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Greetings from Scotland :)
https://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=3334		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Guest [ 17 Oct 2013, 22:30 ]
Post subject:  Greetings from Scotland :)
Hey all.

I'm from Scotland, UK and new to the forum. I'm also new to collecting LDs, despite having watched them back in the 90's with friends who were LD owners at the time. I've started collecting some of my fave movies from the 80's and it's great to find a forum that's dedicated entirely to Laser Discs!

One thing I'd like to ask to any UK forum users is, roughly how much do Customs charge when we buy discs from the States and Japan?
I'm a regular importer of boxed Japanese video games (and sometimes get stung by customs, sometimes paying more than what I paid for the item!) but I'm worried about how much we get charged, here in the UK. So far, I have been sourcing laser discs locally but I'd love to start importing, but unsure of how we'd get charge when it reaches the UK?

Anyway, thanks folks!
...I'm off to browse the threads now.

Stu.
Author:  ffutures [ 17 Oct 2013, 23:33 ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from Scotland :)
I'm UK based but unfortunately I've never bought laserdiscs from outside the UK.

The general rule of thumb is that there's no tax charged on anything imported from the EU, or on things under £18 including postage from the rest of the world. Over £18 you are supposed to pay VAT. The snag is that there's also a handling charge which I think is about £8, unless you arrange to collect it directly from a customs depot which is almost impossible to arrange.

Hope this helps.
Author:  rein-o [ 18 Oct 2013, 04:17 ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from Scotland :)
greetings :D

as for your question, won't they charge you the percentage of the value on the customs form??
i know it will all depend on who is working that day and where it's comming from.
also they are used, the games you get are new? so they know what vat to charge you.
others here on the forum should help answer this one better.

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Author:  benmbe [ 18 Oct 2013, 06:42 ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from Scotland :)
Good morning sfcguy,

Welcome to the forum Friend,

I live in the UK and have imported around 200 Laserdisc's from Japan spanning over 5 years.
70% of the time I have been stung by customs charges averaging between £28 to £45 and that was before the VAT went up.

I used to call customs and complain.

This is a long story so I won't bore you with the details.

I have also imported Laserdisc hardware ''a new & boxed CLD-97'' from the US, and was again Stung £332 from customs.
The above hardware purchase was made and received around late March 2008.

I currently have around 25 LD titles that are reserved with a seller in Japan, so I dredd how much this will cost.
The 25 titles will be split up into three shipments mostly because of weight and cost.

Kind Regards to you.

:thumbup: :D

P.S. Shall look forward to reading from you at some stage.
Author:  hippiedalek [ 18 Oct 2013, 09:57 ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from Scotland :)
Welcome to the forum. I use to be based up in Central Scotland myself, nowadays I live down in North Yorkshire. Usually when I buy LDs from outside the UK I buy a few at a time from the same seller to justify the cost of the postage. Most of the time these arrive with no problem but whenever I have had to pay customs charges it always seems to come to around £12. I imagine it will vary though depending on what you're having imported.

Once again, welcome to the forum!
Author:  ffutures [ 20 Oct 2013, 14:20 ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from Scotland :)
Apologies - I just checked the customs web site on this, it appears that the threshold for items purchased from outside Europe is now £15, not £18. The Royal Mail handling charge is still £8. I think I may have been confused because the threshold for the Channel Islands used to be slightly higher, and I bought a lot of DVDs from suppliers there.

So if you buy something that totals £14.99 including postage there should be no tax or handling charge, but if the total is £15.00 you'd have to pay £3.00 VAT and an £8 handling charge, taking the total to £26

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/custo ... ms/postal/
Author:  Guest [ 21 Oct 2013, 13:14 ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from Scotland :)
Thanks for the replies, folks :)

'ffutures', that's perfect, thank you for the info. I've been hit with VAT from Japan that's totaled £30 in the past (I collect vintage Japanese games, not new stuff) so I think I'll try and source from the EU to begin with and see how I get on. It will make a nice change from sourcing everything from Japan!

See you all in the forums.

Stu.
Author:  benmbe [ 21 Oct 2013, 13:38 ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from Scotland :)
Good afternoon sfcguy,

Your welcome sir

Just to let you know that there are a number of us collectors here, that pay more than average in order to receive their collectors items.

I have just received the latest Blu-Ray from the US at $45.56
Yes this is expensive but the US Product ''I feel from experience'' is better, so I don't mind paying.

As I have mentioned in another thread: The US software is packaged better and more collectible, has an extra disc, doesn't have all of the extra languages that we in the UK have to put up with all of the EU languages and warnings, the transfer is better ect.....

The £30 that you were charged by customs with, how many disc's or titles was this for?

I shall look forward to reading from you at some stage.

Kind Regards

:D :thumbup:

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Author:  Guest [ 21 Oct 2013, 14:30 ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from Scotland :)
Sorry Benmbe, they weren't LDs I was charged £30 for, it was for three Japanese games from the early 90s that were delivered via Parcel Force. I'm completely new to collecting Laser Discs so reading the threads and researching on each version is very interesting. I've picked up a pioneer cld-d295 and a couple of NTSC and PAL discs. I can completely understand the need too stretch that little bit further to get that elusive title for a collection! ;-) I've spent a lot of money importing games from Japan over the past 20 years (several hundred pounds for just one title). It's an obsession, to the point the collection has it's own room (much to my wife's delight, I'm sure), but I won't bore anyone with what's stuffed in there! The reason I collect those is because I love the physical aspect of the media, holding something that feels substantial and if looked after will last, has great artwork and printed inlay cards and looks great on display (I'm a graphic designer so I'm a sucker for visual packaging). For me, Laserdiscs share those same values, just like vinyl. They don't feel as disposable as so much modern physical media does. So it's great fun to start a new collection.

To be honest, I'll be happy with whatever customs charges I'm hit with when I finally spot a LD copy of Gunhed for sale in Japan! ;-)
Author:  johan184 [ 25 Oct 2013, 01:47 ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from Scotland :)
Is the 15 £ limit also for sending gifts ? Here in sweden there is no vat for gifts under 50£. But the sender have to check the GIFT box on the green customs sticker.

Here we are also paying 25% vat +13%(not sure on the exact number) in tax +handling. The handling charge is much higher as well.

But as long as the seller ships it as a gift and write down the value you wont get bothered. I think the vat should be dropped for vintage stuff in general, when the value got nothing to do with the original price.
Author:  lons_vex [ 25 Oct 2013, 09:03 ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from Scotland :)
The question is how believable the whole "GIFT" thing is, most of the time...

So you get a gift parcel from Urabanchou in japan, sending you LD's?
That's cool and all, but will the custom officials believe that?

Same could be said about any other company sending you a parcel in general.
What you have friends working at amazon japan sending you gifts?
That's awesome! Now pay your taxes :P

So then you have a private person sending you parcels, could work as a gift.
You could even easily cheat on the value of the items so that it stays tax free.
But how often will it work? Twice maybe?

I'm at the local customs office regularly to pick up parcels.
If I'd get gift parcels from the same sender every month, I'm sure it would be
strongly doubted, and if they doubt it, they do not only have the power to fully
tax your parcel, they also have the power to say "we don't believe the declared value
is correct, we'll check the internets", and then you might be sorry you tried to cheat in
a very obvious way.
Author:  nissling [ 25 Oct 2013, 18:40 ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from Scotland :)
I'm surprised that some big companies manages to send items as gifts. The times I've bought from Yesasia, the declaration always says that it's some toys in the package, worth about $10 and the receipt says "$0" on every item... Seriously, how is it possible for every post service to miss this?
Author:  johan184 [ 25 Oct 2013, 19:38 ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from Scotland :)
I dont think cheap used stuff draw so much attention. Here in sweden its the shipping companies staff that handles the handling fee and vat. This means that if they doubt the value and if its a gift it will cost a lot of work time, which they cant charge for to find out the correct value.

Of course, if like you said get 50 packages a month then you might get their attention.

I really don't have a problem with the vat, its the handling fee I think is the problem. You cant charge 15 usd for taking 10 usd in vat, it takes 15 seconds to push that figures in to the computer system, I wouldn't be surprised if it was all managed by computers.
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