Hardware prices by country, and what they do to payback
How duty, tax, freight and exchange rates turn one list price into your real card cost, and how to enter that cost so payback figures are yours.
Why the list price is not what you pay
The hardware table prices every card at its manufacturer list price in US dollars. That is the one figure that exists for every card and compares across all of them.
In much of the world it is not what you pay, and the gap is not small.
The gap comes from a stack of costs. Each layer is charged on the sum of the layers beneath it. So the difference compounds rather than adds.
How to work out your own landed cost
Landed cost is what a card really costs once it is in your hands. The method is the same everywhere, even though the rates differ.
- Start from the price in the currency it is sold in.
- Add freight and insurance. This gives the value your customs authority will assess.
- Apply the duty rate for the tariff code the goods fall under.
- Apply your sales tax or value added tax to that whole total, duty included.
- Add whatever the local seller takes.
- Add the spread you pay when you change currency.
Two details decide most of the outcome:
- The tariff code. Graphics cards, complete computers and mining machines do not always share a code. In some countries, computer parts enter at a low or zero rate under long-standing information technology agreements. The finished machine may not.
- Buying locally or importing. A local purchase has already had all of this applied and priced in.
What landed cost does to the payback column
Payback on the hardware table is the card price divided by what the card earns. So it moves in direct proportion to what you actually paid.
Say a card costs you half again its list price once landed. It will not pay back in the number shown. It pays back in 1.5 times that number.
That is why the table lets you type your own price into any row. Revenue and profit come from the coin, the difficulty and your electricity price. None of those care what you paid for the card.
Replace the price with the one on your own invoice. Then the payback, and the ranking by payback, become yours rather than a US buyer's.
The hashrate and power columns are editable too. Correct them if you measured your own card. A benchmark may come from a different cooler in a different room.
What changes when used hardware crosses a border
A used card is often the better maths, and the used market article covers how to judge one. Across a border, what changes is everything except the price.
- Manufacturer warranties are often regional. A card bought abroad may have no cover where you live, even while its term is still running.
- Returning a faulty card to another country costs freight both ways. It can also trigger duty again on the replacement.
- A card bought second hand from a private seller usually has no cover at all, in any country.
None of that argues against used hardware. It argues for pricing the risk honestly.
A card with no realistic path to a warranty claim is worth less than the same card with one. The difference belongs in the price you are willing to pay.
When importing it yourself is worth it
Importing directly can beat the local price, or lose to it once everything is counted. Compare the landed cost above with the local retail price. Include the value of what you give up.
- Importing tends to win on larger orders. Freight per card falls, and the retail margin you save is multiplied.
- Importing tends to lose on single cards. Freight and the fixed costs of customs clearance fall on one item. And the local seller's duty to take back a faulty card has real value.
One step is not optional either way. Before it ships, find out how your border treats mining hardware specifically.
In some places it is ordinary computer equipment, and in others it is not. Hardware held or seized at customs is a far more expensive problem than a percentage on the invoice.