Customs question..

2stripes · Mar 27, 2007

Sorry another inane question..last one for a while..

If I bought a figure for say Ã'Â£200 from America what would the customs charge be roughly when I went to pick it up? Is there a standard levy on anything over a certain price, ie would there not be much extra charge on a Ã'Â£200 item over a Ã'Â£100 item or does the charge go up pretty much consistent with the value of the item?

Theres a few figures I'd like to buy form Brians Toys but when you consider postage and potential customs charges I reckon its going to be almost 50% on top of the buy it now price. I asked for a declaration of low value or gift and as I suspected they politely told me to do one...
:roll:

weasel · Mar 27, 2007

I'm sure someone else can add details to the basics i'll give you but here goes anyway;

It's VAT you pay the value of the good, so by default the customs charge goes up with the value of the item I'm not sure what the threashold is but I think it's about Ã'Â£80, it could well be less.
Brians toys are normally ok about adding a lower value, but I guess it depends on who you get. I know CloudCity insure via a third party so they have no problem with lowering the value.

I might be tempted to email Brians toys again and ask, on the off chance you get someone else who is prepared to do it.

Hope that's of some use.

sith-smith · Mar 27, 2007

I've just had a parcel from cloud city come though with no customs charges. 8)

i'm dreading the one from Brian's toys. :twisted:

lee gray · Mar 27, 2007

sith-smith said:
I've just had a parcel from cloud city come though with no customs charges. 8)

i'm dreading the one from Brian's toys. :twisted:

Cloud city is good to use as I asked for 30 dollar gift to be wrote on parcel to avoid customs and they still had the item fully insured by a third party,
just like toygrader do now.

As for brian toys i always get stung if I buy from then and with their prices not exactly the cheapest and then the custom charges on top it really is a costly experience, but sometimes they are the only ones with the item you really want but when i purchased an afa 90 rotj light blue fett from them a couple of months back it cost me Ã'Â£500 pounds and i was stung Ã'Â£98.89 freight import and another Ã'Â£11 brokerage charge
As for them telling you to do one 2stripes, when I purchased my item I asked the usually 30 dollar gift and i got a reply the item will be fully insured grrr[/b]

jabbawokkie · Mar 27, 2007

sith-smith said:
I've just had a parcel from cloud city come though with no customs charges. 8)

that must have took ages to get here :shock:

sith-smith · Mar 27, 2007

Nope, no time at all, and was fully tracked.

They put $20 value on it. 8)

sith-smith · Mar 27, 2007

lee gray said:
sith-smith said:

I've just had a parcel from cloud city come though with no customs charges. 8)

i'm dreading the one from Brian's toys. :twisted:

Click to expand...

Cloud city is good to use as I asked for 30 dollar gift to be wrote on parcel to avoid customs and they still had the item fully insured by a third party,
just like toygrader do now.

As for brian toys i always get stung if I buy from then and with their prices not exactly the cheapest and then the custom charges on top it really is a costly experience, but sometimes they are the only ones with the item you really want but when i purchased an afa 90 rotj light blue fett from them a couple of months back it cost me Ã'Â£500 pounds and i was stung Ã'Â£98.89 freight import and another Ã'Â£11 brokerage charge
As for them telling you to do one 2stripes, when I purchased my item I asked the usually 30 dollar gift and i got a reply the item will be fully insured grrr[/b]

i've heard before that Brian's toys will not under value things. :twisted:

jabbawokkie · Mar 27, 2007

sith-smith said:
Nope, no time at all, and was fully tracked.

They put $20 value on it. 8)

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Lee Gregory · Mar 27, 2007

Just got a 20 back DS Commander from the States today.It was just under Ã'Â£100 in value and I got stung on the Parcel Force charge sheet to the value of Ã'Â£20(VAT).
So add about 20% to the purchase price.
Coud City are cool though for avoiding customs charges,and Gary is right it takes no longer to get here.

AndyG · Mar 27, 2007

2stripes said:
If I bought a figure for say Ã'Â£200 from America what would the customs charge be roughly when I went to pick it up?

Is there a standard levy on anything over a certain price, ie would there not be much extra charge on a Ã'Â£200 item over a Ã'Â£100 item or does the charge go up pretty much consistent with the value of the item?

The charge is a standard formula and it makes no difference on the value of the goods. I've never been able to work out the Parcelforce / Royal mail fee although Royal Mail will be charging a flat fee of Ã'Â£8 from 2nd April.

For a Ã'Â£200 figure with a cost of say $30 to ship from the US the bill from customs would be something like

Ã'Â£200 import duty + shipping Ã'Â£15 @ 5% = Ã'Â£10.75
VAT @17.5% on item Ã'Â£200 + shipping Ã'Â£15 + import duty Ã'Â£10.75 = Ã'Â£39.50
Royal Mail Fee = Ã'Â£8

Total bill payable to Royal mail = Ã'Â£58.25

Perhaps what some people are not aware of is that the cost of shipping and the import duty is also included on the VAT calc :shock:

sith-smith · Mar 27, 2007

I was glad.

Would probably have been well over Ã'Â£100!!!

2stripes · Mar 27, 2007

AndyG said:
2stripes said:

If I bought a figure for say Ã'Â£200 from America what would the customs charge be roughly when I went to pick it up?

Is there a standard levy on anything over a certain price, ie would there not be much extra charge on a Ã'Â£200 item over a Ã'Â£100 item or does the charge go up pretty much consistent with the value of the item?

Click to expand...

The charge is a standard formula and it makes no difference on the value of the goods. I've never been able to work out the Parcelforce / Royal mail fee although Royal Mail will be charging a flat fee of Ã'Â£8 from 2nd April.

For a Ã'Â£200 figure with a cost of say $30 to ship from the US the bill from customs would be something like

Ã'Â£200 import duty + shipping Ã'Â£15 @ 5% = Ã'Â£10.75
VAT @17.5% on item Ã'Â£200 + shipping Ã'Â£15 + import duty Ã'Â£10.75 = Ã'Â£39.50
Royal Mail Fee = Ã'Â£8

Total bill payable to Royal mail = Ã'Â£58.25

Perhaps what some people are not aware of is that the cost of shipping and the import duty is also included on the VAT calc :shock:

Thats a shocking fee to get landed with :shock:

Think I'll be giving Brian's toys a miss then... I'm keeping a note of the sellers that agreed to put low value for me.

TWOFOOT · Mar 27, 2007

I got charged Ã'Â£86 for a figure with a value of Ã'Â£450.
I was well pissed off as the seller said he was going to put a low value on it.

sith-smith · Mar 27, 2007

I think it's criminal. :evil:

sith-smith · Mar 27, 2007

I remember last year I bought something from Switzerland I think.
Ã'Â£450, plus Ã'Â£100 charge!!!!!!!

AndyG · Mar 27, 2007

sith-smith said:
I remember last year I bought something from Switzerland I think.
Ã'Â£450, plus Ã'Â£100 charge!!!!!!!

That must have been one ****ing big Toblerone :shock:

sith-smith · Mar 27, 2007

Still trying to finish it.

climbed one of the peaks and met the Von Trapp family!!!

craignwo4life · Mar 27, 2007

Virtually every time I have had to pay a customs fee it has been around Ã'Â£35 maximum so I've never understood why other people have had such high charges.

I have only had one item from Brians Toys which cost around $225 and that was a Ã'Â£30 customs charge but I never asked them to put a low value on it.

Cloud City are definitely the best US seller to buy from and much cheaper than Brians Toys.

AndyG · Mar 28, 2007

craignwo4life said:
Virtually every time I have had to pay a customs fee it has been around Ã'Â£35 maximum so I've never understood why other people have had such high charges.

The Ã'Â£30 is what you should be paying.........

$225 (item) = Ã'Â£114.5
$30 (shipping) = Ã'Â£15.30

Import duty @5% on Ã'Â£114.5 + Ã'Â£15.3 = Ã'Â£6.49

VAT @17.5% on Ã'Â£114.5 + Ã'Â£15.30 + Ã'Â£6.49 = Ã'Â£23.85

=Ã'Â£30ish You probably paid a fee (Ã'Â£3 - Ã'Â£8 ) as well but then the exchange rate may have been totaly different.

The higher fees people are paying are simply because the declared value on the customs form was more.

sith-smith · Apr 5, 2007

Posted this on RS, might be of use.

i've just received a large shipment of figures from the US and quite amazingly did not get a large customs bill.

Yesterday, when my item was getting ready to go tthough customs i was contacted by UPS. They wanted to know what exactly my item was. They were interested in knowing if the items were limited edition. I explained that they were (well technically no, but they are of limited availability so i figured that was close enough) They guy also asked if they were for my personal use and so i said I was a collector and they were for my personal collection and not for resale.

Once we'd had this discussion, he said that they could try to get them through UK customs on a greatly reduced rate.

Well, when they arrived the bill was a fraction of what I was expecting. Usually I've had bills round about 20-25% of the total.

This was on 5%

Still a pain i know, but a considerably smaller one.

Brian's Toys sent the items Via UPS 'expedited'

Customs question..

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