Online buying. who do you use?

evad_lhorg

Just curious who you use for importing your games... DS or otherwise.

I found out about movietyme.com on the eurogamer forums and gave them a go a few months back. they are quite cheap and have free delivery to Ireland too which is good.

I have only ever bought off lik-sang and ebay otherwise.

who do you use?

1huge1

good old lik-sang sony's fault there gone (course i never actually used them...)

I buy most of my games online now
Mostly I use cdwow.ie there fairly cheap have a good selection and most importantly there free shipping worldwide
delivery time aint to bad either

Used play.com twice huge selection fairly cheap (not as cheap as cdwow most of the time)
When I used them they had free delivery but I read somewere recently that its different now (dont quote me on it though)

Ebay well ya the selection is endless and you can get it very cheap at times

jcoote

www.sendit.com is brilliant i got loadsa stuff from them and no hassle...and of course free shippin!!!

Garret

AFAIK customs is targetting play and cdwow deliveries

so if its over €22 then you might be hit with duties and all that crap

just so ya know loike

1huge1

not from cdwow because of something about them being cleared at luxembourg or something like that

Garret

1huge1 wrote:

not from cdwow because of something about them being cleared at luxembourg or something like that

really?

but they are being sent from Hong Kong

is Luxembourg a tax free zone or something?

1huge1

ya there sent from hong kong (most of the time)
but they all go through luxembourg (probably a reason for the sometimes long delivery time)

theres luxembourg wrote on each box and I think it just means it was done in the EU or something like that so they dont charge duties etc (once again dont quote me on the facts but its definetly something like that)

abelard

1huge1 wrote:

ya there sent from hong kong (most of the time)
but they all go through luxembourg (probably a reason for the sometimes long delivery time)

theres luxembourg wrote on each box and I think it just means it was done in the EU or something like that so they dont charge duties etc (once again dont quote me on the facts but its definetly something like that)

Is that a sure thing? I followed the thread on customs charging the extra VAT before Christmas, but haven't looked in a while. Has this been tested and verified absolutely?

And I havent imported any Wii games yet, but I import DS games from movietyme. They ship from Britain, avoiding the sticky tax thing.

1huge1

Ive been using cd wow for years as recently as last week and have never been charged anything than the price of the item.
thats the most verification I can give you becuase its not my area of expertise
sorry

Winters

Garret wrote:

AFAIK customs is targetting play and cdwow deliveries
so if its over €22 then you might be hit with duties and all that crap

Play ship from within the EU (Jersey) so customs cannot charge you anything extra as of the Free Trade thingy in the EU [Edit: I was wrong here, see a few posts below. The wiki teaches all!]. As regards CDWOW, I know they come form Hong Kong but im not too sure about this end of things... for CD's its fine as it is below the €50 import tax mark but with Wii games and such I dont know.

I would regularly use Play.com and Amazon.co.uk. I still use Play-asia.com the odd time for stuff and used to be a regular Lik-Sang customer till Sony did the deed's.

Long live Lik-Sang!

scrapland

Nearly all my stuff is imported or bought online. Here's the ones I use the most.

play.com (surely everyone know's of play.com)

sendit.com (Sometimes cheaper than Play + free delivery)

dvdboxoffice.com (USA/Canadian games for Cube, PS3 - yep they ship Sony stuff to Europe, DS, PSP etc..)

play-asia.com (cheap asian 360 games, cantonese music & movies)

ebay.ie (the odd thing now and again)

amazon.co.uk (used for cheaper USA marketplace retailers HD-DVD's)





As for customs. The only ones I used to get landed with was Lik-Sang. For my console imports. My Panasonic Q cost me €150 extra in customs duty and my PSP & DS around €70 each extra......

abelard

Winters wrote:

Play ship from within the EU (Jersey) so customs cannot charge you anything extra as of the Free Trade thingy in the EU.

I'm pretty sure there's an exception for Jersey (but I don't remember the specifics) which allows the customs to hold the products and charge VAT.

Winters

abelard wrote:

I'm pretty sure there's an exception for Jersey (but I don't remember the specifics) which allows the customs to hold the products and charge VAT.

The only possible reason would be due to the fact that its a Tax Free island. However, even then im sure you could use the Chewbacca Defense and the courts have it abolished.

monkeyfudge

Jersey isn't a part of the EU or the UK... apparently it is a 'Crown Dependency'

Winters

"None form a part of the United Kingdom, being separate jurisdictions, nor do they form part of the European Union. All three Crown Dependencies are members of the British-Irish Council."

The Wiki teaches you more and more everyday. Although they have a special relationship with the EU but, and I qouteth: "There is no VAT in the Channel Islands. Goods passing between the Channel Islands and the UK or the Isle of Man are imported or exported for VAT purposes."

So, if normal import applies, anything over €50 is susceptible to Import Tax of 21%. However, I have never once with any order on play ever been charged Import Tax. And i've had stuff upwards of €80 come to me from play.

monkeyfudge

Apparently a private company has recently been contracted by the revenue commission and they've been chasing up VAT on lots of Play purchases recently.

Garret

the tax free threshold is €22, not €50

anything above 22e that is being imported from outside the EU is subject to an import tax, the rate of which varies depending on the good

Winters

Garret wrote:

the tax free threshold is €22, not €50

anything above 22e that is being imported from outside the EU is subject to an import tax, the rate of which varies depending on the good

I've ordered a hell of a lot of stuff from Asia and US and only ever been charged import tax when they have been over 50 or 60 euro

But alas, according to Revenue its 22 euro. Thievin' bastards.

abelard

I thought I read somewhere €45 for gifts, €22 for purchases and whatnot. I'm not 100% on that though

1huge1

Garret wrote:

the tax free threshold is €22, not €50

anything above 22e that is being imported from outside the EU is subject to an import tax, the rate of which varies depending on the good

I've ordered things of cdwow like gc games that cost over €40 at times
they come from hong kong
I'm not saying your wrong at all but I think since the cdwow delivery's go through luxembourg they are an exception
maybe becuase the customs in ireland think its coming from luxembourg and not hong kong
I for one have no idea

Victor McDade

1huge1 wrote:

I think since the cdwow delivery's go through luxembourg they are an exception

Nail on the head.

When buying stuff from a Non-EU company (like cdwow), we have to pay VAT on items coming into the EU. But all these companies can choose any EU country to ship to, and pay the national VAT there. Luxembourg's VAT rate is only 15% so they send all their shipments through there and on to the rest of the EU. Once the item is arriving in Ireland from another EU country, our gov cant charge VAT on the item again

dts

Ordered two Wii games from CD WOW before Xmas and they came via Luxembourg with no issues. Got a pink DS lite for the little one from play with no issues. Also PS2 games and dvds from play with no problems. There was a story that an post had targeted play before xmas and garenteed the overtime would be paid to the workers in the xmas pay. Not sure how true that was but I think it had something to do with a deal struck with the UK customs. Anywasy I would say you would have to be very very unlucky to get a vat bill. If you do just inform play that it is stuck in customes and they will send you out a replacement. If you dont pay the vat then I think the item gets sent back to sender?
If you think the vat was steep on a console, I got a hot tub imported from the US now that vat bill stung:eek:

evad_lhorg

do any of these places let you pay by paypal?

seanos

Started using blahdvd.com, unsure where they ship from, so don't know if get hit by customs using them.
They don't mention any affiliation to play.com - but site looks nearly identical, packing/receipt etc etc also very alike.