Copacetic

Goto the Camtasia Store and get a quote for Camtasia studio, USD $299.00. (This is an electronic download price). Now select your country as Ireland, and get a new price in euros of  €259.50.

Now go to xe.com and get the current dollar/euro exchange rate. hey presto, the actual price in euros (if you do a straight conversion) is €201.22.

Now return and reselect your country as the US and let your credit card do the exchange instead. Even with VISA’s crappy rates you still save money on the Camtasia rip off.

Ok, I did it, against all my better judgement I went an registered PutPlace.ie today. What did it cost?

€54.45!

You are having a laugh? Shurely, shome mishtake?

For comparision:

PutPlace.tv : €28.07

PutPlace.co.uk: €14.07 (for two years!)

PutPlace.mobi: €14.02

PutPlace.us : €5.60

But lets look at a comparable sized nation like Belgium.

PutPlace.be : €12.27

The only other country with a pricing policy as cracked as the IEDR seems to be Denmark, where the domains cost upwards of €40 euro.

And for what? The spurious value of having a “valid” .ie domain. Unfortunately not a single person outside of the staff at the IEDR and the poor saps like me who register domains have any clue that a .ie domain is any more “valid” or “genuine” than any other domain you might register. So the whole effort is wasted except that it fills the IEDR coffers with cash.

I would love to hear from anybody who has chosen to pay or not pay for a service based on the fact that the domain had .ie at the end of it?

Update: looks like Blacknight may be adding to the heat here,  Stephen McCarron of Hosting365 comments,

1. Stephen McCarron Says:
   October 25th, 2007 at 3:55 pm eHey Joe,

   I think you went to the wrong shop - we charge just €25.95 per year (ex VAT).

   www.register365.com