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Buying the mac mini from US

S

sc25893

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 2, 2012
86
0
Hi,

Has anyone got any experience in buying a mac from the US and importing to the UK?

The prices are better there but how much customs duty/tax is stuck on top? For example, a $900 mac is only £564 here, however, in shops here it's more like £700!

A very rough example I know but if anyone could help, it'd be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

Sam.
 
sc25893 said:
Hi,

Has anyone got any experience in buying a mac from the US and importing to the UK?

The prices are better there but how much customs duty/tax is stuck on top? For example, a $900 mac is only £564 here, however, in shops here it's more like £700!

A very rough example I know but if anyone could help, it'd be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

Sam.
Click to expand...

You add UK VAT @ 20% - so a £564 mac will cost £676.80, saving you just £20. Not worth the hassle, especially if its damaged during transit.
 
I USED TO SELL them on ebay to overseas buyers.

it simply became cost prohibitive.


it cost 70 usd to ship.

Max insurance allowed is 650 usd.


So if I get a mid model for 760 usd put in 16 gb ram for 70 usd my build cost is 830 my ship cost is 70 so at 900 usd. if i sell it on ebay my price needs to be 999 usd. I would make under 30 USD. the uk buyer will pay tax on 650 usd since that is the max I can insure it for then that is what I would list it for.

( and both the US and UK would say I am doing wrong by claiming it at 650 USD )


so tax is 130 USD. so the british buyer pays 1129 USD for a mid model with 16gb ram.

as a seller I make 30 usd


1129 USD is 710 UK pounds. if you buy from apple you pay 679 pounds plus 75 pounds for the ram


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-mem...X9OC/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1352468626&sr=8-7


your total is 754 pounds vs 710 pounds.


not worth it for me to sell on ebay to you.


not worth for you to buy it on ebay from me.

As a private sale I would save ebay fees not paypal fees and could sell it for 950 usd . tax to you is still 130 and your cost is 1080usd or about 690 pounds.

I would make 30 usd .

you would save 60-65 pounds. That is an awful lot of work for not much gain.

I stopped overseas sales since insuring and shipping got really stupid cost wise.
 

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sc25893 said:
Hi,

Has anyone got any experience in buying a mac from the US and importing to the UK?
Click to expand...

I used a virtual US postal address/shipping company to buy refurb AppleTV's from the US, getting them to europe cheaper than the 'official' apple rate. I wouldn't do it with something heavier/more valuable than an AppleTV.

Have you thought to price a mini via http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/education_routing
I bought my stock 2.5 Core i5 Mac mini 2012 via the Edu store as my daughter is a school student. Apple gave me the approx forty quid discount, which would be enough to buy a single Corsair 8GB DDR3 1600MHz stick and swap out one SO-DIMM to get a 10GB Ram mini...

there are possibilities...!
 
Do you use 220V in the UK? In the US it's 120V. I don't know if this might be a problem, just thought I'd point that out.
 
Hi,

Thanks but I'm going to buy from UK after being made aware of the possible problems.

Sam.
 
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