Okay people, I will need your help with this guide, but I will try to write most of it by myself as much as I can. Also if I forgot something vital, please let me know.
I decided to write this guide (hoping it would get stickied) as many people are asking if the cheaper than hell products on sale (usually from USA) could be to shipped to the Buttfuckistan where people around the globe live, where the same products cost many times more. There are a few big points that might not make it cheap in the end.
1: Shipping and handling
(note: needs information on the cheaper shipping options)
This is propably the most obvious one.
And before you start comparing and go "wtf, shipping from UK to Buttfuckistan is a lot cheaper", you also need to understand that United States basically just a huge fucking island. It has water on both sides of it with only 2 neighbouring countries, and distance to other countries other than Mexico and Canada is minimum of 1000 miles, and that is to Guatemala from Texas (...and no; Cuba doesn't count, because you can't ship anything there). The continent across (LA to NY) is about 2500 miles (~4000km) and distance between New York and London is about 3500 miles (~5500km) and Los Angeles and Melbourne is 8000 miles (~13000km). Here is a nice distance calculator based on the Google Maps engine
So when ordering from the USA, basically you have two transportation options; Ship or Aircraft, and neighter of them is cheap. There are two ways to get the package to the destination; Take it with you or ship it. If you are visiting the country and then you pick it up and take it with you, it's a lot cheaper to freight it with you on the plane than ship it alone.
For example if you want to send a Mesa 4x12" cabinet that is on sale for $600 USD (which is roughly 475€
from USA to Oz or EU, it won't be cheap. By itself it weights around 50 kg, then add flightcase or other packaging material around it, it will add about 20 kg additional weight, and shipping 70kg packages around the world is not cheap. According to UPS sending 150 lbs (~68kg) to Melbourne costs $1761.61 USD and shipping to Finland would cost $1426.94 USD.
But the big question is: what is the point where it becomes cheaper to ship it (I use the USA - OZ as an example) than buy it locally? Well the answer is when the shipped item is small and valuable. For example a rackmountable high-end/custom preamp that costs $3000 or so. USPS has a 9kg option (dimensions x = 42", y+z = 79", weight max 20lb) option that costs $49 to send anywhere worldwide. UPS has a 25kg (~50lb) option that costs about $450 to ship worldwide. Also any package that weights max 4 lbs costs $11 to send anywhere in the world via USPS.
But do note that UPS/Fedex and other shipping companies aren't the cheapest ways to ship shit internationally, but atleast they get the package all the way to the reciever; According to one aircargo website if you send the same package as freight, it costs 682€ ($865 USD), but that doesn't include shipping on the land and you have to deliver the package to the airport.
2: Taxes and customs
(note: needs info on the us custom taxes etc)
Do note that if you live in EU and you are buying items from another EU country, you don't need to pay customs. But when you are buying from other countries, you have to pay them. When the item hits the customs, you have to pay both the custom taxes (in Finland it is depending on the items, usually between 3-12%) plus VAT (in Finland on majority of products it is 23%). This gets added to the costs; I found a calculator (in Finnish, sorry). If the same cabinet would've been sent to Finland, I would have to pay 470.27€ ($590 USD) for customs and taxes in addition to the shipping costs.
So in the end the $600 Mesa cabinet would've cost me 600+1427+590= $2617 USD, which is 2085€ and since a new one costs 1290€ in Finland, you can buy one brand new a lot cheaper from Finland or one of the EU countries.
Also don't try to get cheap on this:
If you are going to argue with the customs about this, always bring a receipt with you.
3: Electrical system and connectors
(note: needs info on the transformers etc)
This also might affect the price of your product, if you are buying electronics. See this wikipedia article for the mains power system used around the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_power_systems
If you buy the item from another country that uses different type of electrical system and/or connectors, the type of item you buy depends what you need to do to make it work on your country. There are primarly three type of items:
Non-self powered items
(for example: passive/phantom powered microphones and di-boxes, guitars, guitar cabinets, headphones, battery powered pedals)
Usually these work just out of the box without any kind of modifications
Items with external power supply
(for example: wall-wart powered pedals, smaller items like interfaces that have external powersupply, some items that uses eurocable)
If it is a low powered powersupply, you can use an adapter if the connector is just different, but uses the same powersystem (like UK vs EU). Personally I suggest not to use any adapters, because you can burn your house down or something, but change the powersupply. If you buy item that use other external powersupply (like EHX Black Finger that uses a custom 15V powersupply with a weird dual prong power connector), it is usually easier to buy the pedal from the other country and then buy the powersupply locally. For example some interfaces can get really quirky if you only use adapters instead of proper powersupply.
Items with internal power supply
(for example: guitar amplifiers, computers)
Now here is where the money can get burned. Once again, destroying the recently bought item or burning the house down might happen if you fuck shit up, so if you really have no idea what you are doing, don't do it.
If you are lucky and the powersupply uses an eurocable connectors (aka IEC C13 and C14) and has a 110V to 230V voltage switch, you might just need to flip the switch, change the powercord and you are ready to rock and roll.
But if you import an amplifier from USA to say Germany, you need to buy a step up (or was it step down?) transformer and possibly some modifications to the amplifier itself. Since I've never done this and I have not ideas of the expenditures, could someone who has done this (Lasse, I have my eyes on you) please light this subject?
I decided to write this guide (hoping it would get stickied) as many people are asking if the cheaper than hell products on sale (usually from USA) could be to shipped to the Buttfuckistan where people around the globe live, where the same products cost many times more. There are a few big points that might not make it cheap in the end.
1: Shipping and handling
(note: needs information on the cheaper shipping options)
This is propably the most obvious one.
And before you start comparing and go "wtf, shipping from UK to Buttfuckistan is a lot cheaper", you also need to understand that United States basically just a huge fucking island. It has water on both sides of it with only 2 neighbouring countries, and distance to other countries other than Mexico and Canada is minimum of 1000 miles, and that is to Guatemala from Texas (...and no; Cuba doesn't count, because you can't ship anything there). The continent across (LA to NY) is about 2500 miles (~4000km) and distance between New York and London is about 3500 miles (~5500km) and Los Angeles and Melbourne is 8000 miles (~13000km). Here is a nice distance calculator based on the Google Maps engine
So when ordering from the USA, basically you have two transportation options; Ship or Aircraft, and neighter of them is cheap. There are two ways to get the package to the destination; Take it with you or ship it. If you are visiting the country and then you pick it up and take it with you, it's a lot cheaper to freight it with you on the plane than ship it alone.
For example if you want to send a Mesa 4x12" cabinet that is on sale for $600 USD (which is roughly 475€
from USA to Oz or EU, it won't be cheap. By itself it weights around 50 kg, then add flightcase or other packaging material around it, it will add about 20 kg additional weight, and shipping 70kg packages around the world is not cheap. According to UPS sending 150 lbs (~68kg) to Melbourne costs $1761.61 USD and shipping to Finland would cost $1426.94 USD. But the big question is: what is the point where it becomes cheaper to ship it (I use the USA - OZ as an example) than buy it locally? Well the answer is when the shipped item is small and valuable. For example a rackmountable high-end/custom preamp that costs $3000 or so. USPS has a 9kg option (dimensions x = 42", y+z = 79", weight max 20lb) option that costs $49 to send anywhere worldwide. UPS has a 25kg (~50lb) option that costs about $450 to ship worldwide. Also any package that weights max 4 lbs costs $11 to send anywhere in the world via USPS.
But do note that UPS/Fedex and other shipping companies aren't the cheapest ways to ship shit internationally, but atleast they get the package all the way to the reciever; According to one aircargo website if you send the same package as freight, it costs 682€ ($865 USD), but that doesn't include shipping on the land and you have to deliver the package to the airport.
2: Taxes and customs
(note: needs info on the us custom taxes etc)
Do note that if you live in EU and you are buying items from another EU country, you don't need to pay customs. But when you are buying from other countries, you have to pay them. When the item hits the customs, you have to pay both the custom taxes (in Finland it is depending on the items, usually between 3-12%) plus VAT (in Finland on majority of products it is 23%). This gets added to the costs; I found a calculator (in Finnish, sorry). If the same cabinet would've been sent to Finland, I would have to pay 470.27€ ($590 USD) for customs and taxes in addition to the shipping costs.
So in the end the $600 Mesa cabinet would've cost me 600+1427+590= $2617 USD, which is 2085€ and since a new one costs 1290€ in Finland, you can buy one brand new a lot cheaper from Finland or one of the EU countries.
Also don't try to get cheap on this:
If you are going to argue with the customs about this, always bring a receipt with you.
3: Electrical system and connectors
(note: needs info on the transformers etc)
This also might affect the price of your product, if you are buying electronics. See this wikipedia article for the mains power system used around the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_power_systems
If you buy the item from another country that uses different type of electrical system and/or connectors, the type of item you buy depends what you need to do to make it work on your country. There are primarly three type of items:
Non-self powered items
(for example: passive/phantom powered microphones and di-boxes, guitars, guitar cabinets, headphones, battery powered pedals)
Usually these work just out of the box without any kind of modifications
Items with external power supply
(for example: wall-wart powered pedals, smaller items like interfaces that have external powersupply, some items that uses eurocable)
If it is a low powered powersupply, you can use an adapter if the connector is just different, but uses the same powersystem (like UK vs EU). Personally I suggest not to use any adapters, because you can burn your house down or something, but change the powersupply. If you buy item that use other external powersupply (like EHX Black Finger that uses a custom 15V powersupply with a weird dual prong power connector), it is usually easier to buy the pedal from the other country and then buy the powersupply locally. For example some interfaces can get really quirky if you only use adapters instead of proper powersupply.
Items with internal power supply
(for example: guitar amplifiers, computers)
Now here is where the money can get burned. Once again, destroying the recently bought item or burning the house down might happen if you fuck shit up, so if you really have no idea what you are doing, don't do it.
If you are lucky and the powersupply uses an eurocable connectors (aka IEC C13 and C14) and has a 110V to 230V voltage switch, you might just need to flip the switch, change the powercord and you are ready to rock and roll.
But if you import an amplifier from USA to say Germany, you need to buy a step up (or was it step down?) transformer and possibly some modifications to the amplifier itself. Since I've never done this and I have not ideas of the expenditures, could someone who has done this (Lasse, I have my eyes on you) please light this subject?
