Cheap as ... :) AR7000 RX.

[Firedancer]

For anyone interested I bought 4 AR7000 Rx for my Spektrum DX7. Cost me $70 a piece or £35 a pop. Arrived in 4 days. No VAT and No Duty from the USA.
Anyone wanting details of where I got them .... off a flea bay shop. he has 99 of them ! I can get you the details if you want.

Seen them online in UK for £62-£70

[LipolyGone]

You were lucky not to pay import duty from the states.
The rx in question can be bought from inwoods for £59
Not sure what the tax man would have added if it had been stung for tax maybe someone on the forum knows what tax would be payable on £35 plus £7 postage because its all taxable.
Does seem a good deal but the chance of getting caught puts me off importing stuff.
Martin

[Rab]

As long as the sender in the states marks the package as gift you pay no tax of any sort

[LipolyGone]

Not strictly true because if customs suspect this not to be the case they can inforce duty on it.
This doesnt matter in this case becasue the ebay seller in the states refuses to mark the item as a gift or declare a lower value on the package. You are responsible as the purchaser for duty on the item if the value is declared lower than it is you will be in deep doo doo if you get caught.
Martin

[Tim Procter]

There is plenty of overseas sellers marking packaging as "Gifts"

Never been stung yet.

[Thomas]

As long as the sender in the states marks the package as gift you pay no tax of any sort

No strictly true as it still has a value that should be declared on the parcel, I've ordered stuff from the US and had both gift and warantee return put on the box and been stung, as many in customs were not born yesterday and with the internet and eBay there is a huge amount of duty to be made from stuff coming in and they know it. Another way is to put a low value in the parcel as anything under $50US will not be taxed but you take the risk of loosing out if your goods get lost.

The import duty is not too bad, it's the hefty lump that ParcelForce bung on that annoys me.

[SRH990]

It doesn't matter if its a gift, there's still the same value allowed before duty is charged. I've found that customs are much keener to collect duty & VAT on goods from the US than the Far East and getting stung £14 by Parcelforce for collecting the charges can make it very uneconomical - then again most times you get away with it

[Rodsport999]

I regularly import items from Yapan and the States, only got hit with the customs once on a parcel containing £350 worth of goods, the customs charged me £9 tax and the £14 Parcel Force 'charge' which I paid with a big fat smile on my face!!

If you are ordering a small amount of goods then you may end up forking out the same, otherwise you win win win.

Anyone worried about importing are more than welcome to PM me and I will give you details of the companies I use, delivery times etc.

P.S I have actually received goods from Taiwan faster than items ordered from England, says it all about 'some' suppliers from England.

Please Note 'Some' not 'All', PM me for further details...

[Thomas]

It is NOT cheaper to import, trust me.

If I need stuff I email Andy at RR and get the bits I NEED next day and pay for the bits I wanted. Now if you import, not only is there shipping and charges to worry about but you always end up ordering a load of crap you didn't need or want just to make it worthwhile as it has to come from such a long way away, I have 3 trex 450 cases stuffed with spares and electronics I don't need but they were cheap.

[Rodsport999]

"It is NOT cheaper to import, trust me."

Ok then, not imported, say for example a O.S91szh for only £160 instead of £240. My delivery charge from Taiwan is usually $21, approx £10, just done a UK price check same deal came to £245 delivered.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on importing but I will be more than willing to assist anyone interested in paying far less for parts. I do still use UK companies for many items but better deals are available from abroad.

BTW Can't fault Andy at RR, 100% service everytime I have used them, Cannot glorify him enough!!

[Thomas]

Blimey, I was taking the **** - what was trying to say was when I buy from the UK I buy what I need, when I import I tent to buy stuff cos it's cheap which in the long run cost more.

Anyone can see a Trex 450 V2 for 200 quid in Taiwan and over £300 here and even with shipping and duty it's cheaper, most stuff is half price but remember we are also enjoying a really crap $US too which helps.

[Rick Rotorhead]

The import duty is not the same as our regular VAT, for me it worked out about 20%. The Parcelforce payment is not (according to Parcelforce) their admin fee, but actualy the Customs and Excise's Administration Fee for bothering to investigate your parcel and working out the duty. It is steep. Approx £13 added to the duty and as has been said they include carriage fees in the taxable amout (how that can be justified god only knows since the carrige is paid to the overseas vendor for their service and is not an intrinsic part of the good's value - the damn courts should sort it out and not allow such blatant 'improper' charging practices).

Having said all that, values under 18 bucks (or 35 bucks for gifts) are not charged duty anyways. So, small parts can be economically purchased form Uncle Sam. I recently bough Gorilla Gear struts for my T450. Two pair cost 37 bucks - about 18 Quid and postage was about 3 Quid or so. No duty paid.

Note also that Parcel Farce AUTOMATICALLY DECLARE ALL GOODS - it s not intheir intrest to hoodwink Mr Taxman, and being a Company they don't care about YOU, they just pass any charges on. So, in short, ALL packages go through customs, its just a question of which ones they decide to pick upon or 'inspect'. Obviously a huge box weighing 20Lb is gonna be looked at if its says 'Value 10 bucks' cos thets such obvious nonsence. I use my LHS for parts where postage would add to the cost too much and for anything I might want to return under warrenty (cos its easier to bang the table in person than over the phone to a foreign party).
Importing works for me........

[Rodsport999]

Sorry Thomas, I couldn't tell if you were for or against to be honest!

I do agree with you on the ordering stuff you didn't actually WANT though, but then again, I have never ordered stuff I haven't actually used!

Importing can be a tricky little obstacle but I do believe once you have found a reputable supplier then a couple of extra days wait is well worth the wait.

I agree with both Rick and Thomas about the Parcel Force charge. It is an admin fee that thankfully I have only been hit with once out of maybe 35 orders. Pee'd me off a bit but like I said, when the box contained £350 worth of goods I was still a very happy man.

[LipolyGone]

Always been to nervous of ordering big from abroad.
I have just bought a dx7 & to be honest the price for the AR7000 is very tempting. If I purchased 4 from him what is the wrost case scenario for me in import duty & charges?
Is it worth me buying 6 over 4?
Martin

[Bubblefish777]

Ok guys...
Here's an offer for you.
I'm off to Canada at XMAS.
Anyone who wants AR7000 tell me how many and I'll bring them back. I take PAYPAL by the way. I'll sell them to you at COST plus Post and Packing.

If I get silly orders then I'll buy what I can and allocate them in a ratio to the number you would have liked.

Tell me how many you want and I'll stump the cash up and you can reimburse me when i come back. DON'T tell me you want 100 and think 'cool...i'll have 4 and sell the rest at the club or on fleabay' cause I'll bounce your request. This is a friendly no profit order for fellow rcheliadicts. Play the game. I def do not want to be carting loads back. In fact the max I want to end up with is 20-30. PM me.