Buying equipment from US online stores like amazon.com

[beviz]

Hello peeps
I'm on the lookout for a new midi keyboard and found some really good deals on Amazon.com.ATM I'm living in Ireland and I was just wondering if it's worth considering to buy stuff from US of A and getting it shipped to Europe?Is there anything in particular I should take into account,like export tax rate which would make the price much higher than it looks including the shipping rate? Is it actually worth to do it at all? Thanks for the advice.

[Bagle]

hows it going im from your neck of the woods, alot of amazon.com sellers might not ship internationally and to be honest yull get screwed on shippin and maybe even import tax, thomann.de or dv247.com are great
im shopped from both, no problems ever

[beviz]

thanks a mill bagle.i've got some family over there that might buy the stuff for me, we've checked the international post rates and the deal is not worth that much hassle anyway i've been buyin stuff from thomann for a while now and will definitely stick to them.

[leedsquietman]

amazon.com don't even ship to Canada.

They demand you use amazon.ca (which doesn't carry a lot of the items they do at amazon.com).

And then import duties are payable above a certain threshold, which is something like $50.

If family buy anything to send you, make sure they write 'GIFT' and put the value at NIL, if you don't want to pay import duties - if you're the type of person who hasn't any qualms about circumventing fees for customs and revenue, and I'm not encouraging this if any tax/customs peeps are watching

[beviz]

thanks leedsquietman!it's just as I said before, there's so much hassle with the whole thing that is just not worth the effort, unless...i'll defo take your advice into consideration though.

[vicz]

Its not too much hassle but don't expect to save a lot of cash, its OK for things that are hard to find though. Any of the big shippers UPS, Fedex, etc will handle the import paperwork. Unless the shipper lies and says the goods are a gift or worth under $50 or whatever (few still do this) you will have to pay VAT and EU import duty which varies depending on what the goods are. The shipper will either email you with the amount owed which you can pay with a credit card before they deliver, or will turn up on your doorstep demanding money before they hand over the item, either in cash or over the phone by credit card. Here's the rub, though, they will charge an 'admin fee' for doing this, usually €30- €50 or so, and this and postage wipes out most of any savings you make from buying from the US.

The only other thing to watch out for is power differences. If the item uses a wall wart these are usually easy enough to come by for most stuff but can be expensive if they use odd connectors - some Korg stuff for example.

[102455]

Buying from the US is fine for small, low cost, non mains powered items.

For example I bought my Olympus LS10 from the US because (at the time) it hadn't been
released in the UK. When it eventually did get released, it was priced higher than it
cost me from the US even with the shipping costs.

It's a shame about the import duties and the high shipping costs, because we do tend to get
seriously ripped off in the UK with pricing from some manufacturers.

Right now I'm wearing a T shirt that I ordered from a US site, and it cost me the same
(including the shipping) as just buying the shirt in the UK (not inc shipping).