Buying on eBay from the USA

LCPete

LCPete

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has anyone bought small items on eBay from the USA?
Did you have to pay any duty?
As far as I can see anything less than £11 is free of duty
I've just ordered a cd for £3.82 plus about £11 post as far as I can work out I won't be charged import duty just vat
Has anyone else ordered similar from the USA ?

It's a second hand Big county cd the buffalo skinners
the USA version
Not available in the uk
 
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mark richards said:
i used to order stuff from there quite often,but got p***ed off when items started to go missing, they used to blame british customs , I got fed up trying to trace items, so dont bother anymore,
never had any trouble from china .
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Sounds like a lot of hassle
I've also bought loads from China with no issues
 
The £11 value includes any postage...and will include an £8 processing fee to Royal Mail, on top of any duty and VAT levied.

However I seem to have only been charged on around 1 in 3 parcels for small items.
 
Mozthecat said:
The £11 value includes any postage...and will include an £8 processing fee to Royal Mail, on top of any duty and VAT levied.

However I seem to have only been charged on around 1 in 3 parcels for small items.
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Ahh I see thanks looks like I may have been better off buying from Europe but the cd edition I want wasn't released in the uk
 
The duty free limit is £15 not £11 - it used to be £18 but was reduced to £15 a few years ago.

This does not include postage - only the cost of the goods. However; many retailers put a grand total only (goods + postage) on their customs declarations. In such cases; you will likely be clobbered for duty and a the royal mail handling fee (currently £8) if the total value exceeds £15. If the goods are sent via a courier; the handling charges are likely to be more.

If ordering from Amazon.com you can pay an additional fee to cover customs charges. This fee can be partly refunded if the customs amount has been overestimated or fully refunded if a customs charge has not been levied.

If you currently order from within the EU; no additional duty charges apply. I frequently order from Amazon.fr / Amazon.de / Amazon.es etc. You can log into any of those sites with your Amazon.co.uk log in details.
 
Uncle Fester said:
The duty free limit is £15 not £11 - it used to be £18 but was reduced to £15 a few years ago.

This does not include postage - only the cost of the goods. However; many retailers put a grand total only (goods + postage) on their customs declarations. In such cases; you will likely be clobbered for duty and a the royal mail handling fee (currently £8) if the total value exceeds £15. If the goods are sent via a courier; the handling charges are likely to be more.

If ordering from Amazon.com you can pay an additional fee to cover customs charges. This fee can be partly refunded if the customs amount has been overestimated or fully refunded if a customs charge has not been levied.

If you currently order from within the EU; no additional duty charges apply. I frequently order from Amazon.fr / Amazon.de / Amazon.es etc. You can log into any of those sites with your Amazon.co.uk log in details.
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Thanks very much for the information :)

The total including postage come to £14.38 so I may get away with out fees
I don't mind paying vat but I think next time though I'll have a look at European sellers as if I get charged £8 or more in other fees it's not worth buying small items from the USA
I did find someone in Germany selling the cd after I had placed the order for the one in the USA Sod's law I guess
 
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