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Practically speaking, in 2026, are there any big ticket items an American could buy abroad and have the travel economics work out to their favor?

The big one I do is medical tourism, though I have family in Taiwan. I've done a bit of dental works where the cost in the US is $3k-$5k after insurance, and at Taiwan is maybe $300-$500 (10x diff) cash pay. I've also done scan-all-the-things health spas in a Taiwan hospital for $300-$500, where American equivalents are again 10x.

Labor-intensive products. Custom suits, leather jackets, etc., are so, so much cheaper in places with lower costs of living. For individual items, flights might make it a toss-up, but on the scale of an entire wardrobe, flying to Turkey, having a bunch of tailored clothes made up, and then flying home would definitely work out.

That certainly used to be the case. My dad used to get his suits made in Hong Kong all the time although that became less economical relative to other locations. I don't really wear any of that type of clothing any longer.

Akihabara in Tokyo also used to be a bargain for electronics but I'm not sure that's really true any longer that I've noticed.

I was in Akihabara in Tokyo and other places end of 2024. Prices were nearly US priced but in Yen more or less. No real bargins. Only thing they had going was unique stuff you can't find at all in the mass market garbage we got going on in the US

Some things are more costly in the USA. I have a soft spot for the aesthetics of the Fuji Electric Command Switches AR16, AF16. They're like $19+ each in the USA from automationdirect.com. However, in 2024 I found a stall in Akihabara selling Industrial automation stuff including the Fuji switches for 5-10 bucks each. Bought a bunch and made a little demo panel for about 60 bucks. The same items in the USA would have set me back over $150. When I go back I am buying a lot more.

Much of the "cheap retro games" from Japan are just the games that were more popular there like Paper Mario 64.

It's hard to really properly track these things but over the three trips I've made to Japan over about 12 years. Id say the price rises have been entirely in line with currency and retrogaming inflation.

I.e. I'm not sure it was every as good value as people thought.

I did buy quite a bit over a decade ago but again those were Japan only carts (that wouldn't even run in PAL without a mod chip but would run NTSC-U).

That said it is so much more touristy now I'm sure any arbitrage opertunity would be sweeped away same evening.

Japan is now also making domestic only console versions (at least for switch 2 and I think with PS5 on the cards).

Again this might lead to people thinking consoles are cheap in Japan but these are Japanese only consoles designed to revive the economic doldrum they are in.

Japan is certainly the place to go for second-hand synthesizers and other music equipment, though. The gear is well taken care of, and usually a fair bit cheaper than local rates.

Fair point! I did see an extraordinary amount of music gear in akihabara and never really processed that information.

And the love and care they treat possessions with as well as the way they package second hand devices is inspiring.

It's kind of odd in a way in contrast to Kintsugi (where repair is highlighted). Almost aiming to keep things in perfect condition but then in a way celebrating repair?

Of for sure, the second hand market in Japan is really very inspirational.

In the 90's I did a trip to Japan for second-hand synth gear and came back with 4x the stuff I'd have had, if I'd only shopped local - and this was in a period where synths (my favourite investment) were lower valued on the market even in the US ..

Japan is a very inspirational nation, I find.

A certain version of JP Zelda Link to the Past is needed for speedrunning and “legally” running randomizers. It was far easier and cheaper to find in Tokyo than online.

As late as 2012-2015 it was still extremely cheap to get suits in HK, but I'm sure that's no longer the case.

The last time I did it, I bought fabric for $60 USD at Joann's, flew to HK, and gave a guy the fabric for a suit. The suit cost $45 USD to make.

I think, latterly, my dad was getting them made in Seoul and I had some clothing made there and Singapore as well. But I had admittedly not been in HK for years and years and didn't really need suits in any case.

Luxury fashion also tends to have large price differences based on exchange rates and tax.

Before the Great Recession, Europeans, particularly Brits, were flying into NYC with empty suitcases. It helps that NYC has a sales tax exemption for clothes items under a certain amount specifically to facilitate this.

A lot of it is tax fraud, with the new clothes in that suitcase not being properly declared when imported.

I used this but inverted, the tailor flew to a few European cities and we met him in a hotel room.

He then flew back to Thailand and send the suits.

> Custom suits, leather jackets, etc., are so, so much cheaper in places with lower costs of living

Even in places like Bangkok a basic bespoke suit with decent construction is going to be starting at $1000, with the slightly better places charging significantly more.

The actually cheap custom suits are cheap because the quality is laughably bad, you're basically getting H&M/Zara quality for higher prices. The reason these products don't really exist in the west is primarily a lack of demand.

India, too! The suit I got for my wedding was custom, way cheaper there than here. I need to go back and get a second jacket some day.

Yea, same here. I was already in India for other reasons, and I thought--hmm let's see what a tailored suit costs. I ended up decking myself out with a sweet wardrobe for what what so cheap I thought it was an English language mistake.

I remember decades ago hearing stories of motorcycle racers going to japan to get a honda RS125, put it in their luggage and bringing it back to the US.

They are small race-only 2-stroke motorcycles, not sold in the US at all.

Japanese stationary - and I am not kidding.

Inside the European Union, traveling to other places to buy things from there would only seldom be profitable, when considering the travel expenses.

On the other hand, I frequently buy things from online shops located in many of the EU countries, because very often for various kinds of things that I want to buy I find the best deals in different countries. There are no extra expenses but shipping, so it is frequent to order things from far away, because at a local shop near me they would be more expensive than buying from another country, even with the added shipping.

I bought a custom couch from Lithuania and got it shipped to the Netherlands after trying a certain brand in a local showroom. The brand is based in Belgium and does some manufacturing in Poland. They even shipped it for free because I met a minimum spend threshold.

The NL dealer wanted €5k but Lithuania wanted €2800 for the same exact couch so I then convinced myself it was worth it to pay for a fabric upgrade. Since its made by the same Belgian company, the warranty is identical and valid across the EU.

I guess you could say I’ve successfully assimilated to my new adopted home in NL and now I hate to pay full price for almost anything!

Weirdly for me: IKEA. I’m within ~240 miles of an IKEA in Canada and an IKEA in the US.

While they’ve started to inflate some items to meet currency conversion rates, some items are still cheaper for me to purchase in Canada directly and bring back to the US.

For instance, even at small scale: one BILLY bookcase, article number 205.220.46, is $90 CAD (~$65.70 US) at IKEA CA and $79 USD at IKEA US.

YMMV coming back across the border but in my experience I just got waived through the border every time I told them I was “just coming back with some cheap crap from IKEA”.

Travelling to a no sales tax state for large purchases. Sales tax is roughly 10%, state with no sales tax is 150 miles away for me.

Doing the math, 300 miles round trip, 30 miles per gallon, $4/gallon for gas, if I'm buying something that costs more than $400 I get a free trip to other state.

Downside is that you're only breaking even for the time, but if you're making a $1,000+ purchase then it's definitely worth the time for me to make the trip.

Some states have that as a "you should/need to declare that as a use tax."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_tax

It's likely poorly enforced, but it's on the books and it's a complicated one to track. It was more of a concern when internet sales didn't collect state sales.

There's also Simplified Sellers Use Tax lawsuit that was recently in the courts.

Is your time and car free or do you want to make the trip anyways?

Car's 11 cents a mile, that's less than twenty bucks in gas, me spending ~5 to 6 hours total back and forth retrieving it is still worth so much more than waiting days on end for freight shipment (and the hundreds that can cost, combined with the messy scheduling commitment if you buy any large goods -- I just checked, it's $289! for that Billy to be shipped to my doorstep).

I have in fact brought a rolled up full size mattress home in the back seat of a Fusion Hybrid (it fit! with room for other things!) and it was a great cost savings. As a bonus at the time there was an additional sale in IKEA CA on the mattress that US didn't have, so I saved even more.

A wife

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Oh this brings back memories. Back in 2007 my dad needed a new Thinkpad which was like 2.5k EUR in NL vs 1k USD in the USA. He also wanted to push his kids to do something adventurous.

So he bought me (19) and little brother (16) tickets to fly from Amsterdam to New York (2x350) and get a cheap hotel for 2 nights (2x100). All to get a Thinkpad W500(?).

We had a great time. Got chased by a wild homeless person on Staten Island who followed us onto the ferry and we were scared stiff. Also walked all over Manhattan. Went to the Bronx but got stared at a lot so quickly went back to the subway. I can still hear the iconic "Stand clear of the Closing Doors" in my head.

Too bad the America from those days is gone.

Which part is gone?

Hah, indeed, the story could have happened yesterday. Except maybe thinkpad prices in europe have normalized a bit ;)

What I didn't write is that my feelings towards the USA were 95% positive back then. A bit less after the chase and the Bronx visit, but still. Obama made everything feel hopeful. The current situation is just depressing.

The fun one one, where a Dutch parent feels it's safe to send 2 teenagers unaccompanied to the US for a brief visit.

Apart from safety, the rhetoric of the US government regarding the invasion of former allies has led a lot of people to try really hard to boycott as many American products as they can.

I was going to say,

pretty sure this story could have happened last week.

Except for the hotel prices. And Thinkpad prices.

New York City has been a running sine wave of sketchy stories and memories for the past century!

> Stand clear of the Closing Doors

bing boom

bing-bong**

Then someone yellin 'F--k ya life'

Nothing fancy here, just difference of prices/taxes in markets. Same as any YouTube video showing "I flew to Korea and got iPhone 17 Pro Max for cheaper".

So there are individuals who do that and it makes sense (if you enjoy the flying / traveling) and it's not considered "time is money"

There are also common parallel importing in many countries who find a dealer at some country that has the same product in lower local currency, buy bulk and get some discount, then resell it in the country where the official distribution is expensive.

That's why it is possible to find no eSIM/NFC iPhones in some stores (imported from China) or eSIM only ones in regions where you'd expect them to have also physical sim tray.

People have been doing this forever.

What’s more interesting was when people were doing this with software sold physically; IIRC Adobe creative suite was so expensive in Australia that it was cheaper to fly to the US and buy it

There's no real arbitrage opportunity because he booked the hotel and flights on points. It likely would've been considerably more expensive overall if he'd booked in cash.

Well, that's assuming he wouldn't have used the points for a different trip otherwise.

From what the poster says, it appears that the HDD prices vary extremely inside USA, so you must be careful from where you buy.

The poster says that the 28 TB Seagate HDDs have been bought from Best Buy and B&H for around USD 330.

If I look right now at Amazon USA and Newegg, I see much higher prices, in the range of $600 to $700, so buying from there would be a mistake.

However, the reported price seems too good to be true, because looking now at both the B&H & Best Buy online shops I see prices double in comparison with the claimed $330, and which are in line with Newegg and Amazon USA.

So perhaps the poster was extremely lucky and has succeeded to take advantage of some price that was so low only for a short time.

For comparison, last week I have also bought a 28 TB Seagate Expansion HDD, but in the European Union, for USD 550, which is much lower in comparison with the UK price of almost $770 quoted by the Reddit poster, and also much lower than the prices that are listed today on Amazon USA, Newegg, B&H and Best Buy, which are higher by about 10% than what I paid.

On the other hand the Reddit poster has succeeded to buy 10 such HDDs for a price of only 60% of mine, raised after that to about 74% by the import VAT.

Good for him, but taking into account the prices that I see today at 4 US online shops and the continuous price increases in HDDs, it seems that not many, if anyone, will repeat soon such an achievement.

HDD prices spiked in the past few days: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/1r8swim/holy_h...

2026 production from many of the big manufacturers is already completely sold.

Yes, this explains it.

I have also been triggered to buy the 28 TB HDD last week, even if I do not need it yet, but I will need it later this year, after reading the reports that both WD and Seagate have sold out their yearly production.

The price that I paid was already much higher than some time ago.

There's a lot of panic buying going on. Both at the data center level and the consumer level.

My recommendation is that if someone doesn't strictly need the hardware in the next 12 months, it's better to wait it out.

A long time ago I was in a band, and we opened for a band from Australia that came without any gear and bought it all here. They said it was so much cheaper to buy here that they loved touring in the US just for that reason. They were using vintage collector type stuff that was just harder to find there, but they told me it was the same for new stuff too.

I also bought a laptop with an RTX 5090 (mobile) in New York last month. I paid half what I would have paid in my country. Especially when you consider how low the USD is trading at.

Kinda wild to me that people wait till record prices and then go hmm...now is the moment I need a 280TB NAS...

Meanwhile here in the US the drives are double what i paid in 2024 and I'm trying to see which country i can fly to lol

There are small suppliers in Hong Kong who sell refurb enterprise drives at less-exorbitant prices. I've had good luck with this over the years. I stuck with reliable, well-known models like the 4TB HGST, 16TB Seagate Exos (X16), etc.

I used to get them with a year or so of warranty remaining, though last order I got units that must have been from a bulk OEM purchase and weren't warrantied through the manufacturer.

Regardless, I've had good luck this way and failure rates have been within expectations. I started with a few different suppliers to mix inventory in case one source turned out to be a dud, then eventually consolidated on a single supplier who does a great job and has consistently delivered good drives. This method has worked for me for over a decade. Definitely easier than flying around countries, and in my case cheaper than if I'd physically gone to the US like this guy.

For some weird reason this story reminded me of Johnny Mnemonic.

I am surprised they aren't Brazillian. Some Brazillian friends from school did that, they would fly to Miami to go shopping, buy game consoles, etc.

Brazilian customs figured this out awhile ago, be too obvious and you’ll get one hell of a fine.

If shipping then yes, customs got stricter thanks to Shein.

If flying then you can bring up to 1000 USD of stuff tax-free every 30 days. On top of a personal phone and watch. Plus 1000 USD of stuff you can purchase at the duty-free shop once you land.

If you left with a phone (pretty mic required), you can’t come back with an extra iPhone - since those are typically > $1000.

Of course, people will. It’s mostly the folks bringing back 5 new phones or whatever that get nailed. But mostly they only care if you’re obviously Brazilian of course hah

Yeah, this is more pronounced with watches.

A brazilian coworker bought a suitcase on his trip here (circa 15 years ago) and then bought a playstation and an xbox to bring back.

As someone who runs home NAS with 5+ year old drives in it, this situation sucks. I only have 4TB drives but just to replace them, not even upgrade the storage, would cost over £1000 at £170 each.

I have a couple of cold backup drives, one of which I bought for £100 in March 2025 and the other for £85 in July, so literally half the price!

If I wanted to increase the storage which, to be fair, I don't actually need, I'd be looking at closer to 2k. Guess I'll be hoping these drives last a bit longer and don't all fail at once...

This sucks more because hosting at home is the main way out of cloud lock in. I feel like something should be done to make sure regular consumers are able to buy this stuff and not just mega corps.

In the 80s it was a thing to fly from Europe to the US to buy PC hardware and software. The price differences paid for the (expensive) flight costs and then some.

In the 1980s, a friend got his start by buying packaged software in bulk from the US and reselling it in Europe. The retail price differences were large enough he made bank on it.

It's called arbitrage.

Eventually, other people figured it out and the prices leveled out.

Arbitrage opportunities crop up all the time.

I remember when Adobe Creative Suite came out (I think?) and Australian said that a first class flight to Los Angeles and the American price were less than the Australian price. Hoping Bruce or Sheila [1] Cunningham [2] can chime in

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNBy1D1Y0h4 damn I was only familiar with the audio; this aged extremely poorly.

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham#Cunningham's_L...

The trip was worth considering for a few years. IIRC a first class ticket would have cost too much though.

https://www.smh.com.au/technology/adobe-chief-dodges-questio...

~2012 was the same thing. The usd was very low compared to eur, but the apple store sold things in ~same value in eur + tax. So you could legit buy an airplane ticket (not even a low cost, regular line was ok), visit NY for a weekend and buy a macbook, come back, and end up paying the same amount.

Not just Apple. Around 2010, I bought a tripod and head from the US. Had it delivered to France, paid all import duties and taxes and VAT (I single out VAT because, since taxing is the national sport, it's levied on top of the other taxes, which are also levied on shipping a big hunk of metal). It was around 25% cheaper than buying from a local store.

Here's the kicker: the tripod and head were both produced in Italy. So it was somehow cheaper to ship them halfway around the world and pay import duties twice than to buy locally with no import duty (since it's the EU).

yeah, this applied to any pricier laptop or DSLR, though warranty could be a problem

It's been true (maybe still is? Haven't checked) for quite awhile; people I know would always hit up the Apple Store when visiting the USA and return bearing gifts, because the price savings was quite noticeable.

so fossil fuel is too fucking cheap. this is arbitrage with our environment, it fucks me up.

Flying to the USA is a bit risky right now. It would be better for someone already in the USA to mail them to you, right?

Most places with heavy duties/tariffs also intercept mail and apply said duties/tariffs (and sometimes just seize everything).

He declared the import and paid the VAT.

Wow, that’s just being terrible at smuggling.

> Flying to the USA is a bit risky right now.

Please be serious.

You must have not heard how everyone must now disclose all social media handles, including deleted ones, from last 5 years, in order to obtain ESTA visa? And how CBP now regularly asks to show them your phone and if you don't you are returned back to your country? Not to mention if they find anything unfavorable towards the president or VP they find in your phone, like Vance's caricature? True story.

I get that Fox News audience remains oblivious to this, but if well read and people like here on HN do too, then the US is completely cooked.

Please read this

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/21/karen-newton...

These stories usually have some non-trivial factor that is missing in the article. In this case there's a small visible red flag: the two tourists are British but traveling on B visas, rather than using the visa waiver program. Why? Well according the DHS they both have multi-year overstays in the US.

This doesn't justify the detention they went through. But it also means the lesson of the story is not "random tourists are being detained".

The article clearly says only Bill had overstayed, not Karen. "Bill’s US visa had expired; Karen’s had not.".

The B2 visa seems to be because the length of the trip exceeded the ESTA limit, "over two months", perhaps the original plan had been for a longer trip.

No, Karen overstayed previously by 4 years when visiting Bill, that's why she had B-2.

The Guardian article linked has chosen to omit material facts regarding Karen... This is par for the course when it comes to Guardian reporting and doubly so for immigration related articles. The Guardian only prints hit pieces nowadays that reinforce their group-think propaganda.

https://x.com/DHSgov/status/2025975226002018309

>What the media won’t tell you: this woman was BANNED from our country for 10 years for violating terms of her visa.

Here are the facts:

Karen Newton has violated the laws of our nation, and overstayed her visa waiver admission for almost FOUR years after visiting her spouse. Her husband, William Newton ALSO broke the law for nearly 20 years by overstaying an H-1B visa.

The Biden Administration granted her a tourist visa, and she traveled to the U.S. under this visa and was let into our nation.

When she and her husband attempted to cross the Canadian border, they did not have proper paperwork for their vehicle and were denied entry into Canada. During her inspection re-entering the U.S., she was unable to provide clear details about her situation, including her husband’s legal status.

Given her history of overstays, her husband’s unlawful presence, and the vehicle documentation issues, officers determined scrutiny and detention were warranted under the law and she was detained.

The Guardian is complete propaganda - without exaggeration every single article about this issue has been utter lies.

See this for more balance https://x.com/DHSgov/status/2025975226002018309

The sad thing is that you believe what DHS has to say about absolutely anything, especially after Alex Pretti has proven them in death to be complete liars.

Yes, because a DHS statement, published on Twitter of all places, isn't going to be propaganda. I can't think of any instances of them blatantly lying even against their own video evidence in, like, at least a week. /s

When a publication only publishes the "oppresseds" point of view without ever publishing the other view then it is by definition propaganda. The Guardian has been incredibly consistent in this over years now.

That's whataboutism. Doesn't change the fact that The Guardian _is_ propaganda.

That's ad hominem. Stick to the facts, not the messenger's reputation.

The secret ingredient is.. crime.

not really, they paid import duty

No duty, only VAT. https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/commodities/84717050...

Now I am curious, Understand that I am from the states, and consequently have zero intuition as to what a VAT is. But... the hard drive importer is directly using the HDDs and as such is not adding any value to the item, why are they paying a value added tax?

If I had to guess it is probably on the value that could have been added to the item.

It’s just the name for sales tax. Why is there a tax on sales, isn’t a sale a discount? Then is the sales tax negative because it’s the tax on the difference between the full price and the discounted price? You’d probably end up with a refund for buying the thing, unless your state has no sales tax.

Sales tax is actually very different beacuse it is usually either cumulative and added to each part of the chain, or only the last one; whereas VAT is deducted in all but the last part of the chain.

Yea, the idea is that the VAT effectively taxes the added value in each step of the value chain because there's a limit to how much you can charge for an item or service. E. g. a 25 % VAT does not necessarily mean the goods become 25 % more expensive; most of those 25 % would have been profit for the reseller, intermediates and manufacturer if it were not for the VAT. Perhaps a little contra-intuitively, a high VAT keeps prices down and business efficient because every intemediate is indirectly taxed even though the VAT is only charged to the final consumer.

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