Ordering DH from the US

[LampyLou]

Sounds like code, DH, US.  If I order some of the seconds of the Double Helix colours from the US what do I need to know about tax etc?

A bit ahead of myself, I relay shouldn't be buying any more glass just at the moment but........

Thanks

Julia

[awrylemming]

They'll getcha!  It's expensive shipping anyway, then you have the £8 robbery, plus 20 percent of the order on top.    Generally, it's cheaper to do it with a few other people to help absorb the costs.

[LampyLou]

Thanks! I saw the prices and thought there had to be a catch. OK maybe I'll post again and ask for postage friends when I'm ready.

Ta

J x

[Trudi]

I's ok if the value is under £18 - you won't get the £8 randsome charge. Generally if you're ordering 1 bundle it's fine!

[awrylemming]

They're going to change that soon though aren't they?  The £18 is dropping to £15 I think, completely ridiculous when it should be going up. Sorry, I should have said that in my first post.  Although if you only bought one bundle it would probably still be really expensive once you take into account the shipping, as they don't offer the cheapy box postage at Double Helix.  I noticed they have a half price sale on a couple of the seconds, so it's $15 for half a pound, which is incredibly cheap.

[Redhotsal]

I ordered quite a bit from them recently - about £240 worth. I did get a 10% reduction which was wiped out by the $50 postage. The parcel did come relatively quickly but I got hammered for customs of £85. It's certainly cheaper to buy the seconds direct - and to my mind they are just as good as the first quality but you don't really save any money buying first quality directly from Double Helix. In fact - it works out about the same. It's kind of scary how physically small £240 worth of glass actually is!  

[Kalorlo]

I got a large pile of seconds a while ago. I think there's only 1 rod in the entire lot that I would have called a second! (It's a noticeably conical end of pull). With the sale stuff, I got a half pound of Luna 2.1 seconds and some Terranova 2 frit, and they were discounted enough that they came in under customs, which was even better.

[LampyLou]

It was those sales seconds that caught my eye. Maybe I should sit and do some sums. Who charges and when do they charge the fees?

Ta

J

[dinah46]

As a rule of thumb take the dollar amount for the glass and postage together and convert it to pounds. Then add 20% for VAT and £8 ransome, can sometimes be more depending who delivers it but generally £8 or £12

As a quick estimate it usually works out at just about the total number of dollars but substitute a pound sign eg $40 = approx £40 by the time you've paid the dues

[Redhotsal]

Not sure about that - my total order was $389.73 including postage but I got rushed a total of £84.37 which broke down as aS £25.30 Customs Duty £51.07 Import VAT and £8.00 Clearance Fee (which is the rip off bit by the Post Office.)

So in fact I paid out a total of £84 on £240 roughly which is 35%.

[LampyLou]

Ouch.  OK LOTS more thinking then........

[Redhotsal]

Well, as I say - if you're just buying seconds then it's definitely cheaper but not necessarily cheaper if you buy all first quality....

[awrylemming]

I think I quickly made the decision that ordering on my own was just not worth it, nor ordering one thing, so the next time I ordered with 4 other people which made it far more viable financially.  However, that brings it's own difficulties as you can imagine, as one person has to take responsibility for receipt and reshipping.  Still, it's enabled me to build up a relatively extensive DH collection at a reduced price, but I only ever buy seconds and sales.

[binty]

I'd quite happily combine an order with you Lou, if you wanted?

[dinah46]

In my example I wasn't counting import duty as I think that kicks in at a higher amount.