·1 min read
When buying abroad is the wrong answer
A list of cases where the cheaper foreign price is real and still not worth taking.
Most writing on this subject is trying to convince you to buy. Here is the other half.
Warranty that stops at the border
Plenty of manufacturers honour a warranty only in the country of purchase. For a cable this is irrelevant. For anything with a motor, a compressor or a battery, a two-year local warranty is worth a meaningful share of the price difference, and you are giving it up.
Voltage, plugs and standards
An adapter solves the plug. It does not solve 100V against 240V, a different broadcast standard, a region lock, or a appliance certified for a market you do not live in. Anything that heats or spins deserves a check before the purchase, not after.
Things that are cheap because they are old
A price that looks good across a border is sometimes just last year's model clearing out. That can be a genuine bargain. It can also mean no parts in two years. The model number is usually easier to research than the seller.
Sizing that does not transfer
Shoes and clothing carry the worst returns experience in cross-border buying, because the thing most likely to be wrong is the thing most expensive to fix. A 20 per cent saving does not survive one return shipment.
The quiet one: you did not want it
A discount is a reason to buy something you had already decided to buy. It is not, by itself, a reason. The cheapest purchase remains the one you did not make, and no amount of price intelligence changes that.
