Buying from abroad

It's not just shipping & taxes that you have to worry about. It's the delivery companies' "handling charge" or "clearance fee" that you have to worry about as well. Since the vcra came in, all but one of my guns ordered from abroad has incurred charges, making the savings negligible, especially when you consider that if an imported gun breaks or falls apart, it's not economically viable to send it back. It's about 50/50 when ordering parts for guns whether you get raped by customs or not but, if you do, then the delivery company rapes you as well, sometimes making the parts more expensive than just biting the bullet and buying in the UK. Sometimes it's a no win situation, in that the parts you need are not stocked/are out of stock in this country, so you have to buy abroad but then get ripped off when the parts arrive here.

I never thought I'd hear myself say it but, 99% of the time these days, it's easier to buy from the UK. The days of 2 dollars to the pound are gone and HMRC are out to stop people saving money by buying abroad. I used to order huge amounts of stuff from Hong Kong but nowadays, I don't bother.

Just reading b20_hk's post about shipping airsoft weapons back to the UK personally got me thinking. Has anyone ordered AEG's from a company outside the UK?
Are they more likely to be held/taxed/delayed?
Are they less likely as business post is usually left alone? (individuals are told "tough" but companies have lawyers)

I ask as I've found a few companies selling chinese AEG's for a lot less than over here, even after you factor in shipping/tax etc.

I think most of us have ordered from abroad in the past. You'll still need a valid defense, either UKARA or AFRA membership, and you'll need to scan the details to whoever you're buying from. You're best discussing that with whoever you're buying it from. Places like Gunner and RSOV both have facilities in place to organise it.

Assume you are going to get hit for import duty (plus VAT), which works out to about 25-30% of the order value including postage (from memory) and you won't get upset.

Quite a few threads on this topic already mate.

Unless it's unique (like the Viva Sten) or you know something we don't, then it really isn't worth it at the present time.

Sometimes it's a no win situation, in that the parts you need are not stocked/are out of stock in this country, so you have to buy abroad but then get ripped off when the parts arrive here.

That's exactly my problem, I could get them over here but they're always out of stock. They may work out the same price after shipping/tax and fees but at least I'd be able to get what I'm after.

By the way it was Gunner airsoft I was mostly looking at plus a few private sellers that had cheap K98's.

If you're after parts, Airsoft Global and Cobra Airsoft are pretty good as well. You never know, you may not get shafted. I have found that bigger boxes invariably attract the attention of customs, so don't order barrels unless you absolutely have to! Also, I'd recommend specifying the retailer NOT to use UPS as a courier, they have screwed me over on every package that they handled. Once, I ordered some parts worth about £50 and UPS charged me another £28 for "handling charges", wankers.