A Snow and ski forum. SkiBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » SkiBanter forum » Skiing Newsgroups » European Ski Resorts
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Buying gear in US



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #11  
Old February 12th 04, 07:55 AM
Nigel (Remove NOSPAM)
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Buying gear in US

I was in Colorado Springs & Denver in Novemember and picked up a load
of gear from these two retailers . These two massive stores can be found
on most Shopping Mall Parks out west

http://www.gartsports.com
http://www.galyans.com/

They had shed loads of gear on sale & from my experience on previous
visits you can allways ask the manager for a deal . Anyway on the
clothing front the quality & value of gear in the US is far superior to
whats available in Europe. Strange really because it all made in the
same fareast sweatshops .

Nigel





Plake wrote:
I'm going to Utah for 2wks in March and want to take advantage of the
USD/GBP exchange rate by buying new ski & board gear:

Rossignol B2/Fritschi Diamir £519 at Snow+Rock, £397 at rei.com
K2 Recon/Salomon SP3/Salomon Dialogue £664 at Snow+Rock, £355 at
rei.com!

So I have a couple of questions:

1) I suspect the US stores are pressurised by the European
manufacturers not to sell gear to Europeans. Is this true, and will
paying cash at the store help?

2) If I declare the stuff at customs when I bring it back to the UK,
what will the import duty cost?

3) If I don't declare it, what are the chances of being caught? And
what happens if you are?

Al


Ads
  #12  
Old February 12th 04, 07:56 AM
Nigel
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Buying gear in US

I was in Colorado Springs & Denver in Novemember and picked up a load
of gear from these two retailers . These two massive stores can be found
on most Shopping Mall Parks out west

http://www.gartsports.com
http://www.galyans.com/

They had shed loads of gear on sale & from my experience on previous
visits you can allways ask the manager for a deal . Anyway on the
clothing front the quality & value of gear in the US is far superior to
whats available in Europe. Strange really because it all made in the
same fareast sweatshops .

Nigel





Plake wrote:
I'm going to Utah for 2wks in March and want to take advantage of the
USD/GBP exchange rate by buying new ski & board gear:

Rossignol B2/Fritschi Diamir £519 at Snow+Rock, £397 at rei.com
K2 Recon/Salomon SP3/Salomon Dialogue £664 at Snow+Rock, £355 at
rei.com!

So I have a couple of questions:

1) I suspect the US stores are pressurised by the European
manufacturers not to sell gear to Europeans. Is this true, and will
paying cash at the store help?

2) If I declare the stuff at customs when I bring it back to the UK,
what will the import duty cost?

3) If I don't declare it, what are the chances of being caught? And
what happens if you are?

Al


  #13  
Old February 12th 04, 10:10 AM
Alun Evans
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Buying gear in US



On Wed 11 Feb '04 at 19:42 (Plake) wrote:

I'm going to Utah for 2wks in March and want to take advantage of the
USD/GBP exchange rate by buying new ski & board gear:

Rossignol B2/Fritschi Diamir £519 at Snow+Rock, £397 at rei.com
K2 Recon/Salomon SP3/Salomon Dialogue £664 at Snow+Rock, £355 at
rei.com!

So I have a couple of questions:

1) I suspect the US stores are pressurised by the European
manufacturers not to sell gear to Europeans. Is this true, and will
paying cash at the store help?


Never had any problems with this in REI, AnyMountain and Patagonia in CA.

REI is a great shop btw.

2) If I declare the stuff at customs when I bring it back to the UK,
what will the import duty cost?


So I presume you've looked at the HM Customs and Excise website?

I did a bit of research before I went to CA and as far as I could tell from:

http://www.hmce.gov.uk/forms/notices/1.htm

The maximum amount of stuff you could bring in without paying duty was £145.

I also tried to work out what duty I'd have to pay if I bought something
expensive and declared it. I couldn't really determine that from the website,
though *somewhere* there is some link describing classes of goods, but they
still don't explain how much it costs for each class.

You could phone them up and ask, but I'd recomend doing that from a phonebox,
not using your real name, and not declaring when you're traveling

3) If I don't declare it, what are the chances of being caught? And
what happens if you are?


Well, sadly, as one of my friends has noticed in the airports in the UK,
there's a type of person that customs seems to stop in the Green channel, and
if you're Caucasian, you're probably not one of them. If you happen to land at
the same time as a flight from Jamaica you'll see what he means.

If you use your ski's out in Utah then it'll be hard to tell the difference
between them and a pair of ski's you bought in the UK and took out...

However one of my other friend's parents once got caught with some goods and he
explained how it worked (they then went on to always declare).

If you don't declare and get caught, they'll do the fines, duty and tax to the
line, and you'll be at customs for hours.

If you do declare, they'll be happy to have something to do, and work the duty
out like this:

"How much do you want to declare?"
"Er, £397"
"Call it 300"
"So 17.5% of 300, well, call it 10% as I don't have my calculator with me"
....etc


Note that with goods being _so_ much cheaper in the States, and the pound
being so strong, you may find that even with paying the duty it's still
significantly cheaper. - I guess it all comes down to what your risk
tolerance is.

You know, I always thought we lived in a free market until I started
traveling to the states, seems that the free market is really to protect
western governments, rather than set market prices.


Happy Shopping.


Alun.
  #14  
Old February 12th 04, 12:32 PM
Steve Haigh
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Buying gear in US

John Red-Horse wrote:


No and no. In fact, I would suggest that you avoid paying cash just
because, in my experience with travels overseas, the credit card companies
tend not to charge large exhange fees and premium exchange rates.

What? Credit card companies give appaling exchange rates. Granted there
is not up front fee or fixed charges for purchases overseas, but the
rates are a rip off (at least for Visa and MC, not sure about Amex).
It's tollerable for small purchases and might be cheaper than exchanging
cash for small amounts, but for a large purchases you are much better
off getting cash (or better still traveller's cheques) from a bank or
the post office before you travel. Also, if you change now you know the
rate you're getting, the dollar may recover in the next few weeks... or
then again it could tumble further...
  #15  
Old February 12th 04, 03:03 PM
Mike T
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Buying gear in US

1) I suspect the US stores are pressurised by the European
manufacturers not to sell gear to Europeans. Is this true, and will
paying cash at the store help?


Not at all. The store makes the same amount of money no matter who
they sell it to. One thing though, some of the European brands may not
be available is the US. For example you won't find Voelkl or F2 boards
in American stores. (But you'll find plenty of Voelkl skis!) Maybe a
handful of shops carry Nidecker. But Rossi and Salomon are all over the
place! (Waitaminute - did Adidas buy Salomon outright - if so I guess
they are American now).



  #16  
Old February 12th 04, 03:28 PM
Steve Haigh
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Buying gear in US

Mike T wrote:

1) I suspect the US stores are pressurised by the European
manufacturers not to sell gear to Europeans. Is this true, and will
paying cash at the store help?



Not at all. The store makes the same amount of money no matter who
they sell it to. One thing though, some of the European brands may not
be available is the US. For example you won't find Voelkl or F2 boards
in American stores. (But you'll find plenty of Voelkl skis!) Maybe a
handful of shops carry Nidecker. But Rossi and Salomon are all over the
place! (Waitaminute - did Adidas buy Salomon outright - if so I guess
they are American now).

How does that work? Adidas (or adidas-Salomon AG as it is now) are German.
  #17  
Old February 12th 04, 03:30 PM
Simon Brown
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Buying gear in US

"Steve Haigh" wrote in message
...

How does that work? Adidas (or adidas-Salomon AG as it is now) are German.


adidas-Salomon AG, headquartered in Germany, is the second-largest company
in the sporting goods industry in terms of worldwide sales. It is a global
corporation, with products present in all major international markets.
--
Simon Brown
www.hb9drv.ch


  #18  
Old February 12th 04, 03:38 PM
Steve Haigh
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Buying gear in US

Simon Brown wrote:

"Steve Haigh" wrote in message
...


How does that work? Adidas (or adidas-Salomon AG as it is now) are German.



adidas-Salomon AG, headquartered in Germany, is the second-largest company
in the sporting goods industry in terms of worldwide sales. It is a global
corporation, with products present in all major international markets.

Yes, so how does that make Salomon an American company, as the previous
post suggested?
  #19  
Old February 12th 04, 03:47 PM
Mike T
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Buying gear in US

Yes, so how does that make Salomon an American company, as the
previous
post suggested?


My mistake - For some reason I thought Adidas was HQ'd in America... my
apologies!


  #20  
Old February 12th 04, 03:48 PM
Simon Brown
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Buying gear in US

"Steve Haigh" wrote in message
...
Simon Brown wrote:

"Steve Haigh" wrote in message
...


How does that work? Adidas (or adidas-Salomon AG as it is now) are

German.


adidas-Salomon AG, headquartered in Germany, is the second-largest

company
in the sporting goods industry in terms of worldwide sales. It is a

global
corporation, with products present in all major international markets.

Yes, so how does that make Salomon an American company, as the previous
post suggested?


It doesn't as far as I can see. I was really just confirming your statement
with a quote from some research material I found. Although headquartered in
Germany it could be US-owned but I couldn't be bothered to dig up this info.
--
Simon Brown
www.hb9drv.ch


 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Buying gear in US Plake Snowboarding 55 October 28th 04 03:06 PM
Buying Snowboard as gift, What Size?? Buzzzz Snowboarding 6 February 27th 04 03:12 PM
Skeletools protective gear Tom Snowboarding 0 January 1st 04 08:40 PM
Riding gear prices Steve_r34 Snowboarding 2 December 22nd 03 03:43 AM
Sugestions for new ski/snowboard gear to test on Street Cents Baka Dasai Snowboarding 3 July 22nd 03 05:05 PM


All times are GMT. The time now is 02:25 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 SkiBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.