Buying a guitar from US for UK

[MetalJonesy]

I know there's a similar thread around here, but im more interested in anyone who has bought a guitar from the USA in the UK, and had it shipped over

what are the customs/tax charges you have to pay??

Im looking at a Schecter Hellraiser C1 FR and can get one from the US for £380 (they are £640 odd from thomann!!)

i was just wondering if its worth the hastle or what?!

 

[Jaymz]

I looked at that a while ago and the cheap guitar with all the charges on top to get it over makes it the same price as in the UK, so...:\

 

[Scissors61]

I've ordered a few guitars from the states. Most recently I got an EC1000, which at my local guitar shop tends to retail for £7/800. And the entire cost of the guitar, shipping, import tax and duty came to only £420. And I think only about 45 quid of that was import tax and duty. I'd personally say it was definately worth buying from the US.

Even with the tax and duty on the £380 you said the one you want costs, I can see no way that you can fail to atleast save some money. You're not gonna be getting charged £260 for import tax dude.

 

[MetalJonesy]

thanks bro!!! im just gnna wait to sell my dean razorback then get one shipped over if the tax and customs aint too much, how do you go about paying for it etc?

 

[MetalJonesy]

just found out that it would cost me £490 to import! so i think ill go and do it in the next few weeks!

 

[Scissors61]

Nice one dude! Yeah that's still a pretty considerable saving!

 

[Andy Sneap]

see if the shop will write a fake invoice too, £100 or something. Its not like your normal customs official knows what a type of gtr is worth..... Some will do it, others wont.

 

[DominikJW]

I've also heard that marking the item as a 'gift' can avoid paying the taxes, at least in my country.

 

[006]

+1 for what Andy said. I know I don't live in the UK but I have shipped many things there, some even to fellow Sneapsters. I've used the "it's a gift" and also "it's only worth $150US" tricks in the past without a hitch. Personally I feel it's really unfair you guys have to put up with customs taxing shit you've already bought and paid for, that's really fucked up and I fail to see how they have the right...but W, as they say.

~006

 

[Sloan]

Yeah, if you get someone in the US to buy it for you and ship it as a gift, you can avoid lots of fees. We do a lot of business across the pond over at shortscale.org. I haven't done it personally, but from what I can tell, it's not a big deal.

What do you want in the US that you can't get in the UK anyway?

 

[Metaltastic]

I think it's less about availability, and more about taking advantage of their horrendous economic advantage

 

[006]

Yeah, as the OP stated he has to pay £640 for it in UK, but only £380 for it from the US. And as already said he can get the same guitar for £490 altogether...quite a bit of savings IMO. I would assume they have HellRaiser C1 FRs in the UK, but he doesn't want to have to pay more just because it's in the UK. I don't blame him one bit.

~006

 

[MetalJonesy]

its hard to get hold of a schecter hellraiser in the uk for a decent price. my only concern about them stating it costs £110 is incase it gets damaged in shipping!

 

[006]

You'd be surprised how rarely something gets damaged in transport nowadays. I'm sure most major worldwide shippers have had enough lawsuits over broken heirlooms and priceless Egyptian artifacts being shattered that they have revamped their handling procedures. I know that In the past 3 years or so I have probably had dozens of "fragile" things delivered via UPS, DHL and FedEx, not one of them has been damaged in any way. This includes amps, computers, guitars, speakers, a LCD display and even a glass case (my dad collects old cameras). As long as it is packed well enough there should be no worries. I've shipped a guitar, my HellRaiser C7 in fact to Black Neon Bob, in nothing more than the hardshell case that Schecter shipped it with to me over to Europe and BNB said it was perfectly fine when it got there. It was USPS though, because UPS/FedEx/DHL wanted an absurd amount to ship it, while USPS wanted a lot less.

~006

 

[AdamWathan]

Yeah I fly back and forth to work with a guitar in a regular old Jackson hard case like 3 times a month and you KNOW those airport guys throw that shit around and it's never sustained the slightest bit of damage, so in a case and in a padded box it should be fine. I shipped a guitar once with no case, just wrapped up in a box with about 600 pounds of packing peanuts and some bubble wrap and it arrived without a scratch.

 

[Jaymz]

http://www.turnkey.co.uk/product/schecter-c1-hellraiser-fr-black-cherry/

 

[MetalJonesy]

yeah but ted its black cherry, think im deffo gnna get this white one from th US, anyway ted, how was ur schecter??? im gettin this caus i cant be ballzed for the mh1000 deluxe geetar!

 

[Jaymz]

Ted? Whos Ted? Black cherry rules! Its awesome ive got 2, I was also gonna get the MH1000 but got the Jackson instead.

 

[Razorjack]

You can't order it from Turnkey anyway, the store shut over a month ago. Arbiter are the new distributor's of Schecter guitars so you should see them coming through in the next couple of months.

 

[Jaymz]

You can't order it from Turnkey anyway, the store shut over a month ago. Arbiter are the new distributor's of Schecter guitars so you should see them coming through in the next couple of months.

Ah well, nice of them shut the online store down ey Misleading fuckers!