Buying a GPU from the US/Canada to the UK.

[Webboman]

Hi All,

 

Has anyone had any experience of buying a gpu from the US/Canada and having it delivered to them in the UK?

 

I'm interested to know what import tax was like as the value of a new high end GPU in the states is so much lower than the UK. Would it be worth paying the import duty to make a saving?

 

I get warranties and returns might not be valid, but I'd be interested to see the mark up.

[IkeaGnome]

https://www.simplyduty.com/calculate-uk-import-duty-taxes/

Not from UK, but looking up how the import taxes work it looks like it's not worth it and probably why they are much lower price here.

[WunkusMcDunkus]

Bear in mind that customs can be hit and miss. I ordered a metal bucket from the US once by accident and customs destroyed it because it was "suspicious". You probably won't be entitled to a refund either as you have nothing to return.

It will probably be fine but you might get unlucky and lose a few hundred quid. It's better to just buy a used one off of ebay.

[porina]

Basically anything bought outside our current customs zone (effectively still EU) will be liable to VAT at current rate (20%), and there may be duty too (depends on product). Whoever delivers the parcel will likely take another chunk as their processing fee. The rates from memory were typically £8.50 for Royal Mail, or £13-ish for Parcelforce, but this is quite likely out of date as I've not imported anything in a long time. The likes of UPS/FedEx etc. will be on the upper end of that. 

 

Couriers will always charge. RM/PF don't 100% charge, but expect them to do so, and count yourself lucky if they don't for any reason.

 

Generally speaking if you apply VAT to US pricing, it doesn't work out that different from UK pricing anyway. IMO not worth the pain and risk. The only times I'd do it is if the item was not available locally so you don't have a choice.