[Closed] Buying bike from eBay USA

Yep, VAT at 20%, plus import duty.

Yep, you pay Duty on top of the price, shipping and insurance, then VAT on that plus a handling fee

It’d have to be a very special bike for me to have to pay what shipping across the pond costs nowadays, there was a big jump in cost a few years ago when I was on Retrobike a lot, you used to be able to ship either way for £40-50 insured but it just skyrocketed.

What with the exchange rate, postage and duties, hardly seems worth it these days... bought my first Yeti back in 2006, but saved a chunk back then - import charges were still pretty painful.

Could you have a holiday out there? Ride it round Moab then bring it home personally. Probably a similar price to shipping and taxes and a lot more fun. You might need to be sneaky to avoid the taxes, though.

Remember the import and VAT (I think it is both, but certainly the VAT) is payable both on the value of the product and also the cost of the shipping.

Similarly to above I last did this in 2006 when the exchange rate was $1.70 to the pound. Evn then that was on a frame only purchase which attracts a lower duty than a whole bike.

It would have to be a virtually free bike for me to justify it now.

The holiday thing is strictly illegal if you plan not to declare the bike on entry which would make the whole thing pointless.

I spent a bored lunch hour once and discovered that flights plus car hire and subsistence money for a riding holiday in the US was pretty much the same as the difference between the US and UK price of a Salsa I was vaguely interested in. I didn’t take it any further but I can see how it could work... you wouldn’t save anything and would be chancing with HM Revenue and Customs but on paper at least it’s doable. There are websites that will allow you to calculate the import duty bill, as said above I think it would need to be a bike you couldn’t find in the UK and really really wanted for it to be worthwhile, UK secondhand will probably be cheaper once freight and Duties are factored in.

Practically, it was useful at explaining the US-UK price difference though, sure the distributor will save on shipping through economies of scale, but the import duties seem to be the thing that’s most responsible for the ‘same number but different currency’ pricing that is so often complained about, not greedy companies.

unless a very special or rare bike Id skip it OP, as people have said, costs for shipping and import duty are killer now.

I remember in the early 2000's ordering BMX parts which cost the same price in dollars as pounds and the exchange rate was circa 1.9-2.0 USD to the pound!

I remember in the early 2000’s ordering BMX parts which cost the same price in dollars as pounds

Danscomp FTW!

You may want to check if it's being shipped through the eBay Global Shipping Programme - if it is then they cover all the fees and the $200 is to your door. I suspect not, or even if it's listed as such that eBay will not be happy with the size of the parcel!

That shipping sounds high-ish. That's what FedEx and the like quote to retail customers, not those with an account or volume discounts. Bike flights or shipbike will be maybe 1/3 of that if you catch then at the right time - they essentially resell space on FedEx. A lot of sellers (including shops) give really high shipping quotes. I don't know if they don't know/can't be arsed to find cheaper or if they are padding their profits with it.

Is there a guarantee the bike is genuine, not stolen, is as described, etc? It's a lot of hassle to return it and fight with a US seller. Not sure what your protections are buying from US (this with PayPal?).

I wouldn't even buy a bike from UK eBay myself, but that's just me.

That shipping sounds high-ish. That’s what FedEx and the like quote to retail customers, not those with an account or volume discounts.

Or eBay's price using the GSP.

deadkenny

Is there a guarantee the bike is genuine, not stolen, is as described, etc?

It's interesting, cos back when I bought mine, you could actually contact other buyers on ebay. I emailed about 5 or 6 people who bought off the seller and they all came back saying he was genuine.
For some unfathomable reason ebay removed this functionality, so I'd say it's a far more risky proposition these days.