Shipping from USA

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WhiteLight

Senior Member
Been looking at some Lighting Equipment & seem to have run into a wall.
Precisely looking at the Einstein E640 strobe lights..
The USA site has it listed at $499, The EU site at 499 Euros & the Australian site at $635 (not sure if that is AUD or USD)
Shipping internationally is possible only via the Australian or the European website.
The original costs itself in the non-US sites are higher & adding the shipping costs makes it work out to almost 50% extra on the total cost.

If i were to order this from the USA site & have it shipped to some friends/family there and then have them ship it to me, would anyone know what the process involved would be?
Would i have to pay customs as well?
Would it be better to have it taken off the original boxes & then shipped?

Cameras & Lenses are not possible to be shipped due to some regulations, but B&H ships other Lighting equipment to India (like Elinchrom)

​Any inputs from anyone with some experience would be great!
 
G

gqtuazon

Gear Head
WhiteLight said:
If i were to order this from the USA site & have it shipped to some friends/family there and then have them ship it to me, would anyone know what the process involved would be?
Would i have to pay customs as well?
Would it be better to have it taken off the original boxes & then shipped?
Click to expand...

Having your items shipped to your relatives / friends in the U.S. is probably the most economical way, then have them shipped vis DHL if they do that in your country. Other option is to take a week vacation to the US, and bring back the items yourself.
 
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Dave_W

The Dude
I agree with gqtuazon, I've shipped things to friends in EU and the VAT savings more than cover the shipping and then some.
 
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Dave_W

The Dude
The only issue I've ever ran into was with EU customs and their hunt for VAT. Most, if not all, countries require a value is placed on the shipment and if the value is placed above their cut off, they'll require the recipient to cover the additional taxes. So the key is to give a value that isn't so low as to bring attention to it but is also low enough to keep the tax man at bay.

At the lab I used to work at, we mailed small quantities of experimental drugs back and forth to China and India multiple times a week and sometimes an item would sail through customs while other times items would get held up for weeks. There was no rhyme or reason to it, I guess it just depended upon the inspector and whatever mood he (or she) was in at the moment.
 
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