Personal importing from the US?

Well, I'm aiming to buy a SimAudio i-5 integrated amp in the new year (February to be precise when I have some extra money coming my way). Leaving aside s/h for now, it costs £2500 new in the UK. Costs $2500 new in the US. That old 1:1 exchange rate Now I was thinking that since the dollar is currently in the toilet and heading lower (real exchange rate to sterling is about 1.7 now ) maybe a personal import would start to be a huge saving.

Then I looked into it some more and found that it's not as obvious as it seems:

The basic cost: $2500 / 1.7 = £1470
Add UK VAT: 2500 * 1.175 = £1727
Add customs duty (estimating 4%): 1727 * 1.04 = £1796
Add shipping with DHL or similar, about £200: £1996
Add cost of local voltage conversion & extra shipping to and from the distributor here (Red Line in Scotland), about £300 all in and you're looking at a final cost of £2296 - call it £2300.

All that hassle for a £200 (less than 10% of the UK price) saving? Not for me thanks. I might well be able to get that kind of discount anyway. If only North American manufacturers made their kit multi-voltage That would certainly start to put things in favour of a personal import but also I'm always suspect of whether personal imports will have their warranties honoured by the local distributor. Something else to take into account.

All in all I'll be hoping to find a s/h or ex-dem i-5 when the time comes otherwise I'll just have to stump up for a new one Yes, I know that there's currently an ex-dem i-5 for £1800 at Audio Consultants in Reading but I really, really can't spend the money until February

Michael.

 

Michael,

You have brought out some very valid points there that do need to be taken into consideration when importing from the states,I'm hoping to bring in a conrad johnson pre-amp,new it was about 1900€uros,so i saw a mint one,which was cheap as you rightly state the dollar is so weak against the €uro,the unit will cost me 480 €uros,that includes shipping which was $75 again not to bad,hopefully the fellow will put happy christmas on it,so i get of lightly on imports,C-J said it would be around $65 for the V conversion,$400 phono stage,so eventually intotal I would be looking at 900€ which still works out far cheaper than the 1700€uros the dealer would let me have one for though.

 

Michael, try Euros .

 

It works out much the same.

I'm in the rather odd position of earning my salary in Sterling and living in a Euro country (Portugal) so even if the Euro was relatively stronger against the dollar than the pound (which I don't think it significantly is) I'd still be shafted since I start off with pounds.

I didn't add that the final nail in the coffin (for me) would be shipping from the UK to Portugal - another £150 at least.

Doing the whole thing straight to Portugal would be pretty much out of the question. Not only is it no advantage to me (see above) but:

a) VAT in Portugal is 19% instead of 17.5% so that's an extra cost
b) Import duty is a small fraction of the cost you actually have to pay to customs to get something imported. There are all sorts of trumped up extra charges involved :inferno: When I once imported a $56 CATV isolation transformer from the US I had to pay more than 60 Euros in various customs charges - more than doubling the cost :bub:
c) I don't know if the distributor in Portugal is setup to do voltage conversions. I'd more than likely have to send it to the UK (or even Canada) to get it done which kind of defeats the purpose.

Michael.

 

Michael,

I think you have to buy s/h in the states to make it worth your while.

With the current state of the market, I'd be surprised if Audio consultalts manage to sell it before February, so I think you have a pretty good chance of securing a deal on it!

Robbo

 

Can't you pay them a deposit to keep it for 2 months or work out some credit deal?

 

fly out for the weekend, and bring back as luggage
thats what I,m doing

 

Michael,

Your shipping costs seem excesive,£200 is too much,why do you want to use DHL etc,for 1-2 delievery,I used USPS the american postal service,Ive been qouted $75 to ship to Spain with about a week wait.Customs are customs I cant see there would be much difference between the UK and Portugal,tax is tax.

I was in contact with Conrad johnson over the conversion of the voltage,he qouted 64$ so I emailed him back and asked if the conversion needed parts, or that was the labour charge,and he said that was a labour charge and no parts are involved,so if you send you kit the manufactura they are always going to charge you more,so for a competent person,i dont think its a major problem.

 

The trouble with the Simaudio kit is that you need to change the transformers, so its going to be much more expensive. Obviously, if you can find kit which only needs a switch to be flicked then importing it is much more attractive proposition.

 

That's unfortunately not the case. Sure, you pay 19% VAT and roughly 4% import duty (those rates are the same for the whole of the EU) but in Portugal you have to pay a whole load of other charges.

The biggest of these is "importer fees". Everything that's imported from outside the EU has to go through someone called a "despachante" (literal translation: "dispatcher") - and they charge fees. That person actually does nothing at all but that's irrelevant. Then, on top of all taxes and fees you have to pay stamp duty and other things.

Trust me, importing from outside the EU to Portugal is usually so costly for a private individual so as to make it not worthwhile. Since the government lost a lot of customs revenues from joining the EU they have really tried to recoup it from outside EU deliveries so no package, no matter how small, coming in from outside the EU is checked and taxed as much as it can be.

Dev - I guess I probably could come to some arangement with Audio Consultants but I don't want to commit until I'm 100% certain I'll have the money. Also, something else may come up in the meantime

Ya-Boo - as it happens I'm going to New York for a week in January but bringing back an amp as luggage is not exactly convenient! You still have to pay the VAT and import duty aswell.

I suppose I don't have to use a courier service but with something of that value I wouldn't want to risk the regular postal service. I think £200 for courier from US to Europe for something as heavy as an amp is about the going rate. I was quoted £200 for shipping an MF NuVista amp just from Portugal to the UK by DHL!

Michael.