What I don't get...

[Animeniax]

International postage is outrageous and often makes a good deal a bad one after you add shipping. Unless it's impossible to find local, buy local.

[Buffalobiian]

International postage is outrageous and often makes a good deal a bad one after you add shipping. Unless it's impossible to find local, buy local.

I found that out, yeah. UK shipping seems to be one of the culprits, amongst others.

I ended up ordering from a store based in the UK (instead of ebay.co.uk), and paid fairly heftily for the product, though the postage wasn't that unreasonable. Another store I found had the products for a good 30$ cheaper, but wanted to charge me 160$ postage instead.

But in the end, it still works out better for the seller to list international postage. Ebay will display the domestic price for local bidders, while changing the rate for international folks. This is particularly true since the product is hard to find, and buying used is significantly cheaper regardless.

[Animeniax]

International shipping is not only cost-prohibitive, it is also a mess of time and fraught with potential problems. You have to fill out customs forms, possibly purchase international shipping insurance, and good luck if your package is lost when it's shipped to some podunk country with no sensible addressing infrastructure. Unless it's impossible to find locally, buy it locally.

[Animeniax]

When did the '#' character become hashtag instead of the pound symbol? Is this some hipster online thing to make twitting sound more hip and less nerdy?

[Buffalobiian]

When did the '#' character become hashtag instead of the pound symbol? Is this some hipster online thing to make twitting sound more hip and less nerdy?

I don't even get what you're saying..

[Splash!]

When did the '#' character become hashtag instead of the pound symbol? Is this some hipster online thing to make twitting sound more hip and less nerdy?

According to Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign):

"In Commonwealth English, the symbol is usually called the hash and the corresponding telephone key is called the hash key. In American English and Quebec English, the symbol is usually called the pound sign (outside the US, this term often refers instead to the British currency symbol "£") and the telephone key is called the pound key.[1] In Canadian English, this key is most frequently called the number sign key."

In my experience, I have heard both 'hash' and 'pound' very frequently to refer to that symbol far before the invention of twitter. So the word 'hashtag' comes from that, and is not something completely made up.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the word 'hashtag' was originally used in HTML. So twitter just borrowed a word from existing web jargon.

[Buffalobiian]

According to Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign):

"In Commonwealth English, the symbol is usually called the hash and the corresponding telephone key is called the hash key. In American English and Quebec English, the symbol is usually called the pound sign (outside the US, this term often refers instead to the British currency symbol "£") and the telephone key is called the pound key.[1] In Canadian English, this key is most frequently called the number sign key."

In my experience, I have heard both 'hash' and 'pound' very frequently to refer to that symbol far before the invention of twitter. So the word 'hashtag' comes from that, and is not something completely made up.

Ah.. now Ani's post makes sense.

Being the Commonwealth English citizen I am, I could not understand why Ani's having trouble with the "hash key" being called the "hash key".. and bringing up the GBP into the conversation..

[Kraco]

So, what do Americans call the pound symbol then if they call that hash symbol pound? Surely not "British currency" symbol? That would equal to calling banana a curved yellow fruit...

[complich8]

Americans don't talk about the GBP except referring to it as "British pounds" or "the GBP", and usually not even then. We're too busy using pounds as a unit of weight to acknowledge it as a currency, much less a symbol for that currency.

[Animeniax]

Edit: I forgot to mention that the word 'hashtag' was originally used in HTML. So twitter just borrowed a word from existing web jargon.

So people say "hashtag" when twitting to pretend like their coding or doing something meaningful rather than just being deluded that people actually give a shit about some random thought they have any time of the day.

[Buffalobiian]

So people say "hashtag" when twitting to pretend like their coding or doing something meaningful rather than just being deluded that people actually give a shit about some random thought they have any time of the day.

....

tell me Ani.. what exactly do people use # for?

I've only ever used it when describing numbers (#1) etc.. in which case we never say "hash one" since it's more like No. 1.

The only time I've heard it is when telephone instructions tell me to "press the hash key, which is located underneath the NINE key on your phone".

[Splash!]

So people say "hashtag" when twitting to pretend like their coding or doing something meaningful rather than just being deluded that people actually give a shit about some random thought they have any time of the day.

The developers at Twitter decided to call it that. They use words starting with '#' in tweets to classify and group them, for ease of searching and browsing. Basically, the user tags certain words with the hash symbol in their tweet to point out which topics it is relevant to (or at least that is my understanding, I am not much of a twitter user). The concept of tagging has been there in blogs and forums long before Twitter. Twitter just decided to implement the feature using the hash sign.

You can't blame people for calling a functional feature in Twitter what it is supposed to be called. Sure, the word originally comes from HTML but it makes complete sense in this context too, given the tagging and the use of the hash symbol.

[Sapphire]

Why is something that's 5 dollars here also around 5 pounds in London?

Why isn't a sandwich some crazy number like .05 pounds or 128291812 pounds? It's pretty much the same numerical number as here.... W_W

Yes, I get that the actual values of the money are different, but why is the actual numerical NUMBER of the price pretty much the same? It's REALLY weird. Canada too. And Japan if you just take off two zeroes.

[darkshadow]

Because everything has different values in different economies, not just the money; the value of products is completely relative to the average amount any single person can spend, amongst things.

[Sapphire]

How does that answer my question?

Oh I think I get you. I get that. But why is it the same NUMBER? The same digit more or less?

[darkshadow]

That it is the exact same number is probably a coincidence, an indirect result of the different spending powers; if the market of your example is anything like the electronics market though, then $=€, or in this case $=£.

[Ryllharu]

Saph: Typically the disparity between European and American prices is due to the Value Added Taxes of the European countries.

[Sapphire]

I wasn't asking about the disparity... >_>

And is it really a coincidence..? I can't believe that.

[Kraco]

A big part of pricing is also played by the particular practical and psychological requirements of the vendor. Some small snack seller would likely stick to simple prices in order to avoid the need for massive amounts of change, whereas bigger sellers very often stick to nonsensical but apparently psychologically effective pricing like 4.99, which is exactly the same as 5 for all practical purposes as long as you don't buy at least a hundred pieces of the thing at once. This is also one reason, in addition to what DS and Ryll said, that drives prices directly incomparable between countries. Prices generated by currency conversion are rarely visible to customers, unless you buy directly from a foreign country and the site happens to do it that way.

[Buffalobiian]

She's doubting the reason behind the numbers matching more than anything here.