Thinking of buying a guitar from USA

mrleon83

As above, looking at eBay seem to be good deals, what's the catch?

RaymondLin

Done it twice, as above, budget for VAT, duty and handling fee. Typically another 25% on top.

impmann

I just bought a 93 USA Standard Strat from the US. Even after duty and shipping, it came in at around £300 cheaper than I could buy one in the UK of the same year/spec.

Do not be afraid. :-)

randomhandclaps

Also USA guitars tend to generally be thought of as a bit sub-standard.

blueskunk

Done a few times with no hassle.

mrleon83

Cool! 25% might make it less cost affective though .. Hmmmm

RaymondLin

mrleon83 said:

Cool! 25% might make it less cost affective though .. Hmmmm

It depends on the original price, how unique it is, the difference to one locally here.

fretfinder

impmann said:

I just bought a 93 USA Standard Strat from the US. Even after duty and shipping, it came in at around £300 cheaper than I could buy one in the UK of the same year/spec.

How much was it before duty and shipping if you don't mind me asking?

IvisonGuitars

If you really want to save BIG money, you need to go out there, buy it and bring it back yourself.

impmann

fretfinder;438094" said:

impmann said:

I just bought a 93 USA Standard Strat from the US. Even after duty and shipping, it came in at around £300 cheaper than I could buy one in the UK of the same year/spec.










How much was it before duty and shipping if you don't mind me asking?

I bought mine through the eBay global shipping thing, which was a bit rubbish if I'm honest from a tracking perspective but it actually was incredibly cheap.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=390956861126

fretfinder

Not bad. I wouldn't have thought you'd have had to pay more than £500-£600 for that over here personally, but then it's not the sort of thing I keep an eye on so I could be wrong.

RaymondLin

miserneil said:

If you really want to save BIG money, you need to go out there, buy it and bring it back yourself.

Surely the £500 plane ticket and like £100 per night hotel would kind of make this not worthwhile, even if you manage to sneak it pass customs ?

IvisonGuitars

RaymondLin said:

miserneil said:

If you really want to save BIG money, you need to go out there, buy it and bring it back yourself.

Surely the £500 plane ticket and like £100 per night hotel would kind of make this not worthwhile, even if you manage to sneak it pass customs ?

Well, I can only go on personal experience but it worked for me :-)

Majorscale

@miserneil, kinda off topic but talking of expensive American things...you met Taylor yet? Any scoop?

RaymondLin

Majorscale said:

@miserneil, kinda off topic but talking of expensive American things...you met Taylor yet? Any scoop?

Bob or Swift? 

IvisonGuitars

Majorscale said:

@miserneil, kinda off topic but talking of expensive American things...you met Taylor yet? Any scoop?

Haha! ;-)

impmann

fretfinder said:

Not bad. I wouldn't have thought you'd have had to pay more than £500-£600 for that over here personally, but then it's not the sort of thing I keep an eye on so I could be wrong.

If I had a penny for each time someone said similar before I bought this...

OK - I wanted a very specific guitar, from a very specific year. The cheapest I had seen one for ANYWHERE in Europe, let alone the UK, was £650 and it was terrible. The average price for US Standards from the early to mid 90s is *rising* - I would have agreed with you this time last year, but unless you are happy to accept a dull old Sunburst or Fiesta red (I'm not - I can't stand either colour) you start looking at guitars that are £750+.

Its a bit like when I bought my AVRI Jazzmaster - "conventional wisdom" told me to expect to pay around £800-1000 maximum for one... so I searched. FOR MONTHS. Apart from a sunburst one (see my comment above) nothing came up sub £1000. I ended up finding mine for just shy of £1000 after a lot of searching - and then I had to spend a lot of money sorting it out so it played/sounded right.

I'm not convinced by these low-ball sums banded around about US Fenders - some folks seem to get very lucky with daft offers, but if you actually look at the trends for what they sell for and monitor this over a long period (as I do), then those sums don't stack up.

Good luck to anyone that scores a bargain below the market value - but don't immediately believe that that low price is the new market value...

sunshinewelly

theres always blackcatstrats

they seem to source from the USA and sell well below UK prices

BigMonka

RaymondLin said:

Done it twice, as above, budget for VAT, duty and handling fee. Typically another 25% on top.

does that include delivery in that figure? My sister is moving to the US so if I go and see her it might be tempting to pick something up and potentially save the delivery costs (but I don't how significant they are).

UnclePsychosis

@bigmonka

The 25% is on top of any delivery charge, tax is paid on the total amount.

If you're going to the states anyway then bringing it back yourself and saving the delivery charge can be very beneficial - you save the cost of the shipping plus the 25% that would have been levied on the delivery part. Plus you get to play it in person beforehand which removes my biggest doubt about importing - what do you do if you have to send it back?

Some people will tell you that if you bring it back yourself that you can skip customs entirely but that's a slightly risky (and illegal) game to play.

GavRichList

@impmann NO! I won't have it. USA Standard Teles are now £300. That's the benchmark.