anyone ever voluntarily paid the 16% duty tax?
- Thread starter eab
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Mike
Contributor
Your observations are correct, Mexico is primarily a 'bargain' destination for a lot of US tourists, it's safe to venture that a large majority of vacationers going to Mexico are doing it on a budget. When you combine scuba divers who are notoriously shall we say 'frugal'? and Mexico, you've certainly got a budget sensitive group on your hands. Mexico has pretty much always marketed itself to Americans for two things, being affordable and closeby.
njones259
Contributor
I dive with Opal's Dream but own an embroidery and screen printing business so give shirts to the shop and their family and friends. I also do shirts for Gabi the divemaster who was in the accident a few years ago and help support Freedom Divers.
Oh yea, I heard about Gabi's t-shirt business. That is very cool you help out.
John Larsen
Contributor
njones259
Contributor
Gabi makes the tee's for the dive shop and get's the profits.He and Chris Wright and some other individuals are also working with Freedom Divers to get a chapter going in Cozumel.
I have been meaning to buy some Gabi shirts....
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Mike
Contributor
very awesome
perhaps if you sidestep the duty when travelling, search out cheap meals and accommodations, you too could have a boat like that
Yeah maybe... in 50 years from now
Since boats are "holes in the water you pour money into" I figure they are like Ferraris - if you have to ask how much they cost...Anyway, I am just commenting on the way Cozumel specifically seems to attract threads about saving what are generally relatively insignificant amounts of money. Everyone has their dive addiction, mine is the Philippines. I was recently 'criticized' by a friend who lives there for buying a guitar off a street vendor and not haggling enough. It's not that I don't value my own money, but I got a guitar, he got to feed his family, everybody's happy. Seems to me it's more of a 'tourist doesn't want to feel like he's being taken advantage of' scenario (for the Cozumites) maybe. I say live and let live, even someone getting minimum wage in the US is a lot better off than the average >insert third world country here< native.
CVChief, you shouldn't leave Vietnam off your list - sure the diving there is not so hot but it's a beautiful country
Yeah maybe... in 50 years from now
Anyway, I am just commenting on the way Cozumel specifically seems to attract threads about saving what are generally relatively insignificant amounts of money. Everyone has their dive addiction, mine is the Philippines. I was recently 'criticized' by a friend who lives there for buying a guitar off a street vendor and not haggling enough. It's not that I don't value my own money, but I got a guitar, he got to feed his family, everybody's happy. Seems to me it's more of a 'tourist doesn't want to feel like he's being taken advantage of' scenario (for the Cozumites) maybe. I say live and let live, even someone getting minimum wage in the US is a lot better off than the average >insert third world country here< native.
CVChief, you shouldn't leave Vietnam off your list - sure the diving there is not so hot but it's a beautiful country
About that guitar, you are saying you haggled though? So you do in fact subscribe to the maxim of trying to get a better deal and strike a fair price?
It sort of reminds of the oft told story of the man in conversation with the attractive socialite. He asks her if she would become his lover for a million dollars. She say of course she would. So the man says would you do it for five dollars? The woman recoils in horror and ask, "What kind of woman do you think I am?" To which he replies, "We have established what kind of woman you are, now we are haggling over price."
I think it is a little much to pop in here and suggest that Cozaholics area bunch of tight wads abusing locals and then tell us you wouldn't pay what a street vendor asked but because your friend said you paid too much you are a better person. That is is going deep in the weeds.
Do you think you were going to talk that street vendor in to selling that guitar at a loss? Maybe that guy had a big family and your little bit of haggling cost his youngest, Tiny Tim, a second helping of gruel?
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