I have a foot in both camps living permanently in EI land since 1973 but
visiting W land and my family every summer. Most US hams would have no
idea what description or export numbers to put on a parcel of value being
sent to the EU let alone other nations. Many W, VE would continue to feel
a certain obligation once the radio was shipped and the uncertainty is not
something they want to take on. If you are fortunate enough to have a US
friend to visit ship the radio to them and pick it up on your next visit.
Of course you then have to deal with customs in the airport but you can have
your receipts with you and probably will not have too much trouble.
My personal experience with USPS is good having just received a second K3
from Elecraft in less than a weeks time though in this case I needed to use
a customs clearance service and UPS seems to do this for you automatically.
Small lower value parcels sometimes come though without any duty or even VAT
being charged but this is just luck!
I may be wrong but it seems to me that ordering direct from Elecraft is
still less expensive than purchasing other radios direct from distributors
within the EU. It is handy to be able to purchase in kit form as this
apparently means that the radio is duty free though subject to VAT. A
friend EI2JD just helped another EI get his duty back on a built ham radio
so apparently at least for EI it is possible to obtain built ham radios in
this part of EU without duty and I would suspect this applies for the whole
of the EU.
The kits are of course a bit less expensive and thus less VAT is due on
them. You might get a couple of filters without duty or VAT if shipped in
a small package but this will of course vary with the officiousness of the
carrier and country. I would expect either FedEx or UPS to always make
full charges.
Elecraft has an advantage in that it uses modular build so if you can locate
a fault to a module it is possible to just post the module back to Elecraft.
Another advantage of kits is that you are more adept at taking out modules
if needs be though so far there have been no problems here.
This is just my experience and it may change at any time.
73 Doug EI2CN formerly K4WQZ in 1960
-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Jim Brown
Sent: 02 June 2011 18:25
To: Reflector Elecraft
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Private Sales of used Elecraft Rigs
On 6/2/2011 10:06 AM, Jan Erik Holm wrote:
> I can not understand how going down to the local post
> office would be a problem and if the customer pays the
> shipping why would that present a problem for the seller,
> but then again what do I know?
Shipping via the US Postal Service is not something that many of us
would choose to do, especially with something as delicate and valuable
as a ham transceiver. That's a big part of why UPS and Fed Ex exist.
In my case, the major reason I don't want to sell internationally is the
matter of customs and duties, with the associated paperwork. Here it's
mostly ignorance of what is needed, what the procedures are, etc. I
might look at it differently with a ham I knew as the buyer. Nothing
parochial beyond ignorance. :)
73, Jim K9YC
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