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Importing goods to UK
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theholyalex
Has anyone living in the UK had any experience with importing goods from the US to the UK? I'm planning to import a couple of CDJ200s from the US and am just trying to predict how much import duty I will be charged. Has anyone done this before who can remember roughly how much it added to the total price?

Cheers!
LiamPaddock
I ordered my DN-X1500 from america, i saved £200 of the UK retail price and if i remember correctly the customs charge was about £80.
Hope this helps
Thanks
theholyalex
What was the price you paid (minus the customs) for the item from the US?
Freak
Ive had great experiences- mainly because you save so much!!

If possible get them to send them:
- Seperately
-not in the original box
-all the factory packing material taken out of the box
-marked as half their value or even somthing like $10 or $50
-marked as 'broken'/'used'/'spares or repair'

They have a big book of values they use to calculate the import and vat- but its totally random! some get through, some get opened, some dont, and often they just go on the declared value on the package alone.

UPS and FEDEX are possibly the worst to use if you want to avoid import- higher chance of having to pay with them than any other carrier. USPS (united states postal service which then gets taken over as parcel farce 24 when it hits the uk) is probably your best and cheapest bet.

Ive only ever been raped once for a pair of $99 headphones- and i paid $35 for the shipping, and then got stung for £18 import/vat PLUS parcel farces 'handling fee' which was ANOTHER £7 :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :whip:

Had a vestax 19" mixer sent to me a month or so ago, and it was in a huuuge box, marked as 'vestax- $50' (nothing else) and it passed straight through with not even being opened- let alone charged!!!! if they had looked up the retail on it, I potentially could have been charged several hundred £ import on that!!!!!!!

Anyway- as a very rough rule, factor in %10 of value added to the declared value, then 17.5% of this new total added onto that and usually a few £ for mishandling fee. Thats worst case scenario- factor for that and you should be fine

Dont forget to buy some voltage transformers - about £6 each on ebay
theholyalex
Yeah, I'll ask the guy if he can declare them as low value.

Why should they be sent seperately? Would it still be worth shipping seperately if I shipping is cheaper if I ship them together? I'm getting them off ebay and the shiping is $70 for one or $118 for both.

And yeah, I'm sorted for transformers, thanks. They're included ;)
Ste
you get screwed if you declare the actual value of the parcel i think, due to amerca being naughty with trade susiduaries or something the EU charges a rediculous percentage import tax on goods from the US, something like 20-40% (cant rememeber, it's defos more than VAT). there are ways around it of course by saying it is a low value parcel...
theholyalex
The sender says she'll declare it as a gift, but declare the actual value on the customs form. And the shipping is USPS. Am I likely to get burned in this case do you think?
Cosmic Realm
am not sure if we sell them here in the states.... but i really want an Ecler Nuo5... and iv been looking at importing one... but im not sure about this voltage converter and that sort...
i meen i order a lot of records from the UK.. but i think electronics is a little differant :haha:
Ste
quote:
Originally posted by theholyalex
The sender says she'll declare it as a gift, but declare the actual value on the customs form. And the shipping is USPS. Am I likely to get burned in this case do you think?


im unsure of that, chances are you wont as big companies cant get away with exporting al ltheir products as a gift, so there is still enforcement on the tax that way i suppose which would mean they are less likely to do you over a gift from a friend...

ive never done anything like this before due to the unsurity (is that a word? :stongue: ) of it all, good luck anyway.
Freak
regardless of gift being on the package- if the full value is on it, then you probably will get stung. no way of knowing tho- its random.

Will still be cheaper in the long run tho.
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