Hi Anyone bought from eBay USA? What were delivery costs like and did anything get stopped at customs and taxes need paying? Cheers
Delivery costs will differ from seller to seller and yes very good chance what you buy will get stopped by customs. There is a website called Google that has a wealth of info on such subjects
I've had plenty of stuff from the USA. It's been about 50/50 for customs , lots of sellers will mark it as a gift so you don't pay import duty. In fact got a new front sprocket for the KTM supermoto today delivered from the US, shame the engine blew up last week haha
i meant i liked ya sense of humor about it not ya bike blowing up.. Got lots of stuff from the states and it is 50/50 i paid £5.00 tax and £12.00 handling charge on a £30..00 item not so long ago...
As a general rule anything shipped via USPS is going to get charges added, as the forwarding agent this end is the post office / Parcel Farce, any tax due even 10p will incur an automatic £12 handling charge and they will not deliver it until you pay their ransom All other couriers UPS, Fed Ex etc. will deliver and then send you a bill for the duty owed, while more expensive to start with you have a much better chance of it getting through without fee's being added Getting the sender to mark as a gift or declare minimal value on the export papers will significantly reduce (not 100%) the chance of duties this end, however this is a criminal offence in the US and for that reason most firms will not do it The risk is that your $500 of kit goes missing, if it was declared as $10 on the paperwork to avoid duty then that's all you are going to get from any claim Don't forget duty & VAT is calculated on the total cost ie item cost + shipping cost + insurance cost, so your $30 item might be exempt but add the the other 2 costs and it now becomes taxable
the most annoying thing about all of this is that breakers in the USA are so much more industrious and willing to rip engines apart to their bare components, whereas in this country trying to find anyone who will break stuff at a reasonable price is like trying to find rocking horse shit. The most difficult thing anyone faces as Kato says is persuading the seller to list it as a gift, otherwise , parceljoke will sting you for a big fat lump of free money. I had the situation whereby I ordered a used spare for 55usd, and with the postage the total combined cost in gbp was £90. I ended up paying parceljoke 22 pounds for the privilege of handing it over. However, the other thing I've found with stuff from the US is their tendancy for unique naming or model suffix convention which just ignores the rest of the world for no other reason than : because america! - so check and double check. annoying really as parts vendors in the US are a pleasure to deal with.
Yup, been there done that. I ended up paying nearly 50 quid for a friggin t-shirt. And it was too big, doh...
From what I know, which isn't much, I'd say yes to EU. Buying from USA is a taxation minefield. For me anyway. I'm off to San Diego in Feb and I'm buying a watch while I'm there as I can save 22% from list price here (UK).
I'm surprised. The size of my wife's handbag, if she removed all the pens, makeup, books, diary, tissues, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc ,etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc , I would expect her to fit a full titanium Akropovic system in and still have space for a 6 year old packet of mints.
its just finding what you want - EU you won't pay tax, but USA, you'll probably find what you want! Royalwithcream has the right idea, just get yourself over on a long weekend and just have stuff delivered to your hotel. If you know any glorified bus drivers-(airline pilots) even better!
um, not sure that would be wise. My idea of a flying up to Edinburgh for a romantic weekend and then me riding a 916 back that I had seen for sale was met with a very frosty reception. A second honeymoon to New York for me to return with a set of pipes stuffed in the suitcase would not result in matrimonial bliss. There would be a lot of tapping of the toes, pursing of the lips and crossing of the arms. Or heaven forbid, a "fine".
Additional thought, when a woman says "fine", does she mean "you are going to be fined (will have to pay) for this"?
