Cheapest place to buy an iPod

One of the advantages of traveling about is that you can compare prices for the same object in different locations. It's a good way to buy cheap electronics, camera gear and other stuff. I'm most often asked about iPods though! Where are they cheapest and where can you get a good price? If you're doing a long trip through multiple countries, you can buy where it's cheapest. This is my advice if you're thinking of buying an iPod or other gadget on your trip.


The best way of buying an iPod is obviously to click my Amazon link above and buy it from Amazon UK, but if you insist, here's what I've discovered...

Most high end electronic goods have their price set at the global HQ. Apple is especially good at this. The end result is that the price you pay for an iPod in a country is pretty much the same in all the shops. You can go to Sim Lim Square in Singapore and haggle to you're blue in the face, but you're not going to get it at a bargain price. The suppliers set the price and there's nothing the vendors can do about it. The same thing applies for other high end electronics, such as top of the line laptop computers and cameras.

If shopping around isn't going to help, then shopping in a different country could be the answer! Bizarrely, the same product in different countries can have wildly different prices, even when the currency exchange rate is taken into account. I've done a bit of research, using the black 80Gb iPod as an example. Here's what you can expect to pay in different countries in a typical London to Australia trip, based upon the various Apple web sites:

County List Price _____GBP ___Duty Free (GBP)
USA ________349.00 USD 177.31 177.31
Hong Kong __780.00 HKD 180.73 180.73
Australia __499.00 AUD 207.35 188.50
Singapore __598.00 SGD 200.62 191.07
New Zealand 599.00 NZD 219.79 195.37
UK _________239.00 GBP 239.00 203.40
France _____379.00 EUR 257.66 215.43

So there you have it. The US is the cheapest place to buy the iPod, with France being the most expensive. You could try your luck and get and extra one or two percent off in discount shops, but that's about it.

Another option is to buy something else! If you wander around the shops in Hong Kong, you'll find a plethora of gadgets that look like iPods, smell like iPods, but are made in China and may not work after you unwrap them. Then again, they might be a good, cheap alternative.

If functionality is more important than a must have iPod, try another manufacturer. Creative is a Singaporean company making some good kit:

Singapore is a good place to buy these, as they're local!

My advice is to buy your gadgets at your start of your trip. There's nothing worse than wandering around endless corridors of IT malls looking to save $10. You're on holidays, enjoy it!