It's out

It is indeed a trap, and I've fallen foul of it too, although as I wanted the goods I had little choice!

I'm glad that at least the lens was a good one - better than paying £60 for one that turns out to be disappointing?

Hi Kimbo,

Exactly right!!

There are also other pitfalls...some German ebay sellers. usually dealers do not include German VAT on the auction....so unusually for ebay, the final winning bid price is subject to an extra 16% being added after the auction end! watch out for this.

Just to make you feel worse, as well as US citizens getting cheap goods, If they import from outside of the US, their customs charge them NOTHING on used goods...they take the view that any tax has already been paid on the item when new.

Cheers Steve.

Steve,

What I stated are the rules. You can indeed often get away with not paying VAT on parcels, but this applies to parcels from anywhere, not just Europe, although it's possible that some uneducated customs staff don't know which countries are in the EU and which aren't.

And you're right about the fact that VAT is charged on the full landed cost, which means the price paid plus shipping plus duty.

If the goods are sent otherwise than by post then a charge for dealing with the VAT will usually be levied by the courier.

Provided you know all this, then buying from North America can still be much cheaper than buying from Jessops.

G

Hi,
Even Royal Mail and Parcelforce levy a charge of £8 and £16 respectively. The only one I know of who doesn't is DHL.

Regards
Kim

I'm out of date!

G

blimey!!! I did not realise Jessops was a camera shop, I thought it was a computer store.....

(Back on thread)

Park Cameras have listed the 12-24mm. At a pinch under £700.
Big ouch! That really smarts, especially as the Sigma 10-20mm can be had for around the £300 mark... but isn't available in PAF mount

Just hope the street price lowers (a lot!).
Matt

Hi,

If that £700 price tag is correct and I see no reason to think otherwise, then Pentax are taking the mickey it seems to me. The problem is that because the independants i.e effectively now only Tamron & Sigma, seem increasingly to think only Canon & Nikon exist by failing to release several of their lenses in either Pentax K (OR Minolta) mount, then Pentax are left to set their prices where they want to.

In the 70's & 80's, Minolta were having real trouble selling their MD lenses due to the rise in sales of independant lenses and had to redesign the whole MD lens range with corresponding lower prices...we now see the opposite happening.

This continual shift to just two main camera players in the market is not healthy for anyone. I am sorry to harp on, but the shift to digital and the shift of the camera market into the electronics industry is largely to blame for this. We already see Olympus in trouble and Pentax looks not so healthy. With Contax going, Leica in deep s***, Minolta and Pentax having to buddy up to what are minor or non existant players in the camera/ optics business the future looks bleak.

Of course the large useage of small aps sensors makes this problem worse for wide angle users...If I want wide angle I am sticking to film!!

Cheers Steve...still grumpy.