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Adinnieken on 10 July 2013
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theprof00 said:
Adinnieken said:

If you bought your Microsoft Points through Microsoft, you paid face value.  It was NEVER a good idea to buy your Microsoft Points from Microsoft, same with the Xbox Live subscriptions.  Retail cards are sold MSRP, that is they're sold with margin.  Microsoft and Nintendo both did this.  Sony did not, Sony's cards are face value cards.  As I described elsewhere, a 1600 MP card may cost you $20, but it cost the retailer $15.00.  That margin, gives the retailer the ability to take a profit, incur some expenses, and even put the cards on sale. 

Anyway, when you go onto Xbox LIVE and purchase that content you're purchasing that content from an American company.  Microsoft, in order to accept that purchase in local funds (GBP), has to perform a currency exchange.  Or more correctly the bank who is performing the transaction does.  With Microsoft Points, the same issue existed if you purchased your points from Microsoft, but if you went retail (which was actually the more popular method of obtaining points) there was, as stated above , margin for the retailer to absorb any fees.  Which for them the currency exchange would not be one of, since they're a UK business doing business in the UK.

With Microsoft Points, VAT was included in the price of the Microsoft Point cards.  Now with real-world currency, prices need to reflect VAT as well.  This means that any content has to reflect a 20% VAT if the price of the goods wasn't previously aligned (because I'm sure there's margin in XBL goods too).  In the US, this means each and every State will be different.  Where as previously, I didn't pay taxes on goods because in my state MP cards are exempt from taxes, I will be charged sales tax for the Xbox LIVE purchase because Microsoft does business in my State and by law because they do they have to charge sales tax for online purchases.  For some states, this won't have an impact, they either already pay or they have laws against online sales taxes.  But for the vast majority of people across the US this is gonna bite.  You won't see it in the XBL price, an item will be price the same regardless of where you live, but when you go to check out, the price will reflect any sales tax.

Microsoft Points were, in every way, better.  Only stupid people thought they were worse or a scam.

And when you bought a card with points, it also reflected tax. This doesn't make any sense. There's no difference whatsoever.

Also, points cards had added VAT tax, hence why the prices were higher. You'll still be paying the same thing.

That margin will still exist! Just because it has a dollar value doesn't mean there's no margin.

 

You know nothing, TheProf.  I'm getting really fucking tired of correcting your stupidty.

A Microsoft Point card costs me $0 in tax.  NONE!  Microsoft doesn't pay a cent in tax to my state.  I don't pay a cent in tax to my state.  NONE.

With real currency, that isn't the cast.  I may or may not pay tax on the card, but when I pay for the purchase of the item in US Currency by LAW Microsoft has to charge sales tax.

While the cost was slightly higher per Microsoft Point, it was only marginally higher, not 20%.  Trust me, I've cracked the numbers throughly in the past.  I've looked at the actual costs, I know what I'm talking about.  If you bought Microsoft Points cards via Amazon.co.uk, you paid nearly the same amount as in the US.  I think it was $1.08 vs $1.00 per Microsoft Point.  You saved money. 

The ONLY way Microsoft Points weren't a good value is if you bought them directly from Microsoft off of Xbox LIVE or Xbox.com.  If you bought them from retail, it represented a value for consumers.  

Sony cards, which are real currency cards, have no margin.  There is no likely reason why Microsoft would maintain margin on a real currency card. 

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Edit: User was moderated by TruckOSaurus for this post