Importing From USA

[mic mac moe]

Does anyone know the trials and tribulations of buying from the States?I have seen a killer Jazz bass on bass central's website,but the last thing I bought came with a hefty Import duty bill! And it was only a pedal!!! The bass I have my eye on is second hand by the way.

[Thunderthumbs]

I've only bought something from the States once, and I was OK. Saying that, I think it depends on the vendor stating the value of the goods as to what you get whacked with duty wise.

[bumnote]

unless the item is fairly low value, and the seller uses normal post, you will get clobbered for customs and vat.
If it goes through usps, ups, fedex etc, they will pay the import duty, bill you, and add a handling charge.
You will pay roughly 22% of the cost and on the shipping cost. It doesnt make much difference if its second hand, you pay vat regardless, and there is a marginal difference in the customs duty.
You can try to get the seller to under declare, but the customs are not stupid, and you run the risk of loosing the bass. You will also be out because the shipping insurance will only cover the declared value.
Having said that i have bought probably 15 basses from the us, saved money on all of them, and never had a problem.
USPS is by far the cheapest shipping method, and you can reduce the cost even more if the neck is taken off to make a smaller parcel

[stingrayfan]

+ what he said.

Factor in 20% on the total of the bass AND the shipping and you'll get a realistic figure. If it's still a bargain after you've done the sums, go for it, as it's no more difficult that mail ordering in the UK. ParcelForce will send you a letter about the customs duty before you get the parcel.

[obbm]

Don't ask the seller to undervalue anything. It is illegal both in the USA and here. If you need to make an insurance claim you will lose out. If

The Epifani head that I won on US eBay was such a good deal that Customs asked to see a copy of the Paypal payment details so as to verify that the declared value was correct. They are allegedly not stupid although they did manage to lose 25 million bank account details.

[7string]

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='94307' date='Nov 25 2007, 09:46 PM']ParcelForce will send you a letter about the customs duty before you get the parcel.[/quote]

DHL and FedEx will deliver first, then send you a bill later so don't spend the money in the meantime !!

[Hamster]

Same advice as above. I've imported from the USA - no problems. Just add up the cost of the item and the shipping, add approx 22% to the total for various duties and that will be about the final cost.

Hamster

[Happy Jack]

Slightly off-the-wall thought but one worth considering. If you're buying something a bit special and second-hand, e.g. a 60's Jazz with original case which is going to cost you £2000, the postage to the UK will cost £60-£80 and the 22% duty on the whole lot is going to set you back >£450.

For that amount of money, you can get a return ticket to New York and pick up the bass in person. If you carry an old guitar case through Customs as part of your luggage, no one at Heathrow will bat an eyelid. Bin there, dun that. You'll save on the US postage, too!

If the old bass does NOT come with an old case, no worries. Take an old case to New York with you. That makes the return trip even easier, since you'll be able to prove that the case (and presumably the contents) were yours to start with.

[synaesthesia]

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='94398' date='Nov 26 2007, 08:46 AM']Slightly off-the-wall thought but one worth considering. If you're buying something a bit special and second-hand, e.g. a 60's Jazz with original case which is going to cost you £2000, the postage to the UK will cost £60-£80 and the 22% duty on the whole lot is going to set you back >£450.

For that amount of money, you can get a return ticket to New York and pick up the bass in person. If you carry an old guitar case through Customs as part of your luggage, no one at Heathrow will bat an eyelid. Bin there, dun that. You'll save on the US postage, too!

If the old bass does NOT come with an old case, no worries. Take an old case to New York with you. That makes the return trip even easier, since you'll be able to prove that the case (and presumably the contents) were yours to start with.[/quote]


That's do-able and have done that. You can also consider dismantling the instrument if it is a bolt on. It will fit in most suitcases. Stuff large instrument cases, you can always get one here if you really need one.

And this is also another way to save on shipping if you are buying from a source who is willing to help: get them to send the instrument via USPS dismantled. That way it comes as parts and will fit in the USPS regs for parcel sizes. I've done that with a 62 reissue MIJ telecaster and a bolt on neck bass.

[synaesthesia]

[quote name='7string' post='94339' date='Nov 25 2007, 11:35 PM']DHL and FedEx will deliver first, then send you a bill later so don't spend the money in the meantime !![/quote]


That's better than parcelforce though, they didn't inform me about a fretless moses neck I was waiting for that arrived, now it has gone back 'return to sender'. Parcelforce have on the whole been good but I have had 3 mishaps - the missing moses neck, they informed me but then lost a preamp that arrived and it took them weeks to locate it, further I had to pay to extra to extract it, and they wrecked a compressor I sent to Sweden (if you have seen the damage you'd be wondering). But I have also sent loads of stuff and recieved many many items without problems. Cest la Vie?

[Phaedrus]

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='94398' date='Nov 26 2007, 08:46 AM']Slightly off-the-wall thought but one worth considering. If you're buying something a bit special and second-hand, e.g. a 60's Jazz with original case which is going to cost you £2000, the postage to the UK will cost £60-£80 and the 22% duty on the whole lot is going to set you back >£450.

For that amount of money, you can get a return ticket to New York and pick up the bass in person. If you carry an old guitar case through Customs as part of your luggage, no one at Heathrow will bat an eyelid. Bin there, dun that. You'll save on the US postage, too!

If the old bass does NOT come with an old case, no worries. Take an old case to New York with you. That makes the return trip even easier, since you'll be able to prove that the case (and presumably the contents) were yours to start with.[/quote]


That's how I got my Tune TWB53FM - mate carried my empty old case to Vegas (he was on a trip there anyway - didn't go specially to buy anything), bought my bass, came back with new bass in old case. Nobody was interested, and even if they had looked - it's my old bass in great nick and I was visiting some friends to write some songs. Or whatever.

TWB53 in Ireland: €824 (€1100 at the time I bought it)

[url="http://waltons.ie/waltonsshop/product_info.php?cPath=60_62&products_id=10781"]http://waltons.ie/waltonsshop/product_info...oducts_id=10781[/url]

TWB53 in Vegas: $499 ($599 at the time I bought it)

[url="http://www.samash.com/catalog/showitem.asp?ItemID=32802"]http://www.samash.com/catalog/showitem.asp?ItemID=32802[/url]

I saved €500. I'd still save over €300 if I bought now [i][b]IF[/b][/i] I was going over anyway, or knew (& trusted) someone who was going over anyway.

Mark

[6stringbassist]

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='94398' date='Nov 26 2007, 08:46 AM']Slightly off-the-wall thought but one worth considering. If you're buying something a bit special and second-hand, e.g. a 60's Jazz with original case which is going to cost you £2000, the postage to the UK will cost £60-£80 and the 22% duty on the whole lot is going to set you back >£450.

For that amount of money, you can get a return ticket to New York and pick up the bass in person. If you carry an old guitar case through Customs as part of your luggage, no one at Heathrow will bat an eyelid. Bin there, dun that. You'll save on the US postage, too!

If the old bass does NOT come with an old case, no worries. Take an old case to New York with you. That makes the return trip even easier, since you'll be able to prove that the case (and presumably the contents) were yours to start with.[/quote]

I bought a bass back from New York earlier in the year, I flew airFrance from Birmingham via CDG Paris both ways, this was far cheaper than flying direct, and also meant that my return flight into Birmingham was from an EU country, I just walked straight out through customs with no hindrance at all, saving lots of money.

[hitmanhayes]

[quote name='6stringbassist' post='94721' date='Nov 26 2007, 07:31 PM']I bought a bass back from New York earlier in the year, I flew airFrance from Birmingham via CDG Paris both ways, this was far cheaper than flying direct, and also meant that my return flight into Birmingham was from an EU country, I just walked straight out through customs with no hindrance at all, saving lots of money.[/quote]


just wondering if you have to put the bass in the hold.
if so must be a long nervous flight!

[obbm]

[quote name='hitmanhayes' post='94820' date='Nov 26 2007, 10:23 PM']just wondering if you have to put the bass in the hold.
if so must be a long nervous flight![/quote]

I took an SR5 from Gatwick to Austin, Texas and back in a Hiscox case in the hold. No nerves, no problems.

[6stringbassist]

That's the only downside, just make sure that the instrument is in a proper case, and is insured.

Getting an instrument on a flight from the US is nigh on impossible, the hold is the only place, even then they'll want to see inside the case.
They even confiscated a can of deoderant from me at JFK, it was in my habd luggage. The guy took it out and held it at arms length as if it was something terrible..........I made the mistake of informing him that I thought he'd been watching too many James Bond films.

[synaesthesia]

[quote name='6stringbassist' post='94835' date='Nov 26 2007, 10:41 PM']They even confiscated a can of deoderant from me at JFK, it was in my habd luggage. The guy took it out and held it at arms length as if it was something terrible..........I made the mistake of informing him that I thought he'd been watching too many James Bond films.[/quote]


You cannot take an aerosol can on a flight. Even if it is a suede cleaner or deodorant, it's got nothing to do with the content, it is the aerosol package which can be explosive.

[mic mac moe]

Thanks a lot guys,I really do appreciate all of your advice.The bass in question is a USA Deluxe Jazz 5 in translucent blue at Bass Central.

[6stringbassist]

You can't really go wrong with them, they offered to go half with the shipping costs on my new fretless Q6 a couple of months ago.

[nig]

Ive used usps/parcelforce about 15 thimes and no issues, the factoring in of vat and clearance fees need to be remembered, but if you find a good deal in europe, due to the union it gets shipped to your door with no added fees and the euro is about 1.4 to the pound, sure isnt 2 dollars but you dont have to put in the 20% handling and vat figure,,good luck.

[Jimbov]

Hello Im new.

I recently bought a Epiphone Elitist EB3 from ebay and it was shipped from the usa. No problems at all, I was very happily surprised. It cost $900 but was declared at a lower value to keep tax down, so he declared $600. I paid £82 to parcelforce and all was good.

[aido43]

Can only speak of my experiences in Ireland--over here they are very quick to put on Customs and Excise charges with almost anything of any value from States---the bigger the size the more likelihood of being stopped. Imported a Sting 51 Precision reissue /replica from US some months ago---got an email from Customs saying they had it and wanted to know value or price I had paid--I provided copy emails with seller and fair enough they agreed price was ok and then charged excise etc--over here it equates to roughly 25% of price. Having said that the price diff/exchange rate is so good you cant lose even adding on 25%---and that goes even more for you guys in UK--sterling/GBP has never been stronger. Most shops such as Bass Centre in Florida will export and do a good job on packing- Id certainly buy again over there --prices in Dublin are outrageous for any decent bass.