Importing a X800XT.....I Hope

[chrisf6969]

i'll use my uncle, he was the one who got me my first half decent pc, although it was built in the UK. He helps me out. i checked the exchange rate online, and it said £202 odd yesterday nevermind, still its cheaper (i hope)

You're probably quoting canadian $ to £
The Canadian prices will be higher than $399 USD and $499 USD.

BTW, do you have to pay import taxes or whatever. Cant it be shipped as a "present" and not have to pay anything on it. Or lie about whats in the box? I would do it for some of you chaps. Though I would want a few bucks for boxing it up and taking the time to do it. Have no idea about the expense of shipping it, but I do have a UPS account at work.

But I would think it would be nearly the same price by the time you pay everything.

COSTS ---------(numbers rounded for ease)
X800 Pro $400 (Bestbuy with free shipping to me)
taxes? $35 (I assume they would charge me local tax rate 8.75%)
my fee $15
shipping $50 ( to UK - ESTIMATED ??? no idea)
--------------------------------------
TOTAL $500 USD = £280

Thats assuming the shipping cost would be $50 and you're not paying any VAT or import duties. BTW, if I just offered something illegal, I retract my offer.

[Stewart]

The problem is insurance. You'd have to mark it as a gift, and insure it for a low amount, as anything higher would get taxed. Now, if it goes tits up, all you can claim is that small insuared amount.

So its a bit risky. Unless I'm reading the UK site wrong.

[Stoo]

yup, any gift over £36 is also subject to VAT, insurance really isn't the problem, it's the fact that more and more parcels are being checked when they get into the UK.

If you're sending it personally you *could* well skip around it, and if you used something like DHL or something to ship it you'd probably be okay sending it undervalued for insurance, but you'd have zero recourse if it did go missing or got damaged, and there's always the possibility that you'd get knobbled for VAT if customs decided to check the parcel..

I doubt you'd have anthing to lose per se if you tried it, but it could end up costing nearly the same amount as if you bought it here, as long as you bare that in mind if you took the risk

Edit: Not sure if you'd get whacked for some sort of fine for circumventing the system, or were just made to pay the VAT etc if you were unlucky, might be worth looking into if you do decide to risk it..

[bertie]

Likelyhood of getting lumbered with customs charges regardless of "Gift" = HIGH
Unless you state its value as say $10
Even then these things are sometimes checked, but if it is a graphics card they may not have any idea its worth so you could get away with it.

[Stewart]

All in all, it seems a bit of a risky prospect. Ad as its little more than VAT evasion, you'd exepct it to be so.

I remember ordering some Playstation games from America, and they arrived at my house with a sticker on, which read 'This package has been opened and resealed by Customs'. They do seem to check a lot of the stuff coming through, not just the suitcases with 10k of coke in them.

[SilentDeath]

Well theres loads of new contries joining europe. Now Im just guessing here but lets assume they have very low chance of checking the stuff, becuase there new in europe etc..
Chances are also that noone here knows anyone from those contries.. (this becomes more difficult)
to get round that, lets imagine I take a short holiday to one of those contries, some how get a postal address, and then manage to recieve the stuff. THEN it can be brough back to the UK for free. now obviosly thats going to cost a LOT! so how do we get around that? well I certinaly wont be going to take a short holiday and stuff just to bring back one card, how about 1000? but then Im sure theres better stuff to professionally smuggle in...

[Skeps]

Just wait for your uncle to bring it over for you, the extra cash you will be saving could go towards more goodies for your pc

[ed^chigliak]

Now if your uncle would also like to bring with him a Canon Powershot Pro1 camera I have no problem making it worth his/your while. Now if he also brings a fujitsu fi-4530C A3 scanner the price differences (both items) means I could substantially contribute to the price of that graphics card you are wanting. How does £1 grab you for your X800XT graphics card? My savings would be >£1000's so we both win but it is kinda weird for your uncle to be traveling with a A3 sheet feed scanner.

Be aware that there are obvious problems with customer support, warranty and RMA procedures should the need arise and this is a risk you take. I had a palm PC brought over from the US that developed a fault in the 1st year but fortunately it's value was relatively low so I just disposed of it and purchased a newer model in the UK. Was annoying at the time but it goes to show it can and does go wrong sometimes. The big dilemma is that the higher the value of the items the higher the risk you take but the greater the savings.

I don't want to take the risk on this occassion but it could pay to import a couple extra items for profit. It's the idea that counts.

[MD]

If you use a courier, you can virtually guarantee you will be done for duties, they are so hot on this right now that its not even funny.

In terms of customs not knowing what it is an how much its worth, you see the bar code on the box of every item, well that and thier database tells them all they need to know,

Import it and you need to factor in 22.5% total additional costs as per point of sale in the USA.

i.e

$499 retail + Duties and taxes of $113 = total $612, converted on xe.com with todays rates equates to 342.899 GBP PLUS shipping, this can be around $40 insured. www.compusa.com are one of the few I know of who will actually ship intl.

m@

[Spud1]

theres always the chance tho that you wont get taxed... eg a few months ago i bought the Battle Royal2 mission boxset for $100USD, didnt get taxed a penny. It was sent via DHL, not marked as a gift and was insured to 100. Mebe i was jus lucky tho =)

[Speedo]

Am I missing something here? AFAIK the X800XT is not available anywhere yet, and may only just be out by the time your uncle comes over (if it is out by then), so what's the big rush? The best you can probably do is pre-order it..

[Stoo]

But it will be available in the US in quantity before it is here, even with shipping delays.
I guess the big rush is that he wants to be one of the first in the UK to have one?

No skin off my nose either way..

[Alkan]

My colleague will be visiting her dad in 3 weeks time. I am tempted in asking her to buy the card for me whilst she is out there.

Can she be stopped at customs (UK) and have to pay tax on the item ?

If there is a problem with the card will I be able to send it back to ATI (UK) or will i be stuck with it ?

Cheers

[XiXora]

take a cheap soundcard box or graphics card box over ( value udner 36 quid ) and slip the gfx card within that box

most likely that customs wont understand the difference anyway

[zixiazhang]

Is it me or has the x800 card prices gone uo by about £50 on microlandtechnology sure the x800pro was on 260...???

[MD]

Overclockers are taking pre-orderson the X800XT at £352.44, so not as much as was previously thought....IMO, worth holding out for over the x800 Pro, cos lets face it, if you are gonna do it, you are gonna do it

m@