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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
~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.
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.
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.
binarysolo|6 days ago
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.
OkayPhysicist|6 days ago
kotaKat|6 days ago
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”.
m463|6 days ago
They are small race-only 2-stroke motorcycles, not sold in the US at all.
m4rtink|6 days ago
adrian_b|6 days ago
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.
unknown|6 days ago
[deleted]
profdevloper|6 days ago
NedF|6 days ago
[deleted]
jtwaleson|6 days ago
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.
netbioserror|6 days ago
pjam|6 days ago
wutwutwat|6 days ago
bing boom
IncreasePosts|4 days ago
rock_artist|6 days ago
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.
bobthepanda|6 days ago
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
unknown|6 days ago
[deleted]
rappatic|6 days ago
ghaff|6 days ago
queenkjuul|6 days ago
rkagerer|6 days ago
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.
adrian_b|6 days ago
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.
Aurornis|6 days ago
2026 production from many of the big manufacturers is already completely sold.
dec0dedab0de|6 days ago
globular-toast|5 days ago
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.
lysace|6 days ago
WalterBright|6 days ago
It's called arbitrage.
Eventually, other people figured it out and the prices leveled out.
Arbitrage opportunities crop up all the time.
1-more|6 days ago
[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...
NitpickLawyer|6 days ago
bombcar|6 days ago
sakex|6 days ago
direwolf20|6 days ago
lazide|6 days ago
diordiderot|6 days ago
Please be serious.
Havoc|6 days ago
locusm|6 days ago
ecshafer|6 days ago
lazide|6 days ago
fred_is_fred|6 days ago
garte|5 days ago
nathancahill|6 days ago
arccy|6 days ago