Ebay questions.

GirvanaWantsBinnieBalls · February 3, 2018

Lets assume i purchase something on ebay , the package is from the US/china/hong kong and is well worth over 200$ and is shipped to the EU where i live , particulary Greece.

Since it is on ebay , where things are sold by anyone unlike amazon , do i still have to pay VAT and customs ?
Is there a way to avoid these stuff ?
Let's say that i bid on something e.g. a smartphone and assume i win the bidding and have to pay big cash like 500+ $ i still get to pay VAT

2. If i order from EU to Greece , do i get to pay VAT if it is an expensive item ?

Overall , i find great deals on ebay and amazon , but when i include VAT , and customs , it just seems really expensive , almost in most cases , not profitable...

3rrant · February 3, 2018

15 minutes ago, GirvanaWantsBinnieBalls said:

Lets assume i purchase something on ebay , the package is from the US/china/hong kong and is well worth over 200$ and is shipped to the EU where i live , particulary Greece.

Since it is on ebay , where things are sold by anyone unlike amazon , do i still have to pay VAT and customs ?

Is there a way to avoid these stuff ?

Let's say that i bid on something e.g. a smartphone and assume i win the bidding and have to pay big cash like 500+ $ i still get to pay VAT

2. If i order from EU to Greece , do i get to pay VAT if it is an expensive item ?

Overall , i find great deals on ebay and amazon , but when i include VAT , and customs , it just seems really expensive , almost in most cases , not profitable...

1. Yes, there are customs to pay which depend on your country taxes. In Italy it's 22% of the total declared value of the shipment + extra fees for size and weight of the product + even extra fees for some very specific materials. If the material is illegal in your country (and this can happen very often for stupid things like lipsticks which are chemicals) your shipment could be blocked and returned automatically. To avoid that, the seller has to sign the shipment as a "gift" but this is against international law so it's unlikely to happen unles you buy from China. Also, if the shipping method used is very cheap (like those on aliexpress) you might avoid the taxes completey because of bad habits of the couriers.

2. Between EU countries there are no taxes.

3. On Ebay, the total handling is usually calculated when you pay. If it does, you aren't gonna pay anything extra when it lands to you.

LTTfanfromSweden · February 3, 2018

why would you post this in tech news and reviews?

dizmo · February 3, 2018

Basically what @ErrantNyles said, except duties/taxes/handling are only calculated in the total landed cost when the seller is using the eBay Global Shipping program. Otherwise you'll have to calculate it yourself, and no, there's no way around it; if you try, it's fraud.