I get most of my discs from the USA and Canada, principally because they generally sound better and are also, often cheaper, even allowing for postage charges.
Today; I came unstuck with the postie demanding £7.78 in import duties and a clearance fee to those nice people at Consignia.
This was for an order of only two discs from CD NOW. Total value of discs $31.98
I've checked with those even nicer people at Customs and Excise and the limit is £18.00 in goods (postage charges don't count).
That means on today's exchange rates; your limits (on value of goods) are:-
25.83 US Dollars.
41.14 Canadian Dollars.
Don't get caught!
Posted on: 04 April 2002 by Peter Stockwell
J.N.
So far that has not happened to me, but you might consider using discoweb or amazon france You'll not have the problem of import Duty, and often the titles are imported from the US and cheaper than US prices. Discoweb has an english option, amazon france is in french, but once you've registered on one amazon site it's good for the others.
Peter
Posted on: 05 April 2002 by Michael
Thanks for the info on UK customs import limits...useful to know.
Look on the bright side and consider how many discs you have purchased from abroad..average out your duty on this consignment and you are still saving I would guess... plus you know that you are getting first rate sound quality from your discs...something you can't put a price on!
Happy listening.
Posted on: 05 April 2002 by Former member
J.N.
Thanks for letting us know the limit. I thought it would be much higher. I've ordered a lot of stuff from Absound.ca. The last delivery was the first one to be stamped for duty and charges. They must be cracking down.
The only good point was that the postman didn't bother asking for the money. 
There was about £20 owed. No surprise that Consignia are losing money.
Matt
Posted on: 05 April 2002 by Not For Me
It's odd - sometimes I get caught for the £5 - £7 bill, but only about 1 out of 4 orders ?
I usually get 2 CDs at a time, as the most economic way of getting US imports in England.
My last delivery of Sunn 0))) and the Thrones from CDNOW was graciously tax free.
I never seem to pay tax on vinyl though - even if the order is £50 + Last three have been from Canande, Denmark and Germany. Obviously Consignia are closet vinyl fans.
DS
Posted on: 06 April 2002 by Former member
6 orders in and they haven't yet collared any of mine from
www.smokecds.com out of New Zealand. I usually order 5-7 at a time and land them in the UK including airmail for about £7.20 each. Next order is for 30+ being packaged in 5's and saving myself around £200 next to Amazon's price
www.cdwow.com while having a very MOR collection send each one individually at £8.99 inc P&P from Hong Kong and usually get here within 3-4 days.
Enjoying the sunshine and the music...
Ben
Posted on: 06 April 2002 by Former member
6 orders in and they haven't yet collared any of mine from
www.smokecds.com out of New Zealand. I usually order 5-7 at a time and land them in the UK including airmail for about £7.20 each. Next order is for 30+ being packaged in 5's and saving myself around £200 next to Amazon's price
www.cdwow.com while having a very MOR collection send each one individually at £8.99 inc P&P from Hong Kong and usually get here within 3-4 days.
Enjoying the sunshine and the music...
Ben
Posted on: 06 April 2002 by Thomas K
David,
quote:
I never seem to pay tax on vinyl though - even if the order is £50 + Last three have been from Canande, Denmark and Germany. Obviously Consignia are closet vinyl fans.
Don't know about "Canande" ;-), but if goods are coming from within the EU there's no such thing as import duty.
To get North American CDs, I order from A&B Sound in Canada and have them send the order to my brother, who lives in Montreal. He then sends them on to me as a "gift" (no import duty). Apparently the Canadian postal services have recently raised their prices (?), but so far this procedure was always cheaper than having A&B send the stuff directly to me in Germany.
Thomas
Posted on: 07 April 2002 by David Sutton
Hi Folks,
I am sorry to hear of all these difficulties. However, please spare a thought for all us poor folk in Expatria. Companies like CD-Wow will no longer send us their products because there are too many problems with our postal services. That is to say, once the packages arrive in country, there can be no counting on them getting any further.
So keep smiling, its not so bad really!
Pip Pip
David
Posted on: 08 April 2002 by J.N.
Kinda puts things into perspective.
What a lot of pampered pooches we are, and we still find something to moan about.
Chance to give good old G.B. a bit of support. Can't honestly say there's anywhere else in the world I'd want to live; full time.
USA petrol prices would be nice though!
