Has anyone purchased a film camera from Japan on ebay?

FishyFish said:
These are the official rules on receipt of gifts from outside the UK:



Taken from the following webpage (which gives details on how duty and tax are applied to all imported goods received by post).

www.gov.uk

Duties and import VAT on gifts

Find out about Customs Duty, excise duty and import VAT you may need to pay when you send gifts into the UK.
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk
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Ah confirms if your goods from abroad are not stopped by customs then no RM charges. But unless every parcel label is scanned by a computer and also x-rayed and also checked by sniffer dogs.....and if there aren't enough border\customs staff to check, many\quite a few...... parcels must get through with no charges.
 
There is also the problem of sending imported equipment back overseas to have it repaired. Unless it's sent with the right paperwork to prove it's going for repair, then VAT on the full value of the item (which is displayed on the documentation on the parcel for insurance purposes) will be charged when it's delivered back to you, regardless of whether or not you have already paid this when you originally bought the item! If you don't pay then the courier won't leave the item with you. Trying to claim the VAT back afterwards appears to be something of a red tape strewn nightmare!
 
I had not looked into cameras from Japan until recently but did wonder about the customs charge. I am loking at spending about £300 o will probably have another £60 on top once it lands. Does DHL release the item before you pay the customs charge?
 
uptherighttree said:
I had not looked into cameras from Japan until recently but did wonder about the customs charge. I am loking at spending about £300 o will probably have another £60 on top once it lands. Does DHL release the item before you pay the customs charge?
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I'd expect a little more than that. Mine is £167 in total, and I'm expecting another £50 or so on top. I think I read somewhere that sometimes they give you a couple of weeks to pay, but I highly doubt they'll release the item before this is paid.
 
Kneller said:
I'd expect a little more than that. Mine is £167 in total, and I'm expecting another £50 or so on top. I think I read somewhere that sometimes they give you a couple of weeks to pay, but I highly doubt they'll release the item before this is paid.
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oh yeah just worked it out and it's £81. That's crazy
 
They usually want payment up front before they'll deliver, or payment on the doorstep before they hand the parcel over.
 
My Fujinon lens from Japan arrived in the UK within 48 hours. It then sat in Coventry for over a week, before they sent me 2 consecutive emails with different fees to pay (I think for the first one they didn't notice it was under £135 including delivery, which at that time was the import duty threshold for cameras). Paid the second one within 20 minutes, 3 days later got a note to pick up at the local parcel depot! It was a bit of a PITA!
 
I've bought two items from Japan this year. A camera which was just over £210 and the import duties where around £50 and a lens which was under £80 and incurred no costs.
 
On my camera it came through parcelforce which I think is EMS at the Japan end. The lens was fedex
 
ryano said:
why are all the nice cameras in Japan eh
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Probably because the Japanese are patriotic and buy things made in Japan, so plenty of Japanese S\H cameras available.
 
flook999 said:
just taken delivery of 5 double dark slides from japan, total cost inc shipping was around £70, delivered in 3 days with no additional costs to pay
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Hopefully that value passes without additional fees.
I say hopefully as I have on occasion been invoiced for duty at a later date.....several months later.
It was an unpleasant experience to receive the bill but hardly a surprise as I knew what I had purchased and believed/ hoped I had got myself a good deal.

I don’t wish to burst your bubble as it were and I’m confident that £70 won’t incur any taxes , I’m simply mentioning it so folk are aware of what can happen. ;)
 
Asha said:
Hopefully that value passes without additional fees.
I say hopefully as I have on occasion been invoiced for duty at a later date.....several months later.
It was an unpleasant experience to receive the bill but hardly a surprise as I knew what I had purchased and believed/ hoped I had got myself a good deal.

I don’t wish to burst your bubble as it were and I’m confident that £70 won’t incur any taxes , I’m simply mentioning it so folk are aware of what can happen. ;)
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I think I'm right in saying shipping cost is excluded so the item would be cheaper and may not incur any extra charges by customs.
 
excalibur2 said:
I think I'm right in saying shipping cost is excluded so the item would be cheaper and may not incur any extra charges by customs.
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Depends I think on who does the paperwork as I’ve been stuffed on the postage before now.
As always , there appears to rarely be two cases identical hence while it’s simply difficult to calculate the final price in advance
 
Asha said:
Hopefully that value passes without additional fees.
I say hopefully as I have on occasion been invoiced for duty at a later date.....several months later.
It was an unpleasant experience to receive the bill but hardly a surprise as I knew what I had purchased and believed/ hoped I had got myself a good deal.

I don’t wish to burst your bubble as it were and I’m confident that £70 won’t incur any taxes , I’m simply mentioning it so folk are aware of what can happen. ;)
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hehe yes, like I said, delivered in 3 days with no additional costs to pay :)

glad to see it's not just me that does this :ty:
 
Asha said:
Depends I think on who does the paperwork as I’ve been stuffed on the postage before now.
As always , there appears to rarely be two cases identical hence while it’s simply difficult to calculate the final price in advance
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I believe the rules are total cost including postage, stops dodgy geezers from selling at 1p with £500 post and packing on top......I may have dreamt that though
 
Tracking has been showing today all week but now it's looking less and less likely that its going to be today!

It also looks like the service used with FedEx is only for weekday delivery, so I'll be waiting for Monday before I receive it now. I'm gutted as I wanted to get out and shoot a roll this weekend!
 
Out of the EU and a trade agreement with Japan and buying Japanese goods might be cheaper.
 
excalibur2 said:
Out of the EU and a trade agreement with Japan and buying Japanese goods might be cheaper.
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The EU already has a trade deal with Japan. The UK deal is largely designed to fill the gap when we lose access to that:
fullfact.org

Is the UK's trade deal with Japan better than the EU's? – Full Fact

We don’t know how much better the UK-Japan trade deal is compared to the EU-Japan deal, but it isn’t expected to be worse.
fullfact.org fullfact.org
The UK importers will also now be selling to a smaller, isolated market, and the strength of the pound may take a hit after January 1st. If you want to buy something, you might be better off getting it now.
 
There are so many nice film cameras on eBay from Japan...must resist...
 
Camera turned up today. A week exactly from ordering to delivery. No customs/import fees so far, am I to assume that as I've not been informed of anything, I won't be charged as it seems a little too good to be true!

Camera is in mint condition, exactly as described. I would have absolutely no issues ordering again in the future.
 
Kneller said:
Camera turned up today. A week exactly from ordering to delivery. No customs/import fees so far, am I to assume that as I've not been informed of anything, I won't be charged as it seems a little too good to be true!

Camera is in mint condition, exactly as described. I would have absolutely no issues ordering again in the future.
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On the two occasions I've had to pay fees, I got a note in the mail saying the item was at the sorting office and I had to pay the fee there. It sounds like you may have avoided fees.
 
FishyFish said:
On the two occasions I've had to pay fees, I got a note in the mail saying the item was at the sorting office and I had to pay the fee there. It sounds like you may have avoided fees.
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I assumed so as it's been delivered and there was no note or anything attached and nothing was mentioned by FedEx. Seems I've got very lucky!
 
The first one is always free ;)
That's a nice bonus though.
 
Kneller said:
I assumed so as it's been delivered and there was no note or anything attached and nothing was mentioned by FedEx. Seems I've got very lucky!
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It's been a good while since I bought anything from abroad but I've got a sneaking suspicion that the time I received an invoice a couple of weeks later from HM Customs. Don't take this as gospel though, I'm often wrong. :-)
 
One camera that I bought which came via FedEx, had an email several days after delivery with the tax invoice attached..
 
Ah that's fair enough. It's something I've budgeted for, so either way not a problem. Thanks for all of the advice!
 
I brought a used large format lens pre-mounted on a lens board from Japan, with the intension of removing it from the lens board & selling that on.
Although the lens was <£50 I got stung £15.70 for VAT & handling fees.
I then found out the mounting ring was seized (not mentioned in the listing) so I can't get it off the lens board :(

My purchases from China are generally under £15 (so are exempt from duty & VAT), there have been a few times when I've gone over this limit but I've never had to pay duty from China when this has happened.

Given the generally poor Japanese descriptions of quality etc. I won't buy from there again.
 
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Petrochemist said:
Given the generally poor Japanese descriptions of quality etc. I won't buy from there again.
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Wow, that’s really unfortunate, I’ve bought quite a lot of stuff from Japan over the years and always found that they overstate any faults and condition has generally been better than expected. Just luck I guess.
 
RaglanSurf said:
Wow, that’s really unfortunate, I’ve bought quite a lot of stuff from Japan over the years and always found that they overstate any faults and condition has generally been better than expected. Just luck I guess.
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Same here, everything I've got from Japan has equal to or exceeded the description. I do a lot of research first though and I have only bought from eBay stores that have 100% reviews and thousands of transactions or that have a physical store that I can research.
 
I had heard before that they report every minor fault, but overall descriptions claiming things like MINT+ automatically get my alarms going. Mint implies there is nothing to distinguish it from brand new, yet they have a whole category (or even two) of things that are better?
The seller I brought from did have loads of reviews giving at least 98% positive (I very rarely buy from anyone with less & then only by seeing some of the negative reviews & realising they are unreasonable). sadly I'd added my positive review after inspecting the optics & aperture, but before finding out about the mounting ring.
The excessive customs fees was the final straw, the transaction being far to low for import duties & I was charged more than twice the valid VAT.
Lesson learned. It may well be a different story if buying things of more value but I've never paid over £350 for a lens so it's not for me.
 
flook999 said:
hehe yes, like I said, delivered in 3 days with no additional costs to pay :)

glad to see it's not just me that does this :ty:
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I know its poor etiquette to quote myself, but it appears I spoke too soon. FedEx invoice for £19.59 just arrived for the 5 dark slides bought from Japan and received about 5 weeks ago :/
 
I purchased a mamiya press camera from Japan for $299.99 including postage. My Fedex bill took 10 days to arrive and cost £64.88.
 
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