 'apples' so to speak.

This means it is exporters are better off when the dollar is low because there exports are sold in US$ so are 'cheap' to the international market compared with what they pay their NZ suppliers in NZ$ to produce the goods.

This goes the other way when the dollar is high.

This of course works in reverse for importers. Who benefit from the dollar being high.

And according to an exporter I know it is not so much high or low that is a problem because they just adjust the price. The real problem is shifting dollar value because then you end up not knowing where to set the price, and 'fair price' changes week by week.

Like I said, if I have this wrong please say so.

Crackedbycracku

Didn't anybody tell you I was a hacker?

Kopkiwi

2617 posts

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Inactive user

#498405 27-Jul-2011 10:59

Am looking at buying an AMP from www.emotiva.com

It's a hard time convincing the missus to let me.

blakamin

4431 posts

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Inactive user

#498436 27-Jul-2011 11:58

crackrdbycracku:
My understanding is that it if a New Zealand company buys something from a Chinese company the trade happens in US$. This is so everybody is trading in 'apples' so to speak.

This means it is exporters are better off when the dollar is low because there exports are sold in US$ so are 'cheap' to the international market compared with what they pay their NZ suppliers in NZ$ to produce the goods.

This goes the other way when the dollar is high.

This of course works in reverse for importers. Who benefit from the dollar being high.

And according to an exporter I know it is not so much high or low that is a problem because they just adjust the price. The real problem is shifting dollar value because then you end up not knowing where to set the price, and 'fair price' changes week by week.

Like I said, if I have this wrong please say so.

Crackedbycracku

But being that a car has a specific price to the locals, if the $US tanks, they just put their $US price up, don't they?

Apple haven't dropped their $NZ prices, why would a car company?

Edibles are probably a different story...

crackrdbycracku

1168 posts

Uber Geek

#498472 27-Jul-2011 12:40

blakamin:
crackrdbycracku:
My understanding is that it if a New Zealand company buys something from a Chinese company the trade happens in US$. This is so everybody is trading in 'apples' so to speak.

This means it is exporters are better off when the dollar is low because there exports are sold in US$ so are 'cheap' to the international market compared with what they pay their NZ suppliers in NZ$ to produce the goods.

This goes the other way when the dollar is high.

This of course works in reverse for importers. Who benefit from the dollar being high.

And according to an exporter I know it is not so much high or low that is a problem because they just adjust the price. The real problem is shifting dollar value because then you end up not knowing where to set the price, and 'fair price' changes week by week.

Like I said, if I have this wrong please say so.

Crackedbycracku

But being that a car has a specific price to the locals, if the $US tanks, they just put their $US price up, don't they?

Apple haven't dropped their $NZ prices, why would a car company?

Edibles are probably a different story...

I think the price would go up as you say, but there is a lag between the currency change making the cost relatively cheaper and the price change bringing things into line again. This is because complex stuff is built of components which are all bought at different times.

I think at some point we get into the territory of 'other reasons'.

For example, one of the reasons buying things of Amazon is cheap is that you are buying in the 'US market'. The US market is big there are economies of scale when Amazon buys stuff in the US.

One reason for the Apple price drop in Aus was supposedly some kind of 'political pressure' but I can't remember the details.

I am now getting a sinking feeling that an economics grad out there is going to show me the error of my ways at any second.

Oh well.

Didn't anybody tell you I was a hacker?

throbb

675 posts

Ultimate Geek

#498721 27-Jul-2011 22:11

LookingUp:
throbb:
LookingUp:
throbb: Been trying to find myself a decent telescope, cant seem to find anyone that ships to NZ at a decent price.

What sort of telescope are you after?

Something like an 8" reflector, that can take a webcam/camera.

OK - was just wondering, as I've got a couple of "spare" scopes I'd be interested in re-homing. They're a 150mm refractor (Skywatcher = good for visual but not good enough for astrophotography) and a 13.5" Dob. Thye're both quite large so would have to be pick-up from Chch.

On the buying front - I've bought gear from William Optics in Taiwan, and found them excellent to deal with. That would be my suggestion if you were looking for a refractor. If you're just looking at getting into astrophotography I'd recommend a small refractor as a starting point.

I've bought other gear from OPTCorp in the US, and they're ok, but you pay a fortune for shipping - I think it cost something like US$700 to ship a mount, but then it was ~40kg and a lot of big boxes.

Recently I bought a GSO RC10 via a chap in Wanaka who's importing them directly. Think it was
The key thing, if you're going to do atrophotograhy, is to get a good solid mount. This is especially important if you're looking at a long focal length, as any errors will be hugely magnified.

Astrophotography has been a learning curve for me, and I'm happy to share some of my learning experiences....

Thanks for the info, I'm still trying to figure out what I want/need :) Was going to start with a small budget ~$1000us nd see how things went from there.

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