Rip Off Prices

Hi I am new here, I live in England and am well annoyed at the prices the retailers charge over here for wakeboards and bindings in most cases it is DOUBLE the price what you people in America pay! So I am trying to investigate how much it will cost me to buy a wakeboard from America. Does anyone here know what taxes/customs charges would be involved wehn buying a wakeboard from America and having it brought into England, I'm sure its bound to be cheaper than what retailers here charge!

Thanks

Ross

Yeah, I think it would be cheaper because doesn’t pounds have more value then American dollars? I'm not quite sure about that but I believe it is right. I got my wakeboard half price here and it is honeycomb, and for my bindings I got a good deal on them too. Although, if you were to buy a wakeboard from Canada wouldn't it be even cheaper? Lol, i'll stop now, I don't even know if this information is right.

Yes the Pound is much stronger than the dollar. but we also get paid less and they charge more. Everything is far cheaper in the states.
Ross where in England are you??
Give me an e-mail and I'll tell how to go about buying wakeboards from here

(Message edited by kristian on September 01, 2003)

Ross,
Boards are cheaper in the good ol' USA but consider the following.
You can get a 2004 board for $400 add onto this a $40 shipping cost (est) and the total you have to pay is $440 convert this to GBP at 1.56 = £280 sounds great.
Now for the bad news.
You will then have to pay import tax & finally VAT on the total cost (inc shipping), the import tax will average at about 5% (this could be 0%-5% it depends on how customs class the item, some industrial companies get hit with 85% import duty) VAT is currently @ 17.5%. With these taxes your cost will then be £348. This is roughly £3 more than the latest boards on sale at www.princes-shop.co.uk

As a separate issue if you do have a warranty issue with your board you will find it near impossible to return to a UK dealer. Support you local board shop, with more purchasing power they will be able to negotiate better deals in future.

Your final option is not tell customs that you are importing a board and risk getting caught. Under this scenario you would then pay an additional fee to the delivery service (royal mail, etc) to have them levy the taxes.

Good Luck.

Ross,
The guy above almost certainly works for princes shop. They say the exact same thing under FAQ on their website. They are a great shop and you should check them out as they are probably one of the best in the country. Another good one is the Jb watersports shop at www.wakeboardisland.com, where i got a board from. He has a point about the warranty - I got stung on the same thing with my first board.

There are ways around import taxes/VAT though - if you get in touch get with a shop they will send it as a gift to you which gets round it. The other way is to wait for a mate/relative to go over and get them to bring it back for you. Another good shop online thats british based is www.justwatersports.com - I ride with the owners every week and they are really good about stuff. It comes down to your what you need - if you want a cheap board and no warranty go stateside. If you plan on riding alot and so need backup close to home check out the sites above. Drop me a line if you want some help. Oh and yeah it sucks how much we pay here by the way couldnt agree more. Esp when you consider that if we can get a board over here for the cheap due to a strong pound then the retailers can too so they are probably scoring serious mark ups off us!

i don't know about conversion rates, strength of the yen or whether its a bullish market, but i suggest you just move to America. England doesn't have anything except fish,chips, and guys that slept w/ my ex when she was abroad. I bought my last board/bindings for 400 +s/h, you can come wakeboarding in Maryland if you want.

You might check out Ebay. Sometimes there are killer deals on it.

Will,
If I ever make it to Maryland I promise not to sleep with your ex.

p.s don't work for Princes, stuck in a boring 9-5 job..

Princes is extremely expensive, look at the price of those parks bindings, £325 which is like $500 US, my cousin just bought 03 parks on ebay for $220 brand new (granted this is a very low price). Anyways you are going to save a lot by buying through a US company. There are ways of getting around the VAT, email me to find out how.