Canon 50mm f/1.8 II

elroberto

elroberto

elroberto

Soldato
Joined
21 Apr 2004
Posts
3,041
Location
Sunny Wales
Damn. Ordered one of these from Hong Kong on the 'bay and it arrived today, plus £24.74 import tax! I haven't actually saved anything by ordering from over there. Does anyone else who orders gear regularly get stung by this or am I just one of the unlucky ones. Luckily I'm ordering my 350D from Blighty next week so at least I'm safe with that one. :(
 
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Yeah, most of the time. I usually try to go for an auction that will repay the VAT and other charges. These are rare though.

For cheap lenses (i.e. under 3200 or £300) the UK is just as cheap once charges have been added.
 
Don't know if I can name them as they're probably classed as a competitor to here. From what I've seen they are one of the big HK outfits on ebay. They were very quick and even threw in a free handstrap for my camera body but that tax just nullified the point of importing it. Surely such a low cost item shouldn't have been taxed so highly though. Unless imort tax includes the delivery charges too.
 
elroberto said:
Don't know if I can name them as they're probably classed as a competitor to here. From what I've seen they are one of the big HK outfits on ebay. They were very quick and even threw in a free handstrap for my camera body but that tax just nullified the point of importing it. Surely such a low cost item shouldn't have been taxed so highly though. Unless imort tax includes the delivery charges too.
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You probably had £10 handling/admin fee yeah?
 
Only ordered a filter from HK so far and that came through marked as a gift so no tax.

Back in the days when OcUK was only getting started and items like Alpha Heatsinks weren't available in the UK I use to order a lot from the US. I virtually never had any problems with tax but then about 6 to 7 years ago Customs really seemed to wake up and everything got taxed. A few items got through as some companies marked them as gifts or engineering samples (not that I asked them to) and for some reason stuff sent via US Postal Service but the vast majority didn't. Luckily the UK PC hardware market was up and running by then.

It's even worse now with some carries collecting the money for the government (and charging an admin fee as well! :mad: ).

You take your chances. At least it didn't cost you anymore!
 
I have to agree for the lower price scale of the lens market it is just as cheap buying them here than ordering from Hong Kong/Singapore/USA. For some of the L lens for Canon i have found there is not much difference now between here and abroad by time delivery etc is taken into account.

SCM
 
Yeah, £11 handling fee with UPS. Perhaps I should have asked the supplier to mark the item as a gift or possibly a Warranty Return. (That's assuming this company would do this for me).
 
elroberto said:
*snip
Unless imort tax includes the delivery charges too.
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Yup , you pay VAT on the delivery charges . Got stung myself by this on $30 of UPS postage from HK :(
 
You have to love this country don't you :rolleyes: I mean how on earth the Government can justify slapping £24.74 onto an item that would have only cost around £50 I don't know.

Idiots.
 
No import duty on photographic equipment in Gibraltar :D

Of course I do have to pay very expensive shipping all the time as there is no such thing as local when I buy from online stores or ebay, and thats if they ship to Gibraltar at all. Also 90% of forms dont list Gibraltar in the country field, some require a post code, which we dont have.... Actually one of the few and best in that respect is OC, they even automatically deduct the VAT, which does not apply here.
 
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TomWilko said:
You have to love this country don't you :rolleyes: I mean how on earth the Government can justify slapping £24.74 onto an item that would have only cost around £50 I don't know.

Idiots.
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You mean ~£13 right?
 
starscream said:
How are you finding the lens though? :)
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350D Camera body is coming on a week monday, so I'll be champing at the bit to go and shoot the nuts off it. And of course will post some of it here. Bare in my mind, I haven't really touched an SLR in about 10 years, since my 30 year old 3rd-hand Praktica gave up the ghost! Hope I haven't forgot much.
 
Joe T said:
You mean ~£13 right?
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I must be wrong but doesn't original thread starter say £24.74 in his post?! I might be getting the wrong end of the stick its been a busy day :confused:
 
TomWilko said:
I must be wrong but doesn't original thread starter say £24.74 in his post?! I might be getting the wrong end of the stick its been a busy day :confused:
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Yes, but including
elroberto said:
Yeah, £11 handling fee with UPS. Perhaps I should have asked the supplier to mark the item as a gift or possibly a Warranty Return. (That's assuming this company would do this for me).
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What Joe T was getting at is that whilst £24 had been slapped on, only £13 of it was by the government ..... or I assume that's what he was getting at.
 
elroberto said:
350D Camera body is coming on a week monday, so I'll be champing at the bit to go and shoot the nuts off it. And of course will post some of it here. Bare in my mind, I haven't really touched an SLR in about 10 years, since my 30 year old 3rd-hand Praktica gave up the ghost! Hope I haven't forgot much.
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I'm taing my 350D and 1.8mk2 lens camping next weekend as well, so we'll have to post some pics up :)

I'm debating whether of not to take it out this weekend because I've got a friends stag weekend. I'm a bit paranoid of breaking or losing it though!!
 
I'll probably shoot like mad with it as soon as I get it. I've got a 30 mile hike coming up next month that should be a good opportunity of shooting the Welsh Countryside and it's going to the V festival with me too. Can't afford a big enough lens to get stage closeups so it'll have to be big wides of the area, unless my mate manages to do the business and gets me the magic backstage pass he's supposed to be sorting out.
 
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