Buy a US address and more...

daveg

I thought this might be best suited here as the previous website for renting a US address was also posted on bargin alerts..

Have a look at http://parcel2go.com/. You can do 2 things:

1/ Rent a US address from them and they will forward you post to you. Handy for ship to USA only auctions and websites.

2/ You can arrange a pickup and delivery to you. Really handy if you want to buy something in another country and arrange your own shipping.

silent

shopthestates.com

cheaper and better
works fine (tested with >20 parcels)

OFDM

silent wrote:

shopthestates.com

cheaper and better
works fine (tested with >20 parcels)

What shipping carrier do they use? Have you ever got stung with customs?

silent

OFDM wrote:

What shipping carrier do they use? Have you ever got stung with customs?

USPS exclusively, one has allways the option of using USPS EMS (express), standard airmail or surface (never ever use this, you'll recieve your item in 2 months if at all)

Prices are good, only problem I have is if you want something quick, then they might not be ideal. Let me explain - it seems to be a one man operation that someone does on is evenings. When a package arrives he/she sends the mail about this sometime in the afternoon - I'd guess 5pm US time. Then you reply, with details about destination address, desired value declaration (see later) and other requests such as packing two orders into one (4$ fee) etc
Then on the next day you get the mail with the shiping quotes, parcel is seems to be shipped next day in the morning then. So it takes about 2 days until the parcel is shipped for experience, but I don't mind much.

Customs - I have a loooong history of ordering from the states over the past years and besides using couries such as ups/fedex/dhl/airborne express I got stung with customs only once via an post. This was for 2 harddrives from staples (great deal) and they were in 2 retail boxes, double boxed and big box. Besides that however never, maybe I'm lucky. I never ask or use that stupid declare as gift bit, several parcels that are quite large (shoes, laptop once) yet never had any problems except this one time. Declared value - sometimes I used to leave it at the real price - few larger parcels with ~300$ and over yet no problems. With shop the states now you can enter your valuation - I use 50$, 40$ is too low IMHO an suspicios, 50$is a ok-ish value and I'd guess should sail through customs without problems (most people wouldn't know the difference between a 300 and 40$ shoe anyway if opened)
Another option that I use sometimes for more expensive stuff - send as express, put value as 50$ and insure as such - my guess is customs would look at it and see that it's insured, who in their right mind would insure a parcel below it's real value. just my 2c

btw, there was a longer thread about this STS.com on this forum, but search is still fubar. look for it in the history, it was brought up by someone not so long ago

garred

Thanks for the info Silent. I looked at this a couple of years ago as the States does have great value but also they have great freebies. Just a couple of questions

1. Can you give us a rough idea of costs on shipping on some of your orders.

2. Can you avail of the mail back coupons that are ripe in America and in some cases are great value.

Sorry for pestering you

silent

the shipping is easy - ircalc.usps.gov -> enter the weight and check the costs for EMS and airmail. Then add 5$ (if you are not using prepaid which is good value if you order more often) and perhaps 4$ if you want them put two (or more) packages that arrived into 1 they ship out.
From checking my own quotes, they are quite consistent, perhaps add 1-1,5$ on to this (roundup I gues ) but never seen more

regarding MIR's or other deals - forget it, no way (maybe if you had family there or friends). STS' faq is quite good to check as well.
However cashback via ebates/fatcash works fine (google it)

garred

Thanks again Silent . Will sign up with their basic options, sure you don't have to pay unless you use them.

rubadub

silent wrote:

I never ask or use that stupid declare as gift bit

Stupid? it is not just trying to say "go easy on me its a present" it is actually in law, on the revenue site it explains how to label a package as a gift. They call items with a value up to €22 "Goods of Negligible Value" which will not be charged duty on. BUT if it is marked as a gift that goes up to €45.

It is smart, not stupid.

BTW I found this out researching buying duty free online. I wanted this thread moved to this forum but it went to online buying/selling here.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=3478852#post3478852

hk797

silent wrote:

STS' faq is quite good to check as well.
However cashback via ebates/fatcash works fine (google it)

Second what Silent says - been using STS a couple of times a month for last 4 months - smooth as you like - recommend them.

silent

rubadub wrote:

Stupid? it is not just trying to say "go easy on me its a present" it is actually in law, on the revenue site it explains how to label a package as a gift. They call items with a value up to €22 "Goods of Negligible Value" which will not be charged duty on. BUT if it is marked as a gift that goes up to €45.

It is smart, not stupid.

in my opinion this 'gift' box checked draw extra attention to the parcel - same as a ridiculous low declared value like 10$ - esp if it's bigger than a A4 sheet - hence stupid. The 22E-45E with no_gift vs gift is known but it does not help much with 100$+ priced items, does it. Frankly I doubt customs bother with parcels declared less than 100$ or not very big ones. Just speaking from my experience after 5 years of intensive ordering from US and at least 300 parcels in that time

garred

Sorry for badgering again but what are the ebates/fatcash. I've heard of the rebates alright but not these. I tried googling but could'nt make head not tail of it. I'm a bit slow like that

silent

basically before you make an order, you visit these sites (signing up obviously as well) and checking the store you want to use if it has any discounts - only the discount is not given at checkout, but to you through these 2 companies, at a later stage (usually 3 months later thru paypal).
It's not much usually between 3 and 6% but it varies. Effectively the store has a sort of affiliation program, that when you direct a customer onto their site you get a certain percentage, these two companies probably keep a small chunk and give you big rest as money back.

http://www.ebates.com/big_n.jsp
http://www.fatwallet.com/support/faqs.php#Cash_Back

chump

Hi silent,

Thinking of getting some "sneakers" sent over from the states...
Any experience of shipping charges thru STS?
Just rough guide... (I've no idea how many pounds a pair of runners weigh )
Am guessing about 2.5pounds when taken from box etc... which is (according to http://ircalc.usps.gov) about 25dollars + 10%odd 27.50 + 5dollar once off charge = 32odd for delivery ?

Sound about right?

silent

chump wrote:

Hi silent,

Thinking of getting some "sneakers" sent over from the states...
Any experience of shipping charges thru STS?
Just rough guide... (I've no idea how many pounds a pair of runners weigh )
Am guessing about 2.5pounds when taken from box etc... which is (according to http://ircalc.usps.gov) about 25dollars + 10%odd 27.50 + 5dollar once off charge = 32odd for delivery ?

Sound about right?

I'd expect somewhere in the region of 30-35$ including their fee for 1 pair of runners sent by standard airmail. EMS (express) will be about 10$ more. Shipping should go up by 5,4% I believe (usps increase) in 2006
I paid around 40 for a pair of clunkier dress shoes which weight slightly more than normal pair of sneakers.