lo, thanks everyone, i ve got a vague idea now, thanks. something like the possiblity of no charges is 80%. so i jus hope im in luck.

thanks

When I got into racing I bought my first new kit from the USA. I paid all duty and VAT and still saved about £50. At the time I thought that was great.However, as time goes on and I need spares, tires etc I support the shops that in turn support the clubs where I race. I think it's only fair to do so. It's true that UK dealers cant offer the low prices we are offered from the US but, for example, the shop at York always give a discount to members and these deductions add up over the season. Also, if you shop around there are still good deals to be had. I got my radio gear from an online store linked from this site at considerably cheaper than elsewhere. The point I'm making is loyalty can be beneficial to everyone concerned, whilst time spent looking for equipment around the UK brings its rewards and forces prices down.That's business!

After my experiences with customs, being stung twice from america for £17.50 and around £38. Im alot more cautious on what I buy. HK and Japan usually get through without any trouble even when they are marked correctly, but American products seem to be alot more susceptable.
However, pricing up a few things I need for my B4, it would cost around £25 from the USA with shipping and around £60 over here without, its madness.

How about this for a horror story.

A chap on one of the car forums I go on recently bought some new cams for less than 40% of the UK cost.

UK customs cut them in half to see if they had drugs in them!:o

When he tried to claim they offered him the $25 it said on the parcel.
He is about £250 out of pocket, all to avoid import duty and VAT.

It's not the bloody shops, I can assure you of that!:(

:D:D:D:D:D

Thats why, you always tell the truth

true Dom,
if you try to rip em of in the end u get your arse bit lol, but do it legally and still save enough money to make it worth it,
i know its not the shops, but we all know were the real profit is and until they get there arse kicked nothing will happen apart from us customers being take to the cleaners,and you genuine shop owns earning a crust, not a living just a crust, it is a shame but a fact of life,

club members get a 10% discount if they use 1 of our LHS in Teesside :)

This is all nice, but we have no local shop, at the moment, that offers a discount let alone support the local clubs, mores the shame, I wish there was.

Haha. We've just had a set of cams sent over from the states. They landed yesterday.

A fantastic charge from customs for 260 quid(ish) though. :(

Although, even with $200 shipping on these items, to buy just the alloy heads in this country would have cost more than the heads, cam and nitrous kit shipped from the USA. So it's not just R/C where it's expensive.

Importing is favourable at the moment due to the strength of the pound, you can't moan at $2 to the £1 which is why a lot of things appear cheap other than just rc stuff.

The trouble is the benefits of the current exchange rate are not passed onto the customer through the local shops. Whether it's because of the shops margins or the distributors costs the customer never sees the advantage.

yeh i dont get it. its like $8 for some wheels yet the shops charge £8 which i think is apaulling, if they imported enough they would still get profit from selling them at £4.32.

But most things like this are made in the USA, which is why they are so cheap. Try buying a Schumacher kit from the USA, or from Japan, I would guess that it's more expensive.

When it gets to the UK you have to factor in shipping,and then the bit that the distributor takes, THEN try and make a profit.

Don't forget the VAT, and costs/overheads of running a shop, income tax, nat insurance, cost of living. It all adds up.

Nearly everything is made in China anyway :D

Liam, just checked on the new Mi3 $399 shipping $30 all told £215ish bargain when you consider that to get it over here its well over £270.

that's the bit that sucks. made in the UK, shipped to america, sold for a profit by the shop in america, shipped back to UK AND still cheaper than getting it here!! :mad:

i could write an exceptionally long post reference the differences between the american market and the uk one, however if you believe you are being ripped off by the uk madel market your not going to believe it, as for the mi3 if you are going to quote prices at least get your facts correct, any american advertised price does not include sales tax, all uk prices do (vat at 17.5%), so before making a comparison take away 17.5% from the uk price, then at least your on a level playing field, the exchange rate is high at the moment what was it when cml/helger etc paid for the container?

I never understood it in the USA, when you go and buy anything you have to pay tax on top of it! :o What's that all about? I've been to the USA many times and worked there, but still don't understand why my bag of crisps goes up in price at the checkout.

us sales tax only applies if you buy it in that state, not if you ship it to another state or country. plus most on-line stores the price you see is the price you pay no added sale's tax!
$ has been around 1.9 for a long time up higher at the moment but even at 1.9 still make's it cheaper than buying a uk product in the uk!

rearrange the following shot theory hell too!;)

i am not argueing that the mi3 would be cheaper or that there is nothing wrong with the current imbalance between the uk and us price.
lets take the quoted figures $399.99, on todays exchange rate it comes out at £199 however most people would order using a credit card and you will not get that rate from your credit card company, if you use $1.9 then the price would be £210 add $30 shipping it brings the price to £225. now take the quoted uk price of £270 remove the vat at 17.5% and it would make the price £222, if you got the best exchang rate you will stay between £216-£225. now this is a special case as we are talking about a british product in the us whereas most of the argument is about US products in the uk market a classic example would be the XX4 the losipartshouse price is $284 or £142 (using $2-£1) my shop price is £249.99 so order from them and save £107 you will of course have to pay for shipping which will eat into your saving, lets use the $30 quoted now your saving is £92 still substantial, lets assume your honest and don,t take liberties with the customs and excise. you will pay 17.5% on the total value inc shipping (£157+ 17.5%) =£185' parcel force charges will be £8-£13 so you would be looking at around £200 still a decent saving of around £50, all this assumes an exchange rate of 2 to 1 which you may or may not get.
the difference in price between the two markets is 20% ish so who gets the 20% because that is where the accusation of rip off occurs, is it 20% cheaper to run a distribution business in america are wages 20% higher in this country. all these questions i dont know the answer to, it may well be that there isn't a difference in which case your being robbed or that there is a difference and your not. unless you are an expert in the british and US business economies i doubt a definitive answer will be available.

I think that point Im trying to make with the quote of the prices is the following, if it can be shipped to USA and sold there at a profit for £200 why is it £270 over here and dont give me sales tax or any other excuse. There is still a vast profit being made be A the manufacturer, B the Shop.

Now do I want to pay that premium for a British product?? err no and certainly not when I can run the gauntlet and get it shipped here for less even £10 less is enough for me to try my luck.

I and many otheres dont have a vast pot of cash and I look for the best deals where ever I can find them and Im not fussy, if you offer me a world beating price I will shop with you, if its the shop in Japan or Hong Kong then bet your ass I'm going to send my business over there.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but I am fed up with rip off UK, we are taxed then taxed some more for our luck and then whatever we think we have left is taxed as well. I know shops have to make a profit and so do distributers so its not all your fault however, I do think that margins can be cut a little and not hurt anyone too badly, you never know you might sell more.

Sorry rant over and sorry if I offended anyone.

or you could jut move to america or dig a tunnel?

:) I'm deeply offended, your comments are unacceptable to me as an individual and the government of this fair country as an orginisation as a whole!
Without your taxes where would this country be hey, for heavens sake man do you have no sense of civic responsibility?:o

As soon as you find the good civic responsibility of all the near do wells, lightfeet, cut purses and other pond dwellers that WE let into power the I will kindly tell you where I keep mine. :)

And your only worried where you next overtime cheque is coming from if we all stop paying taxes!!!;)

It amazes me that an Mtroniks ESC, made in Yorkshire, shipped to Hong Kong, then back again, is cheaper than buying the same ESC in Modelsport.:o

But then again in Hong Kong there are no sales taxes, cheap rent and cheap labour.

:) It's true, please keep paying them to cover my overtime this B/H Monday, I need the money for the HB Cyclone D4 soon to arrive at my LHS from whence I ordered it!:)

You think our taxes are being spent well, best not go look at how overdrawn in Europe, old Gordon Brown is. I would happily spend my money in the UK and it's associated Taxes, if I seen policemen on the beat, localy, footpaths not dangerous, reasonable roads, a chance of seeing a consultant in a hospital without waiting 18 months.... etc etc.... our taxes are squandered, it comes to something, it is easier for an immigrant coming into the country to get housing etc than it is for a working family.

And don't even get me going on employment and the type of jobs this government thinks is good for the UK....

Shops over here are usually struggling to make money, they aren't ripping anyone off. Based on those prices if you take off the VAT in the UK then factor in rent, rates and staff wages (US minimum wages work out at £2.60 per hour at the moment) you would probably find the US shops are paying the same trade price as the UK shops for the kit but they will actually be making a bigger profit even though the retail prices are much less.

Yes, profit margins for the distributors can easily be cut, dropping all driver sponsorship and discounting and not bothering with customer support would reduce their outgoings easily. A bit difficult to cut down on the rent, rates, utilities, wages and taxes.

Tamiya can be commended, they discount the prices in Europe so it means it costs roughly the same to buy them in the UK as it does from Japan.

It's the items made in the UK which make the least amount of sense as that would make them more expensive for a shop in the USA to get hold of them, narrowing there margins to sell the item at a competitive price. Yet you can still have one posted back to the UK for less than you can by it from a shop in the UK.

Kits wise I personally don't think there is a lot to be saved, postage for large parcels is quite pricey and if you do end up paying import duty or VAT then the saving is really negligable. It's the small items like wishbones, shocktowers, screws and the like which sell for $8 abroad or £8 in the UK were the money is saved as the postage cost are generally pretty similar whether buying from the UK of the US.

On a slightly different tangent the other reason for buying from the USA, Japan or Hong Kong etc etc is that the websites are far more user friendly to order items (and have up to date stock info) from and know exactly how much your bill will end up being.
I hate to say it but it's customer service. I can go onto a US store website put my items in the shopping basket get a quote for postage pay my bill and 4 days late it's on my door step. If theres a problem the money has been credited back and I have had an email within a day stating what the problem is. The couple of UK model shops I have ordered from online have varied the postage price, and more annoyingly you find out when your parcel arrives that something was out of stock. You then have to ring the shop to find and when you get the replacement, the shop won't give you a refund, doesn't do the courteous thing and email you to say we don't have it in stock, then they want some more money to post the item out that you have sinced replaced from somewhere else.

I know that not all UK model shops are like this and that most of them will bend over backwards to try and help you out.

read my earlier post our xx4 cost me 50 quid less from states inc postage packaging and vat than anyway here in the UK, and thats not coming in the back door thats straight forward over the counter, scale model kits don't pay import duty, nether do replica kits, only trains for some weird reason, but vat is payable even then 1 xxxcr saved me 40 quid

[quote=terry.sc;37556]Shops over here are usually struggling to make money, they aren't ripping anyone off. Based on those prices if you take off the VAT in the UK then factor in rent, rates and staff wages (US minimum wages work out at £2.60 per hour at the moment) you would probably find the US shops are paying the same trade price as the UK shops for the kit but they will actually be making a bigger profit even though the retail prices are much less.

Yes, profit margins for the distributors can easily be cut, dropping all driver sponsorship and discounting and not bothering with customer support would reduce their outgoings easily. A bit difficult to cut down on the rent, rates, utilities, wages and taxes.

Tamiya can be commended, they discount the prices in Europe so it means it costs roughly the same to buy them in the UK as it does from Japan.[/quote]

:) O.k. so it's time to come clean now as Terry's bought up the subject of Tamiya, whilst I try and support our LHS who in return give me fair trade in prices on cars & equipment I'm upgrading, I don't buy everything from there. The main reason for that being that my son & I run Tamiya's in TC class.
I'm not sure where Terry's getting his figures from or even where he's getting his supply of Tamiya kits from? Our LHS hasn't stocked anything above a TT01 for years as they say they can't buy them at a cost which would make them competitive with the other manufacturers, they didn't even stock a TB02.
The last I heard the crappy, crappy U.K. distributor for Tamiya didn't even bring in the TRF415's & the TB Evo IV's & V's, the latter of which we run. At the time we bought our Evo V's Fusion Hobbies we're advertising them at £399.00:eh?: we bought ours from a very well known RC store in Japan for £195.00 each which included shipping and several spares such as wishbones, body posts, bumpers etc.
Clearly I may have lost touch as I as I havn't bought a Tamiya kit in the U.K. for years just the odd spare part from U.K. suppliers when desperate.
As far as I can see Tamiya, and their U.K. distributor, do little to nothing for those wanting to run their cars in the U.K..:mad:

Sorry but the sales tax/VAT does make a huge difference. If you are going to moan about prices/taxation at least compare like with like and add 17.5% to any tax-free foreign price.

And by the way, it certainly isn't the shops who are making the money on RC goods.

removed double post

Put bluntly, RC racing is not part of the Hobby Company's business model.

I'm pretty sure they bring in one batch of every car, but only the minimum that they have to order to keep their contract with Tamiya.

TT-01's are relatively easy to get at a very, very good price now (where shops can make a decent profit selling the whole setup with Acoms gear for £99).

And a XX4 is a scale model of what, exactly?:confused:

"Scale model" means diecast replicas and plastic assembly kits, not RC cars that come under the category "Toys"

Import duty is only 4% anyway, it's the VAT and clearance fees that make the difference.

For the record, I make £25 on a XX4, not really a lot of room for cutting my margin there.:(

Dom i don't think anyone is slagging of any shop, it seams to be the importers/ distributors that are at the brunt of all these comments.
we know the model shop are on small margins, and burly keeping there heads above water,
but as per your comment re xx4, it represent a (1/10th scale model kit working or none working)of a Baja bug sand racer, and the bit in comments() is from the UK customs and excise web site
it Say's all scale model kits ether working or none working (except trains)are exempt from import duty but liable for vat when import from abroad.
but as u say even with that one top at 4% would only add 5 quid so still 45 quid cheaper from abroad,