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no doubt a seller is going to try to maximize his income indeed he will do so til the market competitive pressure (ie. the customers willingness to find cheaper options) is met. This is the basic principle of modern economics. But you have to remember that the business owner is taking a risk to supply the market with the product that may not sell. this risk is represented by the level of markup that go beyond costs and is constrained by the competitive pressures of the market. If the risk is high the mark up will be higher also even in a highly competative market, if it is low the price will be lower. In the case of Australia the market depth isn't there so monopoly structures develop in which only a few company's compete for customers and in this instance prices rise particularly if there are obstructions to outside sources of competition (and lets face it oversea shipping and losing warranty periods are major hindrance to outside/international compitition still). Admititly recently the price point of outside goods has fallen to levels were the risk to consumers are now outweighed by savings we are seeing more oversea/internet shopping.
In summation three things drive higher prices here.
1. its risker for the business selling because of our smaller market size, therefore they need greater returns to justify the risk.
2. until recently outside competition was to complicated for most Australians to access
3. we only have ourselves to blame for not being more demanding in getting better prices (talking about all Australians generally) since in most other countries ticket prices are rarely paid and act more as a starting point for negotiation. IE. we don't even bother to look for better prices in the first place.
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