Price gouged for being a forigner - Anyone experience this?

[Trenton_net]

Hey Everyone,

Just wondering but has anyone experienced being price gouged while visiting overseas for Original & pirate GB/GBC/GBA/DS/Famicom goods, just because you were a foreigner and don't know Chinese?

It's so ridiculous! I know from experience since I've seen it happen so many times, and even friends tend to ask me to get stuff for them because they know I'll get a much fairer price.

Anyone else care to share their experiences?

[Jedi Master Baiter]

Yes, I was price gouged on shipping from Australia because I wasn't Australian & didn't speak AAUUstralian.

[Trenton_net]

What is AAUUStralian? Some kind of English which is not English :-)

[son_ov_hades]

It happened to me in Chile. I don't speak Spanish and was driven a half our out the way by a taxi just so he could overcharge me. I knew we were going the wrong way, but didn't know enough Spanish to tell him. I'm pretty sure he spoke English too, just pretend not to. Jokes on him though, as the American dollar was so strong there it cost me less than 10 bucks. 

[Jedi Master Baiter]

What is AAUUStralian? Some kind of English which is not English :-)

Yeah.

But it was worth it - I think.  I got a bunch of HES cartridges I still need to play.  Silent Service was awkward.

Next up is Little Red Hood.

[manuel]

Yes, foreigners are definitely price gouged in many regions of the world.

A Chinese friend of me told me that, too. In China it's always better to look and speak Chinese to get the best deals.

[Hamburglar]

Although technically I was not a foreigner, It happened to me many times in the U.S, when I was young (around 14-15) I remember there was this store that carried all types of console copiers...Megadrive, Super Famicom, Nintendo 64. If you were asian and spoke their language, you'd get a better price, so we'd usually get our friend who was asian to buy things/haggle for us to get a better price. Same thing with import game stores owned by non Japanese asians.

Although, after I got to know the owners and became a regular customer, they would give me great deals too, after all the only color that matters in the end is green.

[MattyD]

It's called Tourist Tax and everyone does it 

I was in Akihabara Electric Town in Tokyo a couple of weeks back and saw a fair amount of this going on. The Japanese just wouldn't randomly up the price on you but it's fairly apparent from the wildly varying prices between shops, that certain sellers are adding a premium to popular titles.

Titles with a reputation for rarity (justly or not) or titles that weren't released outside Japan are often priced way over what you'd pay in a private sale on eBay or forums. Popular games Mario titles, Contra, Ninja Gaiden etc are also often overpriced. 

[Jedi Master Baiter]

It's called Tourist Tax and everyone does it 

I don't - shipping does enough on that!