Shipping from the US !!!!

[tobytyke]

Advice all, seen a potential project on the bay US, seller will ship dependant on buyers location & buyers preference. Hopefully he will ship to the UK

What would be the prefered choice for a complete bike, cost wise & would i later incur any import taxes.

Thanks in advance

Lee 

[brummie]

not sure on the postage toby but it will be pricey mate. you will get done this end as well i should imagine unless the seller values the item right down for you. if they send it as a gift at a low value you may get away without any duties

ask them if they are prepared to do this, some do but a lot dont   think customs roughly works out at around 30% of the value of the item on the postage label and you can get done the postage cost as well believe it of not as i have  

[daveb1004]

If you use UPS or similar I doubt you'll see much change from £100 for shipping. Those carriers are also hot on customs paperwork so they'll have on that as well. Best bet is find a friend with a FedEx or UPS account over here and bill all the charges to them 3rd party, it will be much cheaper that way if you're not an account holder.

[markyp]

you need to get them to bs about the item value and hope it dooesnt get lost in the post.juan from bmx addicts did this for me when i bought a frameset,he declared it at a value of £65 and i  only paid about £30 in tax,on the other hand i paid about £15 on just a set of decals

[tobytyke]

Appears like it could be costly, seems like there is a few bargains to be had over there though.

Hear all the time of people paying relatively cheap prices for getting frames etc shipped over, all-be it this being a complete bike.

On a different subject, the Mrs bought a Phil & Teds buggy from the US, was about £60ish to ship if i remember rightly which is quite an heavy item.

Bout a month or so later got an invoice for 40 odd quid from fed-ex   import tax

Still worked out cheaper than buying one over here though.

Is it really worth all the hassle of buying from over the pond... small items yeah.... but bikes what with all the charges  

[brummie]

you could have a word with 58delray ( andy ) mate, he has containers that get shipped across by boat. may take a while to get it but would work out a lot cheaper

just an idea if its summat you really want mate

[daveb1004]

A bike will always be dear as it takes up a fair be bit of space on the plane despite the light weight, it will charged by it's volumetric weight. Air freight is never cheap!!! Look at the boat option it will masses cheaper and you may slip it under customs radar 

[tobytyke]

Mmmm will confer with the Mrs  

I do have a frameset lined up but this i would just try & clean up & leave as a survivor ( hopefully )  

Will see if the guy gets back to me & what he quotes, as he says he will only charge what it actually costs.

Thanks all  

[moley]

USPS high value items might get through customs unchecked,  its 50/50.    The larger the box, the more likely to get checked!!

UPS any value item of whatever size will get pulled and you'd have to reclaim afterwards if overcharged (and you can prove it).    I've had them charge customs on items worth $20 and others marked as gift from Hong Kong and US of A.  They dont believe you.   You'll be charged and then you'll have to prove otherwise.    CNUTS!!!

Even if they charge you £1.   Customs will still stick a handling fee on top which is a minimum £10-15 (or whatever the exact price is).   

DONT USE UPS...................use USPS!!! 

[stuntmaster]

all i will say to that is use usps if not bother if goes missing . i had a few item`s go missing and never got a penny
ups if want the the item . best service you can get but yes you will pay custom tax  but i  rather pay tax than no item .
if buying from usa add postage and tax on top .sometimes it works out cheaper to wait untill you see what you want over here
 

[moley]

..............use usps if not bother if goes missing . i had a few item`s go missing and never got a penny

I have only had non-insured, non-tracked items and cheapest postage service go missing that have used USPS and those were really cheap items.   The seller sent replacements.

I prefer all of my items to be tracked and insurance upto $100 was free on some of the USPS international services.

It would probably work out cheaper to buy the USPS, Track and Insured better service than the equivalent UPS service.   UPS is quite expensive but you get what ya paid for.

The worst international service was from Canada which took 3 months to arrive...................probably by dinghy!! 

Ya make your choice and ya live with the consequences!!! 

Dont forget............unless EBAY has changed the rules...............you have only 45 days to start a claim for non-delivery.    Dont choose the slow boat to china delivery service!!