Author Topic: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up  (Read 113585 times)

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Offline rx8pilot

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #125 on: February 09, 2016, 01:54:23 am »
Dave,

Please setup the contest to enter only the forum members with screen name 'rx8pilot'
That way, I can be sure that the instrument will get a solid daily workout!

Plus, this plan is simple and foolproof.
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Online Brumby

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #126 on: February 09, 2016, 01:58:35 am »
That's always the risk with a random draw. It is a high end scope (think $15K worth).

Sell it for $10K. Buyer will be happy and make use of it.
Use money to get 20 low end scopes to giveaway. Higher probability of having someone happy and more people happy.

I'd be happier to keep faith with Keysight - and offer entry level Keysight scopes, even if it meant a smaller chance of winning for me.

Keysight gear (once HP) has always been an unjustifiable aspiration for me and I would relish having a scope as a prize.  A $5K scope would be more than I need - but a $15K scope would blow my socks off!

Sad to say, there aren't many people around me that would appreciate either....

... but I sure as hell would!   ;D   ;D
 

Offline ECEdesign

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #127 on: February 09, 2016, 02:21:42 am »
I will be sure to at least enter the Keysight contest!  Hopefully I will qualify for the EEVBlog drawing...
 

Offline RobertoLG

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #128 on: February 09, 2016, 02:35:15 am »
well, I won't participate, but I want to wish everybody good luck!  :-+
 

Offline Keysight DanielBogdanoff

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #129 on: February 13, 2016, 12:19:37 am »
Randomly giving away a 15K scope is just a big marketing stunt.  It's not charity, and it's not about what the person is going to do with it.  It's like when Sparkfun gave away $200K of stuff in one day, $100 per person.  $200K in stuff was worth the exposure and getting people to make accounts and put things in their shopping cart.  The answer to how to run the 15K scope marketing stunt is whatever gives the most return on the expense. 
Based on that, I like the suggestion of forum users with 100+ legit posts.  That gives you more forum members and posts and at the same time converts the youtube lurkers into possible regular revenue generating forum posters.

If only more people knew what an oscilloscope was you could probably make more than $15K from views by saying how expensive it is and then smashing it, or lighting it on fire, or blending it in a chipper shredder or something in a youtube video like people do when new Apple stuff comes out.

I'm just going to leave this here.

 

Offline mtdoc

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #130 on: February 13, 2016, 12:44:59 am »
I'm just going to leave this here.

Awesome! I didn't realize Keysight scopes now have a grilling option. I want one! A temperature probe could be useful.  Is there a rotisserie option available as well?
 

Offline Muttley Snickers

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #131 on: February 13, 2016, 01:01:17 am »
For some of us an incorporated ECG and Defibrillator function might be a handy option to have onboard, if one of these scopes turned up on my doorstep I would probably be out for the count.
 

Offline ccs46

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #132 on: February 13, 2016, 07:17:08 am »
@ Keysight_DanielBogdanoff

Would you be able to find out why some countries, in my case particularly Australia are not on the list?
I guess it's a case by case basis.

Yes, each country is a case by case basis for reasons listed in my previous post.  We're taking a closer look at Australia to try to include it (no promises).
Why Florida though?
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Offline gildasd

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #133 on: February 13, 2016, 08:16:32 am »
If the "I want" thread route is chosen, please, please, find a way to limit to a single post per member to avoid hijack by the nutter brigade.
Make a rule of x posts and y time subscribed at the time of the contest opening.
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Online Brumby

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #134 on: February 13, 2016, 08:31:37 am »
I reckon there will be a lot of things Dave will be thinking about for this giveaway - and being hijacked will most probably be high on his list.

Not sure I'd want to be in Dave's shoes on this one.
 

Offline hamster_nz

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #135 on: February 13, 2016, 08:58:42 am »
I would vote for truly random, from any active member (e.g. anybody who posted 4x times in the last month). IMO anybody who "really needs" or could "fully use" a high end scope would rule out the majority of hobbyists members.

If it really is a giveaway, just email them all the qualifying members with a simple random question like"what is the voltage at point 'A' in this resistor network (+/- 5%) and leave it at that.

A word of caution to the eventual winner - I got my only scope (a lowend 100MHz jobbie) by helping somebody in the USA with a Kickstarter project. That US$350 scope it cost me around $200 in duty, clearance, GST and other charges. So if somebody in NZ won a US$10k scope, that would be up for at least NZ$2000 just in GST for getting it in the country - and I don't know about you, but I don't have that money around to spare.

If I had $2k spare to spend on hobby electronics I would use money like that to get something like a Rigol DS-1074Z, a simple function generator, a decent PSU (rather than my second hand 10+ year old DSE linear one), and a Saleae Logic Pro 8 and maybe a decent meter, and would get more value from it.

Humm, maybe then again I wouldn't - I'ld stick with what i have and buy a new hard-tail mountain bike. Got to get my priorities right  ;D


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Offline rch

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #136 on: February 13, 2016, 09:58:33 am »
I would expect that Keysight would take responsibility for any costs of importing the scope to their local office.  I don't know if any countries tax gifts in kind, as opposed to money prizes, but mine doesn't!
 

Online tautech

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #137 on: February 13, 2016, 07:37:01 pm »
I would expect that Keysight would take responsibility for any costs of importing the scope to their local office.  I don't know if any countries tax gifts in kind, as opposed to money prizes, but mine doesn't!
+1
Unless they do, it's not a prize they offer but a liability.  :wtf:
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Offline uncle_bob

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #138 on: February 13, 2016, 08:02:41 pm »
I would expect that Keysight would take responsibility for any costs of importing the scope to their local office.  I don't know if any countries tax gifts in kind, as opposed to money prizes, but mine doesn't!
+1
Unless they do, it's not a prize they offer but a liability.  :wtf:

Hi

In most countries / most contests, a prize is indeed a liability. You do owe various taxes on it. It is not in the least bit uncommon to see people turn around and sell their "free prize" brand new SUV when they see the tax bill associated with it.  Some contests have a "spending money" add on that comes with the prize. Oddly enough, if you look at the dollar amount, in many cases it's close to what the obvious taxes would cost you.

Bob


 

Offline 0xdeadbeef

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #139 on: February 13, 2016, 08:13:54 pm »
AFAIK, the term "gift" is is meaningless in European customs regulations for anything > 700€. Which means taxes depending on product category plus import sales tax.
So for 15k€ scope a European winner would have to pay at least the import sales tax, which is e.g. 19% in Germany (slightly higher/lower for other countries).
So this would be around 2850€. Which might be OK for people who really can make use of a 15k€ scope, but for a lot of people this will be a very bitter pill to swallow.
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Offline janoc

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #140 on: February 13, 2016, 08:34:58 pm »
AFAIK, the term "gift" is is meaningless in European customs regulations for anything > 700€. Which means taxes depending on product category plus import sales tax.
So for 15k€ scope a European winner would have to pay at least the import sales tax, which is e.g. 19% in Germany (slightly higher/lower for other countries).
So this would be around 2850€. Which might be OK for people who really can make use of a 15k€ scope, but for a lot of people this will be a very bitter pill to swallow.

In fact, most places don't recognize "gift" at all - basically if the goods declared value (or real one if the customs don't believe that that huge scope is just $10 ...) is above a certain limit, you have to pay both VAT and import duties. And those limits are often fairly arbitrary - even as low as 50 EUR!



 

Offline uncle_bob

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #141 on: February 13, 2016, 09:21:30 pm »
Hi

I have absolutely no idea what Keysight's policy is and I most certainly do not speak for them.

One thing I have seen in similar circumstances (I can't afford my prize) is a after the fact deal. Rather than the specific prize you won, you get the taxes paid and a true "free to you" prize of a lesser value. They keep a brand new piece of gear (that they can still sell as brand new). You get something that works fine for you and don't go broke.

I have *never* seen anybody talk about this in their rules. I have also never seen anybody commit to this sort of thing ahead of time. In the few cases that I actually know of it being a problem, (none with Keysight) it was worked out as I describe above. It was done quietly and after all the fancy photos were taken.

The only time I have been directly involved, we sold the $1200 gizmo for $800 and paid the (I suspect) $300 tax on the lower amount. I was pissed about it. I spent maybe an hour stuffing the drawing box with multiple entries. That's a lot of time writing for a ten year old kid ....

Bob
 

Offline RobertoLG

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #142 on: February 13, 2016, 09:50:02 pm »
here it would be about 60% in taxes, soooo no thank you...
 

Offline uncle_bob

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #143 on: February 13, 2016, 10:17:47 pm »
here it would be about 60% in taxes, soooo no thank you...

Hi

Where I live, it would be a lot more today than it was ... errr ... 50+ years ago ...

Bob
 

Offline RobertoLG

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #144 on: February 13, 2016, 10:30:03 pm »
here it would be about 60% in taxes, soooo no thank you...

Hi

Where I live, it would be a lot more today than it was ... errr ... 50+ years ago ...

Bob

yeah I know...it pretty much sux over here...
 

Offline NivagSwerdna

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #145 on: February 13, 2016, 10:48:30 pm »
FWIW I don't think the competition should be fair!

You should give the stuff away to the most deserving causes.   A person who already has 20 scopes and a room full of test gear doesn't deserve it, they have enough junk already...

I suggest that everybody gets 100 words to describe why they need it....

... now judging alot of entries is hard so you need some sort of social networking judging scheme...   

If you redistributed the entries amongst the peer group then they could award scores and then when you combine them all together... hey you have a winner.

 :)
 

Offline uncle_bob

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #146 on: February 13, 2016, 11:26:11 pm »
FWIW I don't think the competition should be fair!

You should give the stuff away to the most deserving causes.   A person who already has 20 scopes and a room full of test gear doesn't deserve it, they have enough junk already...

I suggest that everybody gets 100 words to describe why they need it....

... now judging alot of entries is hard so you need some sort of social networking judging scheme...   

If you redistributed the entries amongst the peer group then they could award scores and then when you combine them all together... hey you have a winner.

 :)

Hi

I applaud your well considered desire to reduce the judging scheme. One would *never* want to overwork the judges. I would only propose one or two *minor* adjustments  ... (as in hold on to your wallet ....).

Those who already have many scopes are (obviously  8)) the most experienced in their care and feeding. Rather than a messy public debate over who gets what (which would only lead to acrimony between members), simply send all the entries to me and I'll let you know who won  :) :)

I'm only thinking of making things easier of course.

Bob (soon to have "address unknown" as his forwarding address ...)
 

Offline rch

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #147 on: February 13, 2016, 11:40:36 pm »
Hi

I have absolutely no idea what Keysight's policy is and I most certainly do not speak for them.

One thing I have seen in similar circumstances (I can't afford my prize) is a after the fact deal. Rather than the specific prize you won, you get the taxes paid and a true "free to you" prize of a lesser value. They keep a brand new piece of gear (that they can still sell as brand new). You get something that works fine for you and don't go broke.

I have *never* seen anybody talk about this in their rules. I have also never seen anybody commit to this sort of thing ahead of time. In the few cases that I actually know of it being a problem, (none with Keysight) it was worked out as I describe above. It was done quietly and after all the fancy photos were taken.

The only time I have been directly involved, we sold the $1200 gizmo for $800 and paid the (I suspect) $300 tax on the lower amount. I was pissed about it. I spent maybe an hour stuffing the drawing box with multiple entries. That's a lot of time writing for a ten year old kid ....

Bob



I presume that the reason they keep it quiet is that if they didn't you would also be taxed on the money they pay you to pay the tax!


But, as I say, in the UK there is no tax on prizes or gifts, or indeed on lottery winnings.   There are taxes on some gambling, but I think they are mainly paid by the operators of the scheme.

So if Keysight copes with import duties and taxes (as they no doubt would if they were giving a prize here)   we would have no tax problems at all.  Not sure if that makes me a specially good candidate to win??
 

Offline 0xdeadbeef

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #148 on: February 14, 2016, 12:00:01 am »
But, as I say, in the UK there is no tax on prizes or gifts, or indeed on lottery winnings.   There are taxes on some gambling, but I think they are mainly paid by the operators of the scheme.
So if Keysight copes with import duties and taxes (as they no doubt would if they were giving a prize here)   we would have no tax problems at all.
Well, the UK still is a part of the European Union, isn't it  ;D ? So for sure European customs regulations apply.
We don't discuss here what happens if you get a gift inside your country but what happens when you receive a gift from outside the European union.
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Offline CatalinaWOW

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Re: BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up
« Reply #149 on: February 14, 2016, 12:08:26 am »
It is always amusing to watch how taxation distorts markets and prizes.  A couple of decades ago the company I was with was going through a reduction in market and had to sell off a lot of high end oscilloscopes, logic analyzers and the lot.  At auction they brought higher than new prices, sometimes 50% higher even though the same equipment was available new in the box from the vendor.  The reason was that the buyers lived in countries where the import duties on used equipment was much lower than on new equipment.  They could pay a premium on the new price for used equipment, take whatever chances there were due to use and lack of warranty, and still come out ahead of buying new.  I am sure that kind of activity was not what the lawmakers envisioned when they were passing these various tariffs.
 


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