NOT Rip-Off Britain for Raspberry Pi

Here’s a bit of a reversal.. normally I steer clear of the UK for pricing as we tend to pay over the top… I can’t help thinking I’m reading this incorrectly….

Raspberry Pi 3

However – here above is RS Components latest pricing for the Raspberry Pi 3 – the latest model – at just over £27

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/processor-microcontroller-development-kits/8968660/

And that’s fine – compares to what, say the USA would pay. I think I bought a model 2 last year in the USA for slightly less.

But check this out…

Raspberry Pi 2AliExpress who you can normally count on a decent price…

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Original-Raspberry-Pi-2-Model-B-Broadcom-BCM2836-1GB-RAM-900Mhz-Quad-Core-ARM-Cortex-A7/32661146230.html?spm=2114.40010708.4.11.OMbRzQ

Claiming 65% off and charging £38 for the old model 2 !!!

Am I missing something here?

The funny thing is – after seeing this – I found more – I found a Raspberry Pi 3 all on AliExpress – for £29.29 with free shipping – which is a GOOD price – then the older Pi2 for an amazingly high £53.98 (they are kidding, right~?)  – the two prices sitting right next to each other!!

Oh, here’s the link for the 3 in case anyone’s interested…

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14 thoughts on “NOT Rip-Off Britain for Raspberry Pi

    1. I guess they make more markup from the Chinese Pi-like boards than from the original. This of course is an old post, in the meantime I’ve figured out how to get I/O running on many of these alternative boards and some have twice as much RAM for less money so the original Raspberry Pi doesn’t hold much interest now.

      1. and some of them have no castrated bandwidth shared between usb and ethernet, and have proper 5.5mm barrel power connection and not the shitty one we have with microusb on RPi3

  1. I have noticed that items that are no longer available from the seller get highly inflated prices. Its like they want to hang on the listing even though nobody would buy from it. I don’t know why.

    1. I wrote to them and asked them what they were up to – I got two replies neither of which I understood.

    1. You are absolutely right John – at £26.38 + VAT for the Pi3 that does look like an excellent price – given the hassle I’ve had with other board types just getting info on basic use of ports – the Pi3 increasingly is looking like THE overall best device out there – all they need to do now is get an official Android 6 supporting that video hardware….

  2. My local MicroCenter here in Denver has the Pi-3B for $29.99 ($5 off the regular price) which is just under 23 quids, plus a bit of local sales tax. These are Element 14 sourced so likely made in China?

    1. I really don’t know how Microcenter do it – I was there a while ago when the Pi Zero came out – no-one else had any in stock and not only did they have them at $5 but they also had Raspberry Pi 2 cheaper than anyone else including the UK. $29.99 for a Pi 3 is an absolute bargain.

  3. I’ve been wondering on the high Aliexpress pricing for the RPi too.

    I’m just guessing here: The RPi is produced in the UK, in contrast To most other products that are produced in Asia. The RPi is famous, probably in China too. The only way for Chinese sellers To deliver an RPi To it’ s Chinese customers is To import from the UK, add margin To the price, resulting in a price higher than the price in the UK.

    Does this make sense?

    1. Well, it does because Banggood also manage to sell them more expensively – though not to this extreme – where they are claiming 68% off and still selling way higher than the UK price…

      The USA seem to be able to sell them even cheaper than the UK (see other comment)

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