IMPORTING PARTS TO UK FROM US

[rehan]

Hi, Im from the UK and have been wondering if it would be cheaper to import parts from the US to the UK to build a new rig.

Does anybody know any US websites that ship overseas?

What are the shipping prices like?

Do I have to pay some kind of tax?

How much cheaper does it work out?

I would really like to hear from any other fellow britons who have done this.

 

[benjamin]

Does anybody know any US websites that ship overseas?

What are the shipping prices like?

Do I have to pay some kind of tax?

How much cheaper does it work out?

I used Fry's (outpost.com), last year -- the dollar was low, and the pound high. I guess they probably still ship here. Shipping was $20US, IIRC. You generally have to pay 17.5% (Value added tax) -- with DHL they paid the tax, shipped to me, and I was sent an invoice by them. The lower limit for VAT is uh, £15 or so.

Generally only worth it with stupidly cheap deals (I resold some 1gb SODIMMs for a quick profit). Do remember that mail-in rebates are not valid for international orders.

What a boring first post.

 

[thecornflake]

I know this post is quite old, but at the risk of being accused of unecessary bumping I'd like to mention something. A while ago I bought Macromedia Dreamweaver from Macromedia's US store because it was a lot cheaper (yay for great exchange rates) and it arrived fine. But about two weeks later FedEx contacted me directly and said I owed around £50 import duty. This was not mentioned on the site (but then I should have usd the UK store I suppose) and I think it was mainly so high because it was classed as 'electronic media'. However, it is always worth checking about import charges when ordering into the UK from another country.

As the software is quite expensive anyway, I still saved more than if I had bought it in the UK, and I'm not sure what the duty is like on hardware. Sometimes you can get away with it if th eparcel is marked as a personal gift - a lot of people I know who import videogames from Japan do this.

Hope this helps.