I'm thinking of buying one of the new Thrustmaster GP steering wheels,
and importing it from the states. There seem to be several options..
1) Get a US member to buy one, and they can send it over as a 'gift'
and avoid paying import duty. We would of course add a little
for the other persons trouble.
pros: no import duty
cons: cost of shipping would be more
2) buy individually from US.
pros: no wait while a batch is made up
cons: import duty and VAT should strictly speaking be charged
shipping costs is higher for 1 unit
3) Import several at one go. Pros: save on carriage costs, as
shipping across atlantic is quite heavy until the weight
starts to increase.
rough estimates:
each unit weighs 6lbs (approx 3kg) would cost about 35 to ship
from states (costings based on UPS expedited from UK to US, so
assume similar cost reverse direction), but if the consigment
consisted of 5 units, total weight about 20kg, cost becomes about
70 (or about 15 per unit). Distributing units once inside UK
would cost 6.50 + VAT for 24 hr carriage. We would be
charged VAT at 17.5% and import duty (about 4%).
dollars pounds (all estimated)
Steering wheel $ 80.00 55
shipping to UK 15 (based on 5 units)
duty & VAT 12
shipping in UK 7.63
total about 90
for a batch of 10 or more, carriage costs to UK would decline
even more. for quantity I am sure that some discount on the
purchase price of the steering wheel could be arranged.
4) Wait until they are imported officially.
pros: easier to take back if they go wrong
cons: high purchase cost
delay
Any interest?
Andrew Cliffe
