US retail seller shipping to outside the US?

[c-Row]

Are there any Apple retail sellers who ship to Europe? In Germany, Apple notebooks are also sold through Gravis, so there is an option, but I don't know about any US stores.

Just asking since the MBP is 2.799 US$, while 'we' would have to spend appx. 3.480 US$ which makes quite a difference...

 

[riciad]

Don't know what the sales tax is in Germany but here in Ireland the total price shipped from the U.S. including V.A.T. would only work out at about €200 cheaper and there'd be the cost of shipping and insurance on top of that.

 

[c-Row]

Sales tax in Germany is 16 % at the moment but will be raised to 19% next year. Yet another reason to get a MBP this year.

What if someone in the US would pick up the MBP at a "local" store and bring it back to Germany when they return? In that case he would only have to pay the retail price of 2.799 US$, right? Just asking since some of my friends are in the US at the moment (foreign semesters). Just need to figure out how to send them my money...

 

[CanadaRAM]

If a US retailer shipped new Macs outside the US, it would be grounds for Apple to de-authorize them.

 

[riciad]

What if someone in the US would pick up the MBP at a "local" store and bring it back to Germany when they return? In that case he would only have to pay the retail price of 2.799 US$, right? Just asking since some of my friends are in the US at the moment (foreign semesters). Just need to figure out how to send them my money...

If you value your friendships, I wouldn't do it? What happens if the MBP gets gets lost, stolen or damaged when they're bringing it over? Could happen.

I wouldn't hesitate to ask a friend to bring something back from the U.S. as long as it wasn't over a value I'd be willing to write off to experience if something did happen to it. Don't think a MBP falls into that category.

 

[TsuaSai]

If you trust your friends I would probably do it. In fact I have done it before only it was bring things from Japan to the US. Fairly expensive things and there was not problems at all. But maybe I just got lucky.

Also maybe if your friend bought it here and then shipped it back. Since the Apple stores can't do that. They could you will still have the cost of shipping in all but could be worth it to save the money.

 

[mpw]

I wouldn't bother getting it shipped from the US.

You'll pay your local EU tax so at 16% your $2,799 is going to be $3,247 + shipping and you're then going to have a US version keyboard layout and plug, which may be no big deal but could be at re-sale time.

The tax will still be due if a friend brings it back for you to save on shipping and you might find that, depending on the state they purchase it the base price of $2,799 could be as high as $3,079 due to sales tax in the US which would leave you paying a total of $3,572 after EU tax more than buying in Germany.

 

[riciad]

If you trust your friends I would probably do it. In fact I have done it before only it was bring things from Japan to the US. Fairly expensive things and there was not problems at all. But maybe I just got lucky.

I wasn't implying that you couldn't trust your friends.

Just to illustrate my point, many years ago I was going to England and a friend asked me to pick up a camera for him as it was substantially cheaper there at the time. I had £1200 in cash for the purchase. For a scary half hour I thought I had lost my wallet containing that sum and most of own money. (I was at a computer show at the time and I tend to get easily distracted at these.)

Luckily, an honest person had found it and turned it in, but if that hadn't happened I would have felt obliged to purchase the camera from my own funds and not tell him what had happened.

I wouldn't want to put a friend in a similar position and we all know **** happens.

 

[c-Row]

Ah, but the price is so tempting... oh well, guess I will still have to stick to the higher price then. Thanks for all your opinions.