PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Canadian Dollar

I have been a long time purchaser of BIAB, but something has always puzzled me. PG Music is located in Canada and I am as well. So...............
Why do we always have to pay in US Funds? I was going to do my normal Xmas time purchase and just realized with the current shape of the Canadian Dollar the Ultra Plus Pak $149 upgrade is now over $200.00 ($212.40 Canadian to be exact)
Think I'll be passing on this years upgrade.

OK.....I'm done ranting.

I'm guessing you meant to say $212.40 Canadian funds (since the price is $149 US funds).

My how times have changed; it was just a few years ago that the US and Canadian dollars were at parity.

You would have to ask PGMusic why they price it that way? You might want to send them an email.

They're just making it consistent. If you want to pay in Canadian funds then I'm sure it would be whatever the exchange is.

I lived in Calgary in the late 70's into the late 80's. The same thing happened then. Canada is a large physical country but a small country by population. This is all about the price of oil. When oil plunged then and again now, the Canadian dollar plunged along with it because relative to their smaller economy oil is a big percentage of it.

Bob

About a year ago I spec'ed out my dream guitar and then sent quote requests to a bunch of different luthiers. Most of them didn't want to (or couldn't) do what I wanted done... but one company in England accepted the project and I accepted their quote.

Then dumb ol' me realized the number in the quote was in sterling pounds, not US dollars. The exchange rate was highly unfavorable. To make it worse, I also had to pay an import tax that was high enough to buy almost any of the guitars hanging on the wall in Guitar center.

Exchange rates and international trade.. gotta love it.

the one bright spot in the story is that I paid for it all up front instead of the usual 50% down and pay the balance on delivery. The exchange rate got even worse by the time the guitar was finished, so by paying at the previous exchange rate, I ended up saving about enough to pay the import tax.

Sometimes it pays to gamble. I've learned that if I have a 50:50 chance I also have a 70:30 chance to pick the wrong.

I hope the guitar is alright and you enjoy playing it.

This quote is attributed to John Ruskin: “It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

John Ruskin is a fountain of great quotes.

I've vacationed in Canada a number of times. I especially love the Maritime Provinces from New Brunswick to Labrador. And I've also been all the way to the Yukon and a few in-betwen.

Some years the exchange rate has been good to me, other years the Canada dollar was strong and the US dollar weak and I just ate it.

I like Canada, and I like the Canadians, so the memories of the pleasant experiences remain while the memories of the money are actually meaningless.

I had planned to go to England, Scotland and Wales for a year in advance. By the time I went, the exchange was one pound to over 1.75 dollars.

I really made out one year in Italy though.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and if you aren't playing the investment game and moving your retirement account around, it doesn't really matter. What matters is enjoying the purchases you make with your money.

Insights and incites by Notes

I really like the way you think, Notes!

I like the quote (paraphrased)
"The bitterness of using a cheap product lasts much longer than the sweetness of a low price."

Point being, that whether the price was high or low, we soon forget the money part of the deal. The million dollar question is whether or not the purchased product or memories of a purchased experience continue to please us. We WILL remember those things. Especially the vacations.

Economies don't live in vacuums, everything is tied together. What you might lose because the crash in oil prices caused the Canadian dollar to dump also means you're paying a whole lot less per gallon for gas for your car. I just heard on the news this morning that's worth over a thousand dollars in savings for the average family in the last year. Not just gas for your car either, it's also natural gas for heating and power generation. Natural gas prices are way down as well.

So, add up what you're personal gas usage was for the last year and then look at what it costs you to buy Biab with Canadian money. You're way ahead because of the gas savings.

When it comes to oil prices, what the one hand takes the other hand gives back.

Bob

Jazzmammal, you are right, but people usually don't think that way. People want to be punished. ...

When Deutsche Bahn, the major German railway, introduced a new price system, many people complained. What Deutsche Bahn actually introduced was a type of an early booking deal. You get a discount if you buy your ticket early. You pay 100 percent if you buy your ticket just before traveling. Now people are complaining that they get punished and have to pay more when they go to the station just before they enter the train. Their perception is that the early booking deal is the 100 percent price tag ...

Most people never see the opportunity but are very aware of the [perceived] punishment.

Sometimes I see them as catholics:
A convinced atheist, who has just died, suddenly finds himself in a dark passage. He discovers a sign: "To hell". He has no other choice but to follow the passage to hell. After some time he gets to an unlocked door. The atheist enters hell and cannot believe his eyes. Bright sunshine, pleasant temperatures, palm trees, ocean beach, all 100 meters a beach bar, happy people cavort in paradisiacal conditions. The late atheist just goes along the beach, until he suddenly sees a figure with a horse's foot and a tail sitting in a beach chair. He walks toward the figure and asks, if he was the devil.

The devil affirms this and very warmly welcomes the newcomer to hell. After some chatting he sends the atheists to one of the beach bars to get a drink there. The atheist took a drink and strolls along the beach to hell continue to explore.

Between dunes he discovers a large, deep hole. Curious, he lookes into the depths and is terribly frightened. He looks at the bottom of this deep hole and sees whimpering, unclothed people around a blazing hot fire and wild beasts beating on their bodies.

Immediately the atheist is confused and runs through hell and asks the devil somewhat dissolved about that hole. The devil does not understand the question and so the atheist asked again after the deep hole with the fire, the beasts and the people back there in the dunes.

"Oh," says the devil, "This is for the Catholics. They want it so ..."