importing from Japan

probably been asked before i have done a search but cant find it, I was looking on e bay at lenses and they seem to be a lot cheaper in Japan, are these prices too good to be true or are they a bargain, has anyone bought a lens or accessory from Japan lately and is it straight forward.

I've purchased from Japan fairly recently, although the item was under £50 GBP, you will need to add on VAT and a customs charge / admin charge of approx. 25% - 28% of the value of the goods.

I have purchased lenses a few years ago, prior to Brexit and they represented very good value even with the customs charges etc, also the Japanese sellers are very keen to please, service has been excellent and the goods I've purchased have been slightly understated, i.e for excellent read mint !!

I have however only purchased boxed lenses and have always looked at the feedback etc.

I bought a new (but discontinued) lens from Japan in October. VAT was included in the quoted and invoiced price and collected by eBay. There was no additional customs/admin charge. And the postal service managed to deliver it about a week earlier than estimated.

Steve

Good point Steve, my latest purchase had the VAT collected by Fleebay and no additional admin charges etc, my purchases prior to Brexit had Vat collected on import by the UK carrier ( RM in this case ) I had to pay the VAT on the goods then an admin fee and then VAT on the admin fee as well, before they would deliver the goods.

As mentioned in my earlier post, the lenses still represented good value at about 2/3rds of the UK mainland price

Thanks for the replies, I will need to do some more homework on this but there is some conflicting information on the internet depending where you look.

That applies to everything on the internet...

Steve

I was looking - (note 'looking' ) - at 200mm Pentax macro lenses on Ebay. It was very clear that the various sellers were using one set of photos for items they were claiming to be the ones in the pictures. Quite different sellers from different towns and asking different prices. So do compare their photos and make sure they are genuine because you might NOT get the one in the photo.

I was thinking that myself, I was also looking at a lens from America on e bay but the " import duty will be calculated at checkout " so you don't know the final amount until you have committed to buy, I contacted the seller but he said they use global shipping program and no way for him to know the cost, e bay calculate it automatically.