Import Duty & Royal Mail Collection Fee

[Mick Sway]

Thought I'd revive this as word of warning, since I've been hammered twice, in the past 3 weeks.

Today I've been charged £23 , including the Royal Mail £8 collection fee, on an Ebay order from sudz-53

valued £67 + £11 postage. Before Christmas it was £13.50 on an order for a beaten up copy of Soft Walkin',

£17+£11 postage, from seller jemo6470 .

I guess that it's my own fault for not reading their listings properly, as they state that payment of the Customs

liabilities is the buyers responsibility.

Nevertheless, despite having bought from the US since the 80's, I must have been lucky, since I've never come across these

charges before.

The falling dollar doesn't help, I guess.

On top of paying, you also have to wait an additional two working days for delivery.

In case anyone's interested, click here , for the latest Tax and Customs , regulations.

 

 

[Alamo]

I always ask sellers in the USA if they will send as a gift or put no more than $10 on outside of package. If they don’t respond or refuse I don’t bid. 

Most sellers are pretty good and agree to those terms. Like you say with the Poor exchange rate and extra charges this end a good deal soon becomes a bad one!

alan

[Guest]

I always ask them to put a low value on the customs sticker so I don' get stuck with charges! ($8)

Most will do this, apart from the paranoid ones who think the FBI will be raiding there house if they do it!

I think it's ridiculous that have to pay for import duty on records I am only buying as a hobby and for my collection.

It's not like I am running a business!

The records are expensive, so is the postage and insurance. Then to have to pay import duty is often too much to be worth it!