Where to buy the Raspberry Pi zero?

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Where to buy the Raspberry Pi zero?

Baboon

250 posts

Master Geek

# 205978 5-Dec-2016 16:20

So I'm wanting a Raspberry Pi Zero, but my searching is not going well when I try to buy online from NZ. I'm either seeing out of stock, absurdly high pricing (higher than the 3 B in one case!), or nada. Am I missing somewhere?

Or where can I buy a few Pi Zeros that'll ship quickly and cheaply to NZ?

TIA :-)

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Stu

Hammered
5294 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 1682696 5-Dec-2016 16:58

I take it you've checked the usual RS Components and Element 14 or whoever it is that normally has them? Otherwise, no idea as yet!

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

richms

22640 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 1682697 5-Dec-2016 16:58

Adafruit and Pimoroni have done when I wanted one in the past.

Both have affordable NZ shipping options.

Going back to that aweful processor after the almost tollerable pi3 is really bad tho. Only real reason for the zero is a space thing if you want to make one of those handheld game emulator things IMO, or some other battery powered situation. otherwise the 3 is so much more useful

Richard rich.ms

chrisb2

1 post

Wannabe Geek

# 1682788 5-Dec-2016 18:28

I got one from PiHut recently: https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero

wanghou168

453 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 1682872 5-Dec-2016 20:04

Ordered mine from Pi Hut as well, ended up paying something like $18

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Baboon

250 posts

Master Geek

# 1682988 5-Dec-2016 22:56

richms:
Adafruit and Pimoroni have done when I wanted one in the past.

Both have affordable NZ shipping options.

Going back to that aweful processor after the almost tollerable pi3 is really bad tho. Only real reason for the zero is a space thing if you want to make one of those handheld game emulator things IMO, or some other battery powered situation. otherwise the 3 is so much more useful

Yeah, it's a power thing in my case. I need them to run for as long as possible on battery. So the Pi Zero seems my best bet, while sticking with a platform I'm now fairly familiar with.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

Baboon

250 posts

Master Geek

# 1682990 5-Dec-2016 23:07

Stu:
I take it you've checked the usual RS Components and Element 14 or whoever it is that normally has them? Otherwise, no idea as yet!

None in stock in either of those stores, which I found a bit odd. Is there a shortage or something?

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

Baboon

250 posts

Master Geek

# 1682991 5-Dec-2016 23:10

wanghou168:
Ordered mine from Pi Hut as well, ended up paying something like $18

Yeah, I ended up looking there, following their link from the official list of resellers. So they're a good outfit?

I'm always slightly nervy about ordering anything from overseas that lacks local warranty support. Still, I guess it's not like there much money involved, heh.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

djtOtago

543 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

# 1683538 6-Dec-2016 23:07

On Trademe

Edit: Getting the Url to behave

Baboon

250 posts

Master Geek

# 1683556 7-Dec-2016 00:47

2 people support this post

djtOtago:
On Trademe

Edit: Getting the Url to behave

$40?!? I'm not getting at you, but whoever's selling this on TradeMe is ripping buyers off. It's a £4.00 (NZD$7.16) computer for crying out loud! :-) OTOH if anyone is silly enough to pay that much, I suppose I don't feel too badly for them, given 30 seconds with Google would've told them that's an awful deal.

Even with shipping cost for a bulk purchase from the UK factored in, GST for selling locally via legit retail, a dirt cheap 8GB SD card thrown in as this seller is doing for some reason, free shipping within NZ, and allowing for a small profit margin for such an inexpensive item, it still shouldn't cost more than $20, max. And by itself with no shipping and a reasonable profit margin, I'd say the Pi Zero is worth $10 within NZ.

I'm sorry, but there just isn't any excuse for a $40 price. That isn't even in the same neighbourhood as reasonable.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

tieke

315 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 1683621 7-Dec-2016 09:20

I agree that for what it is, $40 is too much, but it isn't such a crazy price. Unfortunately the Pi Zero has historically been almost impossibly to buy at its headline USD$5/£4 price. Luckily things have improved quite a bit, but when I was looking at buying some at the start of the year (months after initial release), all production runs were still literally being sold out in hours and there was often a one device per person limit. The reseller market price has thus traditionally higher than you'd expect for the Zero.

Even if this has now been mostly remedied, if you look at an official reseller such as Pi Hut, it would cost £14 to get a pi zero and 8Gb noobs card delivered to NZ. Thanks to the rapidly plummeting Pound, that's about NZD$28, so if you sold that to someone on TradeMe for $40 incl shipping, you would only be making a couple of bucks after commission and postage, even ignoring any possible GST complications.

Of course the TradeMe seller would be buying in bulk etc, so their costs would be lower, but many people would be willing to pay an extra ten or so dollars to buy something with local shipping and contact possibilities.

For instance the Pi 3 has an RRP of USD$35, but generally retails here from official sellers for just under NZD$70, so the fact of the matter is that in NZ you have to pay a long-distance/small market surcharge on basically everything. It just becomes more obvious when the initial price for the item is so low that shipping etc becomes a much bigger percentage.