[boyter]

Almost everything in Australia has a pretty high markup. Mostly due to the high wages and generally to ship anything out here costs a lot without the economies of scale. Most just shrug and call it the "sunshine tax".

It is very annoying when companies like valve charge considerably more for digital goods though. For really expensive software like Photoshop it used to be cheaper to fly to the USA buy it and return home then buy locally.

[voltagex_]

>generally to ship anything out here costs a lot without the economies of scale.

I've been getting trinkets shipped here from AliExpress for nothing - I'm not sure it's economies of scale.

[KozmoNau7]

I don't know about Australia, but postage from China to the EU is generally heavily subsidized, due to an old effort to boost the region's export economy. It just hasn't ever been rolled back, but there are talks to do just that. Then shipping to the EU (and possibly other regions) will reflect the actual postage costs.

[fapjacks]

Same to the US. "E-post" from China to the United States is dirt cheap. Impossibly cheap. Very nice for things like electronics components.