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#11
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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 |
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#12
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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 |
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