Buying a lens from Japan via Ebay

skinny90

Hi All,

Spotted a lens I wanted and it looks good,good price and the seller has plenty of positive reviews and il be paying via paypal.

Delivery is fedex

I have never bought a lens this expensive through ebay.

Is there anything I need to be on the watch for? its just shy of a grand but I cant get close to it 2nd hand anywhere else

Has many people bought via ebay?

Good bad things to say?

skinny90

skinny90 wrote: »

Hi All,

Spotted a lens I wanted and it looks good,good price and the seller has plenty of positive reviews and il be paying via paypal.

Delivery is fedex

I have never bought a lens this expensive through ebay.

Is there anything I need to be on the watch for? its just shy of a grand but I cant get close to it 2nd hand anywhere else

Has many people bought via ebay?

Good bad things to say?

Anyone?

FitzElla

You run the risk of getting caught with duty, and then the full VAT rate on top if customs pick up on it. It can very quickly eat away any cost savings. Asides from that as long as you do your payment through paypal and keep all communications on site you have pretty good come back if there are any issues.

DaireQuinlan

To clarify, you almost certainly WILL get caught for customs & VAT. I've bought a few things from Japan, and I've factored in (and paid) customs and vat every time. Japanese sellers tend to be pretty up front and accurate with their descriptions I've found. OTOH there is stuff to be found in Japan reasonably cheaply that doesn't seem to be common anywhere else. e.g. Fuji Rangefinders, Mamiya six folder, to name a couple of things I've bought

Heebie

It's not "getting caught" with customs & vat. You're responsible for paying import duty and vat, full stop.

If the lens is over a certain value, you may also have to hire an importer or a solicitor licensed to handle imports, to do the necessary paperwork. (This happened to be with a saxophone once)

DaireQuinlan

oh, also, be prepared for Fedex to rob you blind on 'administrative charges', they add an extra x% on top of the customs and VAT to charge you for the privilege of billing you for the customs and VAT.

I bought an item on sale from kehcamera a while back, and Keh duly put the full value of the shipment on the invoice instead of the sale value. I managed to get the customs & VAT reduced accordingly but Fedex wouldn't budge on their administrative fee

skinny90

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

To clarify, you almost certainly WILL get caught for customs & VAT. I've bought a few things from Japan, and I've factored in (and paid) customs and vat every time. Japanese sellers tend to be pretty up front and accurate with their descriptions I've found. OTOH there is stuff to be found in Japan reasonably cheaply that doesn't seem to be common anywhere else. e.g. Fuji Rangefinders, Mamiya six folder, to name a couple of things I've bought

What kind of vat charges can I expect to pay, and fedex fees. Let’s say the lens is 1000 with shipping what would I expect to pay on top of that

DaireQuinlan

skinny90 wrote: »

What kind of vat charges can I expect to pay, and fedex fees. Let’s say the lens is 1000 with shipping what would I expect to pay on top of that

Google is your friend :-)

From what I remember the last time I was looking at it, camera bodies are about 3 or 4% duty, camera LENSES are about 7 or 8 or something, then the VAT is charged on top of that at 23%, and then UPS/FEDEX/whatever will slap their fee on top of that which looks like 2.5% ATM so in total roughly around €1350 or so for something valued at €1000.

wonski

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

oh, also, be prepared for Fedex to rob you blind on 'administrative charges', they add an extra x% on top of the customs and VAT to charge you for the privilege of billing you for the customs and VAT.

I bought an item on sale from kehcamera a while back, and Keh duly put the full value of the shipment on the invoice instead of the sale value. I managed to get the customs & VAT reduced accordingly but Fedex wouldn't budge on their administrative fee

On sales from US the vat was applied to full price of shipping+purchase price.

I guess it is the same for Japan. No?