Importing Hardware!!

[journeyman]

Just a quick post to inform you guys of a website I found which ships to the UK from USA.

good prices for BD/HD DVD players and you can pay by paypal.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

check it out

[TrevorS]

FWIW: I've purchased from those folks before and they seem to be a good reliable outfit.

[Osamede]

B&H is a top notch shop. They started as a well-reputed camera shop in the pre-internet days and in the internet age they quickly distinguished themselves from the million-and one NYC internet rip-off outfits.

That said, their prices do tend to be a notch higher than you can find in the US in general. On many things, though not all.

Unfortunately the vast majority of those cheaper ones are either ripoff outfits (quite often Brooklyn based retailers) or they are good ones like Newegg.com who refuse to ship outside the US without a painful process.

That said its not too hard to find seller here on on Ebay who for some reason think that selling items outside their own borders is impossible, even in an ege of online bank transfers and paypal - so I wont really rush to knock the American either.

But B&H is a good outfit and reliable for sure.

[TarPot]

Does anyone know if B&H are customs friendly?

[Avi]

Originally Posted by TarPot

Does anyone know if B&H are customs friendly?

The customs bit is usually managed by the shipping agent. The only thing B&H could do is falsify the invoice value and I don't imagine they will do this. Apart from anything else this would affect insurance if anything goes wrong.

AVI

[TarPot]

Thanks for that.
I agree they should down value it. But if they wrote used on the slip, it would save vat. At least I'm led to believe that's the case.

[Avi]

Originally Posted by TarPot

Thanks for that.
I agree they should down value it. But if they wrote used on the slip, it would save vat. At least I'm led to believe that's the case.

I don't think it makes any difference if it marked as used or a gift etc you still pay import duty/VAT if it's from outside the EU.

AVI

[TrevorS]

Originally Posted by TarPot

Thanks for that.
I agree they should down value it. But if they wrote used on the slip, it would save vat. At least I'm led to believe that's the case.

Like Avi said, it's the value that counts. The only way to lower the duties is to have a lesser value declared both for customs and insurance. It generally doesn't hurt to have the item described as used, however, if the customs agent happens to notice it's not -- then that could raise uncomfortable questions. Frankly, I wouldn't expect any normal retailer to be willing to falsify any of that information -- could bounce back on them.

[TarPot]

I did mean shouldn't down value it. I mistyped. Sorry.
I was under the impression that if it was a used item you only pay import tax, not vat. But I may be wrong.