Buying from Germany: duties?

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Hi,

I'm thinking about buying some used equipment from a German dealer via eBay. Does anyone know if duties/customs/taxes are applicable to such a purchase? (I'm in California.) Any other caveats I should be aware of?

Thanks

Logos

-- maestro logos (maestro_logos@mac.com), April 13, 2002

Answers

Make sure you use paypal or something like it. Don't even try money return or simple bank transfers. They will add huge to the costs. I had that expirience even from germany to holland We're neighbours!). They added 50 dollars (60 euro) of cost in shipping and handling that we weren't even informed about. (They told it was 20 euro, they added(!) 50 of side costs). Also make sure the package is ensured (you can't ensure the content btw when the package is undamged).

good luck Reinier

-- ReinierV (rvlaam@xs4all.nl), April 13, 2002.


The equipment will be subject to U.S. customs duties (the tariff rate will vary depending on the type of merchandise) & must be declared. However, if the seller does a lot of int'l business & knows what he/she is doing, their shipper (Fedex, Deutsch Post, etc.) will take care of that for both of you & the cost will be included in the shipping & handling charges.

-- Chris Chen (Wash., DC) (furcafe@NOSPAMcris.com), April 13, 2002.

I just shipped an Elmar 3,5/3,5 to the states from germany, which cost me with about $10 for shipping for a package of about 1,5*2,5*6 inches (uninsured) - quite an amount. But you may know about insane shipping costs as well.
Another point ist the fee for money transfer, which was done using an international money order shipped using US Mail. They charged me another $9 for letting it resolve to my accont since it was not issued in Germany. Nontheless, I knew about this in advance so this was ok for me. It would be much easier with a credit card since only the credit card companies fees will apply then, or PayPal and similar.
Also everything sent to any country may be relevant to taxes which are to be paid by the reciever. However if you declare it as a present or similar and set the value accordingly I only had to pay taxes once in about 10 transactions (though most of these were no expensive Leica lenses and also fell under the german tax department).
Altogether I think you have to deal with another 10% fees on banks, mail and taxes, I'm afraid.

-- Kai Blanke (kai.blanke@iname.com), April 14, 2002.

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