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Morning all !
I'm in discussions to swap my frame and forks with a chap in the US for his frame and forks, just trying to work out best way to send both, as there is no physical money changing hands will we need to stump up the relevant duties etc? The only details I can seem to find online are for buying new goods, any guidance / experience would be greatly appreciated !!
Cheers
You pay duty and VAT on the value of the item declared by the seller.
So your frame is cheap right?
Make sure you both send the frames classified and paid for as parcels for their entire journey across all parcel services... whilst this may sound stupid, I bought a fatbike fork from a US forum bod.
All good, posted and tracked to Germany where it was discovered he had classed it as a letter and paid as such... so I tracked it back from Frankfurt DHL hub in Germany, through Hawaii, into Canada and back to the original sender.
For peace of mind I'd be inclined to sell your frame and buy his frame as separate but equal value transactions through PayPal. May cost you in customs but I can't see any other way of being certain you won't be caught out - assuming you don't know the recipient that is.
Just fly over and have a holiday while you are there.
Thanks for the pointers all much appreciated, I know the chap who wants my frame and forks through Andy @ Stooge cycles, but I am slightly concerned from the point of view of parcel being held somewhere and I cant get it !!
Have a look here for duty rates. Declaring a lower value could cause problems if you need to claim on couriers insurance.
Edit: Couriers usually send you a bill for the duty and some also charge a fee for dealing with the customs. Can't remember which one did it to me though.
I’m not sure you’re going to be able to make this work at a reasonable price.
I import quite a bit of stuff from the US, and the standard retail rates for fairly large items are quite high (we get a substantial discount from these, though, as we have a business account).
I’ve not looked into shipping a frame to the US, but, as an example, I looked into shipping a mate’s DJ bike to New Zealand and the quote was over £400 even with our discount. That’s before tax and import duties.
JP
Try the freight forwarder route will be cheaper than courier but longer to reach destination, due to Covid prices are also higher but getting better.
Use Transglobal Express .co.uk, they are a courier comparison site but also a freight forwarder. Really easy to use and will be about £100 for a frame box with the fork inside too.