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Importing Pens Into The Uk From The Us - Any Experiences


Tom Traubert

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Hello all.

 

Does anyone in the UK have any experience of buying pens from the US on eBay?

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pilot-Namiki-Vanishing-Point-Fountain-Pen-Matte-Black-18k-Broad-Nib-/400591990230?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d4524add6

 

Put simply, am I likely to get stung for customs duty on this pen (or similar, not finalised colour choice yet), thereby rendering it less bargainiforous than it currently is?

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.

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In a word yes!

 

Anything over the value of £15 is pounced upon by HM Customs and Excise. You will have to pay VAT and then another fee to Royal Mail to bail it out of custody!!!!

 

Yes, personal expensive experience.

 

Plenty of past threads on this subject

 

I would urge you to save your pennies and purchase this VP from a UK dealer. My personal recommendation would be TWD, that's where I purchased mine and NO complaints.

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Hello all.

 

Does anyone in the UK have any experience of buying pens from the US on eBay?

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pilot-Namiki-Vanishing-Point-Fountain-Pen-Matte-Black-18k-Broad-Nib-/400591990230?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d4524add6

 

Put simply, am I likely to get stung for customs duty on this pen (or similar, not finalised colour choice yet), thereby rendering it less bargainiforous than it currently is?

 

You won't have to pay excise duty; customs duty is payable on goods with a value over £135; import VAT is payable on all goods with a value over £15. So your pen will attract VAT.

You will also need to pay the admin fee to the Royal Mail of £8. For parcels that are delivered via ParcelForce the admin fee is £12 I think.

Verba volant, scripta manent

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Thanks all. Maybe not as cheap as I thought then.

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.

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Look forward to paying an extra £25 or so in fees i'm afraid, unless you are lucky and it slips by unnoticed!

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I recently ordered several pens from the US, Japan, and India (I live in the Republic of Ireland, not the UK, but OK, close enough!) My experience was as follows: packages from India and Japan were never intercepted, while packages from the US were ALMOST always intercepted. There seemed to be no correlation between interception and value declared on the package (in fact the most expensive package was not intercepted).

 

So, my conclusion is that An Post does not have the resources to examine all packages, so it focuses on specific countries of origin and even then makes random inspections. I expect the situation with Royal Mail to be broadly similar. I doubt they have the resources to inspect every single package entering the UK.

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I've had a similar experience with my Namiki Falcon. It shipped to Belgium, but the tax rates are almost the same. I ended up paying €170 for my Falcon, the original price of the pen was 144 dollars (€105). Still better than the retail price over here (€190)

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I have only had 1 case when i have had to pay duty, and it made the whole execise a total waste of time.

 

I would be interested to know how UK sellers attending US Pen Shows deal with bringing their unsold stock back, is duty payable.

 

Preseumably duty is also paid on the return when you send a pen out to a US restorer ?

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It's been hit and miss for me. Sometimes packages slip through the net, sometimes not.

Never had to pay with items from Japan.

What has happened to me in the past is that I have not been informed that there were customs charges etc to pay, and the package has sat in the Royal Mail sorting office, and then been returned to the sender. :angry:

 

Streetfair is a good ebay seller. I've bought from them several times without problems.

Whatever is true,whatever is noble,whatever is right,whatever is pure,whatever is lovely,whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.

Philippians 4.8

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I have always got stung by the customs ransom. It's £8 to the Post Office & 20% of the value of the package including postage.

 

Regards,

 

Richard

Ditto and the last pen I bought it came to more than the original purchase price.

Dick D

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I've not had a problem so far but if these ridiculous charges apply to have something as lightweight as a pen delivered I most certainly would have. I pay enough tax as it is on everything. Even a pint of bitter is nigh on £4 in London now.

Tis highway robbery.

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I've not had a problem so far but if these ridiculous charges apply to have something as lightweight as a pen delivered I most certainly would have. I pay enough tax as it is on everything. Even a pint of bitter is nigh on £4 in London now.

Tis highway robbery.

You have to pay for NOT having it delivered.

The post office drop you a note saying they have your parcel.

You have to go to them, pay the VAT on the parcel and postage, then pay £8 to the post office for collecting the VAT, then you can take your parcel away.

It isn't even highway robbery, they invite you to their house then mug you.

Dick D

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Sounds like you Brits should get Robin out of Sherwood Forest again ....

Maybe I've been lucky so far, but I never had to pay taxes/fee's on any of the pens I had shipped from outside the EU ...

 

Cees | NL

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I have always got stung by the customs ransom. It's £8 to the Post Office & 20% of the value of the package including postage.

 

Regards,

 

Richard

It really bugs me that they charge on not just the value of the pen but also the postage. Legalised theft!!!

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Hi

 

I have bought from America for years, and it used to be that the vast majority of purchases arrived safe and sound without any duty being applied, which made the savings involved in buying from America quite worthwhile.

 

This last year I have seen a total reversal with just about everything getting duty and the £8 handling fee added and some of the time it's been on items that where clearly marked with a value below £15 which is the amount that is supposed to be let through without charge.

 

It's now got so bad that I have now stopped buying from America, unless it's something I desperately need and cannot get anywhere else or the price has to be really good, otherwise no more transatlantic purchases for me.

 

Paul

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overall it's pretty hit and miss but I do tend to get hit on American parcels a lot more. I recently got some tea valued at over £80 from Japan but nothing... ah the (il)logic. if it helps, certain times of year are worse as well. I find that the HMRC is a lot stricter around Christmastime (and I've even been taxed on items that cost less than £15 - infuriating).

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Ugh.

 

So far here, I have been very lucky, receiving in reverse. My apologies to the UK for being zapped on top of zappage. :(

Scribere est agere.

To write is to act.

___________________________

Danitrio Fellowship

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Thanks all. Maybe not as cheap as I thought then.

 

If you can get them to declare the item as an "Old Pen", chances are they won't even look twice ;) And technically, it's probably only a few dollars of rubber, so you could list the melted down price as what it's worth, unless it's like full on gold everywhere.

 

I actually got my Sheaffer Imperial IV that I love so much from the UK and the guy sending it had it marked down as that: "Old pen"

Do, or do not. There is no try - Master Yoda

 

Dude, can you turn those drums down? We can hear them in the next street! - That one annoying neighbour

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I work on the basis that it will end up costing me in gbp what I pay in $.

 

If tax is applied then in my experience what appears to a bargain usually isn't !

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