Thinking of buying a guitar from USA

BigMonka

Neil said:

They charge you tax on it anyway and then ask you to prove you took it abroad with you.

So you need to take a £20 guitar with you and bring back a nice new one - the airline agrees that you took a guitar with you so HMRC are happy ;-)

(I'm not really advocating that, it's just interesting that at some point HMRC have to rely on the honesty of the public)

HAL9000

BigMonka said:

Neil said:

They charge you tax on it anyway and then ask you to prove you took it abroad with you.

So you need to take a £20 guitar with you and bring back a nice new one - the airline agrees that you took a guitar with you so HMRC are happy ;-)

(I'm not really advocating that, it's just interesting that at some point HMRC have to rely on the honesty of the public)

I once worked with someone who used to be a customs officer at Gatwick. He was pretty clued up about Fenders, Gibson's, how the serial numbers worked, etc. So I suspect you couldn't rely necessarily rely on the 'This is the same guitar I took out with me, officer' line.

cdeery1

thinking on doing the same myself. finding it hard to source the guitar i want here and even in the USA

Neil

HAL9000 said:

BigMonka said:

Neil said:

They charge you tax on it anyway and then ask you to prove you took it abroad with you.

So you need to take a £20 guitar with you and bring back a nice new one - the airline agrees that you took a guitar with you so HMRC are happy ;-)

(I'm not really advocating that, it's just interesting that at some point HMRC have to rely on the honesty of the public)

I once worked with someone who used to be a customs officer at Gatwick. He was pretty clued up about Fenders, Gibson's, how the serial numbers worked, etc. So I suspect you couldn't rely necessarily rely on the 'This is the same guitar I took out with me, officer' line.

This is correct and if customs even smell a discrepancy and they have no one on hand who knows about that stuff they will get an expert in to check it out and your expensive guitar could be seized.

I have looked at this from all angles over the years and the only avenue I could find where you will save money is to buy a guitar in the US for under £390 and bring it back legally.

With the quandary about whether the crew will put it in their locker for you (before it is dispatched to the hold!) I would break down a Fender and pack the two halves in separate suitcases. Either that or buy a flight case and pay the extra baggage cost.

BigMonka

Would £390 get you a decent amount more guitar in the US though?

Neil

BigMonka said:

Would £390 get you a decent amount more guitar in the US though?

Quite a bit more than you would get here.

Generally US guitars are the same price in dollars as we pay in pounds so your £390 would be worth more like £600 in our terms

BigMonka

Neil;442605" said:

BigMonka said:

Would £390 get you a decent amount more guitar in the US though?





Quite a bit more than you would get here.

Generally US guitars are the same price in dollars as we pay in pounds so your £390 would be worth more like £600 in our terms

Game on that's great news, I'll have to arrange a spending spree "family holiday" to visit my sister :-)

winstony

if you do it make sure the import duty is on as well , and find out about how much for the shipping , be very careful as i got caught and had to pay import which was near £200 , which after the shipping was a lot of money and only saved £150 on the guitar , be sure you have all the data on board , 

Eartrumpet

Neil said:

Eartrumpet said:

I have just bought a guitar from My Generation Guitars in New York.
I paid £880 for the guitar, shipping was quoted on the ebay site at $550

However when i expressed interest they told me to ignore the ebay shipping cost as many of the guitar shops in the US now get preferentially rates from FedEx

Any hoo, the damage was £880 for the guitar, £115 for five day delivery (insured) and £200 for Import duty, VAT and Fees.

This was a month ago so the prices are current

So you paid very nearly 50% on top of the guitars price for shipping and taxes?

It's a lot of money but I assume you still got a bargain?

TBH when I have looked at some nice US guitars by the time I add on shipping and tax the saving isn't really worth the hassle.  However there are certainly some older models that are virtually unobtainable in the UK. 

TBH it was not a bargain, but the guitar is so good. I think i paid 36% on shipping and fees, in all worked out to be a fair price (at least i am happy with it)

You know what they say, " A fool and his money soon party"