AUD Requirement in Title

• 

  retiredfeline on 18/07/2015 - 18:57

  +3

  I disagree. It would in fact provide poorer information as currency rates fluctuate as well so somebody seeing the deal a few days later might pay more or get a better bargain. In fact in some cases even the OP doesn't know the exact figure until the invoice is finalised. But it might still be heaps cheaper.

  It would be nice if the OP stated in the body how much AUD they estimated they paid for it. But I think anybody who orders from overseas should do their own calculations. A link to a currency calculator would be nice though. There might also be a way to do some Javascript magic and make AUD amounts appear as a popup when the foreign price is moused over, but that might be a lot of work for the devs.

  • 

    Nutrino on 18/07/2015 - 19:04

    +2

    I think there should be AUS price stated. Most of the time i skim thru /deals, having a VERY CLOSE est makes it easier to skim. All it needs a *exhange rate stated at the time. I mean, how much does the dollar fluctuate when the deal is in Prime (a few days here there).

• 

  altomic on 18/07/2015 - 19:04

  +8

  my opinion is that - as long as the currency unit (AUS or US or GB or whatever) is acknowledged as the main currency unit in the title then it is up to the user to determine (and post) what the equivalent rate might be.

  most overseas sites -china, HK, singapore, etc often primarily use US$ for pricing as it considered the "universal currency".

  how you pay for the item - MC, Visa, paypal, bitcoins, etc can affect what the final price is.

  many sites offer their own "currency conversion" rates which can be better than other rates e.g. paypal, 28 degrees, etc.

  it's complicated. but for simplicity US$ for OS posts makes it simple -IMHO

  • 

    ozhunter on 18/07/2015 - 19:42

    +1

    I think the purpose of the heading is to quickly and easily see what is the product, the price, and where to buy it. Putting USD only makes it more time consuming to calculate the final cost and to compare to other deals. No problem with having USD in the heading as it is more accurate due to currency fluctuations, but the heading should always have the AUD price in there too.

• 

  lolmao on 18/07/2015 - 19:17

  +2

  I disagree as currencies fluctuate and the AUD conversion depends on your payment method.

  • 

    bxpressiv on 18/07/2015 - 22:29

    +3

    Isn't that the whole point of having the AUD in the title because although currencies fluctuate realtive worth in AUD stays about the same.

    For example lets say when our dollar was at parity with the US we saw the title
    Newest Funnest Bestest Gadget $99USD

    then 8 months later our dollar tanks to about 80 cents and someone posts this for the same item
    Newest Funnest Bestest Gadget $98USD cheapest ever

    In the examples above wouldn't it be better for these two posts to say
    Newest Funnest Bestest Gadget $99USD (~$99AUD)
    Newest Funnest Bestest Gadget $98USD (~$119AUD)

    I definitely don't track the dollar on a daily basis so would prefer to see a ballpark AUD as a starting point. I've seen plenty of Amazon flash memory posts where I've thought 'that lopoks cheap' only to do a conversion and realise it's not worth it.

• 

  scotty on 18/07/2015 - 22:19

  +1

  We actually had similar discussions previously. Back in March and last December. The decision is keeping the USD in the title as currency fluctuates.

  • 

    bxpressiv on 18/07/2015 - 22:33

    +2

    Neil: "It's best practice to list the original currency and the Australian dollar conversion."

    ANd a few people ranting hardly makes it a quorum.

  • 

    ozhunter on 18/07/2015 - 22:56

    +1

    But don't you think since the vast majority of users(if not all) are in Australia, that putting the AUD price alongside the US/EUR price would be more beneficial? Probably wasn't that much of an annoyance before, but there seems to be more deals from overseas lately.

    If we have to calculate the price, why require that the store be listed in the title? Isn't that just another detail each user could find out for themselves? Imo, knowing the price is more important than knowing the store, as if it is above what a person is willing to pay, there would be no point looking at it, no matter where it is from.

    Also the poster of the deal would have already calculated the AUD price already.(as how would they know if its a good deal or not). Requiring the AUD price in the title would barely make any difference at all to the poster, but a lot easier for everyone else.

    • 

      retiredfeline on 19/07/2015 - 03:45

      +1

      The problem is the converted price in the title can be misleading in the face of fluctuation. Some deals can be long lived as the store may keep the USD price the same for a long time. So it's always prudent for the buyer to do their own conversions.

      • 

        bxpressiv on 19/07/2015 - 07:46

        +1

        Most serious OzBargainers check this site religiously so on the day info provides more value. If someone is willing to do a search to dig up older info in sure they're prepared to do more research. Putting a foreign currency you may as well not put a price on it at all.

      • 

        ozhunter on 19/07/2015 - 11:30

        Adding the AUD price alongside the foreign currency price would take a few extra seconds. Fluctuations do happen, but hardly make a difference at all while the deal is at it's most popular . For example, adding ~$100 in the title isn't hard.

      • 

        bxpressiv on 19/07/2015 - 11:38

        +1

        @ozhunter:

        ..and pre-empting the resposne, someone posting a rough conversion will take them a few seconds which is more efficient than everyone else reading the post each spending a few seconds finding the conversion. As said earlier, item and price are the most important thing, I would rather lose the store name.

        BTW there's a good sale on Kindles at the moment for BRL $ 479,00 , what's that worth, who the hell knows, find out for yourself.

      • 

        retiredfeline on 19/07/2015 - 13:30

        @ozhunter: What you really need is some sort of browser add on that will take the selected buffer and run it through your selected converter adding on any extras. This would work on all sites not just OzBargain and you wouldn't have to be always nagging people who forget. Maybe you could start a crowd funding campaign to create one.

      • 

        ozhunter on 19/07/2015 - 14:03

        @greenpossum:

        I don't think I've ever commented/nagged anyone about it to put the Australian price in the title.

        This would work on all sites not just OzBargain

        It's not a problem on other sites. If I visit a US site such as Amazon or ebay.com, it's expected to be in US currency. I'm surprised it hasn't been made standard for the AUD price to be posted since it is an Australian website for Australians to compare prices.

        Yesterday, about 25% of the deals posted were from overseas, so it can be quite a lot of posts to calculate the price.

        There's posts like this and this - US pricing on a .com site, but the OP has posted the price in AUD, at the amount of overseas posts, you'd expect this post to be in USD.

      • 

        retiredfeline on 19/07/2015 - 15:36

        @ozhunter: Automation beats nagging people or trying to convince site operators and a widget will work through price fluctuations.

  • 

    bxpressiv on 22/07/2015 - 11:16

    -1

    Care to comment?: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/203414#comment-2916543

• 

  iridiumstem on 19/07/2015 - 16:02

  I frankly think USD or other foreign currency should be in the title (If possible, you could add AUD as well, but there's limitations on how much stuff you could type on the title. Currency fluctuates all the time, stating as AUD without the original price can be misleading (especially since people have different means to convert as well).

  As long as there is a rule on how to write USD, i.e. there are several ways people use i.e. $xx.xx US, USD$xx.xx etc etc, I think it would be fine. I've seen few people saying that how this is Ozbargain not USBargain and how they thought it was in AUD. So as long as there is a reasonable way to distinguish USD to AUD, I think it would be fine, i.e. USD$ changes the colour of the numbers to something else other than orange so that it's easily distinguishable from $xx.xx. At least, have people write the currency in same way.

  There can be a problem with people posting a deal when it isn't (due to current exchange rate), but I personally think that's more of a issue with the poster, not with using USD on the title. If you want to post a deal, you should check whether it is a bargain before posting.

  • 

    ozhunter on 19/07/2015 - 16:37

    you could add AUD as well, but there's limitations on how much stuff you could type on the title

    The price is kinda important

    As long as there is a rule on how to write USD

    There is, and we should have all learned it in school.

    there are several ways people use i.e. $xx.xx US, USD$xx.xx etc etc

    This is actually more annoying than having prices displayed in foreign currency, as writing it incorrectly will not cause the price to change orange.

    • 

      iridiumstem on 19/07/2015 - 17:56

      +1

      When I said there should be a rule on how to write USD, I meant it like a guideline (actually let me correct this, one that is actually read by and enforced to people), on how to write foreign currency (as I've mentioned before, people use things like $xx.xx USD, US$xx.xx etc etc). I think we need a rule on how to write USD prices.

      I frankly find USD price to be more accurate represenation of the price, the problem with using AUD and AUD only is that the price becomes inaccurate, it will fluctuate between days, between people using different methods, etc etc. The problem associated with having the price in USD, i.e. it's not clear whether it is AUD and people get confused, can easily be rectified by having some sort of rules on how to write them and possibly having them to be highlighted differently from normal $xx.xx.

      That said, I do think it's not bad for the posters to write approximate AUD price on the deal page (not on title), they would've needed to compare the price to Australian retailers as well (with few exceptions) to check whether it is a bargain anyways. I frankly think title should have more accurate representation of the price, not something that varies between people and time.

      • 

        alvian on 20/04/2018 - 17:49

        Resurrecting this comment from 2015, do we have a consensus on how to format foreign currencies? Prefix, postfix or infix? Space or no space between country and $? US$ or USD$, A$ or AU$ or AUD$? Or anything goes? I favour US$123 and A$123.

        The many different ways I've seen:

        US$123, US $123, $123US, $123 US

        USD$123, USD $123, $USD123, $123USD, $123 USD

        A$123, AU$123, A $123, AU $123, $A123 $123AU, $123 AU

        AUD$123, AUD $123, $AUD123, $123AUD, $123 AUD

      • 

        scotty on 21/04/2018 - 10:07

        @alvian: Personally I do USD $123 or AUD $123, i.e. the full acronym of the currency + a space before the dollar sign. However I am fine with shortening the currency and removing the space if you run out of characters for the title.

        Number should immediately follow the dollar sign, i.e. no 123$ or $AUD123. Our title parser doesn't work for those and they don't get highlighted with different colour.

• 

  Zaxo3000 on 19/07/2015 - 16:36

  Yes, please include at least an option for seeing an estimate of the price in AUD somewhere in the post and/or heading, this has annoyed me for soooo long. I'm always assuming dollar is pretty close to parity, then getting to the paypal checkout stage where price is converted to AUD and realising it's not really a great deal…

• 

  Brendoo on 19/07/2015 - 17:06

  +1

  I would just like to see the currency the item is being sold in. It's the only way to know the real price. To have AUD or anything else will be wrong from the moment it is put there due to moving exchange rate.

  If there is a link to an up to date exchange rate converter then no worries, it may save 30 seconds to look it up yourself.

  • 

    bxpressiv on 19/07/2015 - 18:23

    So if it's just in foreign currency, it's right, but you have no idea without conversion. Sounds like a real useful title…

• 

  bxpressiv on 21/07/2015 - 10:16

  So the discussion in Dec was limited in scope.

  The poll in March was 16 for / 40 don't care (poorly worded poll options).

  This poll is showing a strong preference to AUD, with about a quarter each to foreign and both. This is probably the best data you have so far to support a decision.

  Common sense approach would be to make it mandatory to have both purchase currency and AUD estimate which would provide the data that everyone wants at a snapshot.

• 

  Moderatorhamza23 on 07/08/2015 - 15:58

  Following these community discussions and moderator discussions this week, we will make it a requirement to include both the original currency and the $AU estimate in the title (if space allows).

  Currently we only require the original currency in the title and having the $AU estimate is optional - we have added and will continue to add notes into common stores (Amazon, Gearbest etc) to also include the $AU as well as the original currency. These changes are being communicated to moderators and power users (it will be up to them to add it in for a lot of cases, especially for store reps or new posters / posters who miss the currency instructions in the deal posting screen - which is common.)

  We certainly did not want just the $AU price without the original currency, with the $AU fluctuating so heavily it would make determining duplicates really difficult for a moderators point of view and understanding the source of the price change (site or $AU) difficult to determine for users amongst other things.

  How the $AU obtained is a little tricky. We will recommend the use of MasterCard exchange rates or similar to work out the $AU equivalent as they are the rates or close to the rates most would be using whilst paying by their various credit cards, or even the PayPal or website rate (if the website states an $AU conversion). Ultimately it's just an approximated price in the title so if it's even 1 or 2% off it still gets the point across, but we'll not recommend the use of xe.com as those rates are unobtainable and with sites like Gearbest we'll add a special note not to use the site $AU price, as it appears exchanges rates there have not been updated in many months and the $AU price is about 5% below what you would be charged.

  Please understand that some posters will most probably miss the $AU price through omission or due to space issues, in this case allow some time for a mod/power user to update after posting when possible. It can also take a few months for such changes to become 'the norm' also.

  Thanks all for your input.

• 

  bxpressiv on 07/08/2015 - 16:03

  Success. A win for those who religiously watch the feed.

• 

  ozhunter on 07/08/2015 - 17:00

  That's good to here, and as I said before, it only takes the OP a few seconds as they would have already calculated the AU price.

• 

  Zaxo3000 on 07/08/2015 - 17:17

  Yay!

• 

  Clear on 08/08/2015 - 02:29

  +1

  Downside is trying to fit all of the appropriate information into the title. Having to mention the store does take up a lot of room.