K-7 price dropping already?

You pay the UK VAT rate: 15%.

Duty rate: I'm not sure, depends whether it counts as a video camera!

Handling charge for collecting tax: £8 for Royal Mail, possibly higher for other couriers.

Try http://www.dutycalculator.com/?gclid=CPKB1ruetJsCFUQA4wod22jKOg

Treat yourself to a trip downunder and get your camera - all for less that you might pay in Blighty!

Presumably one doesn't pay VAT on gifts? There are probably few people in the UK without a helpful family member or friend down under or across the pond

It's tempting

To see the K-7 selling for 52% cheaper than a D300 in Australia, when SRS has them at the same price in the UK has nothing to due with currency fluctuations at all as prices should be affected pro rata. In the US it's listed as 38% cheaper at B&H. The only reason prices vary wildly in different markets is because that is what the company thinks they can sell it for.

Come on Pentax, make a statement and get this camera selling in the shops for £899 - £999, you can keep the £1199 RRP list price if you like, but please give the retailers more margin to work with!

This won't count as you have to declare a value and if it is over £20 I think they will levy VAT. Although if you are VAT registered then it's not really an issue anyway

From http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfp... :

"Goods sent as a gift are not free of import duties and import VAT. However, customs duty will not be collected if the amount is less than £7, and import VAT is not chargeable if:

the value of the gift does not exceed £36
the customs declaration is completed correctly
the gift has been sent from a private person outside the EU to a private person(s) in this country
the gift is for the use of either yourself or your family
there is no commercial or trade element and the gift has not been paid for either directly or indirectly
the gift is of an occasional nature only eg for a birthday or anniversary.
Please note the purchase of goods from outside the EU to give as a gift to a relative or friend, whether or not addressed to that person, is treated as a ‘commercial consignment’ for which the import VAT relief threshold is £18

Dammit!

I guess this is where actually going abroard has a benefit (presuming you forget to declare the camera hanging around your neck as you pass through customs).

Just to re-emphasise to all, if you order from abroad (even via a family member) or bring the goods into the country then you are the importer of the goods and therefore responsible for paying all VAT & Duty. Not doing so is tax fraud which could land you in very serious trouble, even prison. The person (or company) sending the product does not have this responsibility!

Before anyone says something they shouldn't!

And don't forget, you have to pay VAT on the shipping too!

I wonder if Pentax are seeing the UK as part of the EU and pricing in Euros then translating to pounds? It could explain things (a little).

I was given a "gift" of two Cannondale cycles - UK price £500 & £999 when I visited the US a few years back.

Fortunately my cousin gave me copies of the receipts showing what he had paid.

I declared them at customs and paid duty on one - the other was under the tax free limit. They said that even as a gift duty is payable and will be charged on the UK price if the documentation fails to give a value or an artificially low value.

An ex-colleague was buying various items through a family member in the US and one day he got hit for duty. He then did a foolish thing. He called C&E and asked "why has duty and VAT had been levied this time, when previous items had come though with no duty or VAT". C&E agreed to look into it, if he could provide a list of previous items that had been sent, along with dates. He provided that list - an they sent him an invoice for unpaid duty and VAT!

It just seems to me that people in the UK start screaming Rip-off Britain as soon as they find something costs less elsewhere in the world, regardless of what the situation was a few months ago. That to me seems like very childish behaviour.
You did not here us complaining of rip-off Holland/EU did you? No we just took advantage of the prices in the UK and bought things there - even when we couldn't have benefit of the cash backs offered.

If you want one cheaper than in the UK without having to pay VAT and import duties then order one from Holland. At least you are then covered by EU guarantee rules too.

Whoops, too late! Of course I wouldn't ever do such a thing, it was purely a hypothetical scenario.

Doh!

To be honest, I'm not serious about importing a K-7, as if anything goes wrong. I want to be able to drive to Watford for a quick fix!

It just hit me smack in the face when Clarky posted Aussie prices, 52% cheaper than a D300 is just bonkers. I've just finished saving enough cash for a K-7 & grip, then to find out that with the same cash I could buy 2 bodies in Australia, just really stopped me in my tracks. Not to mention I've giving up smoking today as well, but my blood is boiling just a little!

Having travelled and lived in several parts of the World, 'Rip Off Britain' is the rule not the exception. The case you cite over Pentax's UK price and cashback is more of an exception. We normally pay over the odds for most things.

As I said, nowadays it is harder for this disparity to take place than before due to the ubiquity and transparency of the Internet, although where companies can get away with it by making a product only work in one country, like an iPhone or region locked DVDs they surely will. Luckily it is easier to buy multiregion DVD players now which undermines the restrictive pricing policy of the movie studios, so where there is a way round it prices will start to even out as they can't justify the continued ripoff

Gwyn, the difference in price compared to a competing product is the moan here, not that the UK pays more. Currency has no bearing on this as it affects all products exactly the same.

Using examples supplied by yourself / Clarky / SRS and B&H, difference in price between a D300 & K-7

AU - 52%
US - 38%
EU - 12%
UK - 0%

To complain about such wildly varying pricing is not childish at all. Some people would actually call it discriminatory. The only thing I want to see is a fair playing field, if it's going to be say 20% difference, then make it 20% difference everywhere. Is that really a childish thing to ask, really?

All things being equal, the lack of differential in the UK between a D300 and K7 might push some potential K7 customers to buy the Nikon if they were not aware of what a friendly bunch we have in our forum compared to theirs

Although I have to say, I was in my local Curry's superstore and had a play with several different cameras from all the manufacturers recently from the cheapest to the most advanced, because for me the way it feels in my hands and handles is important.

And if I wasn't already a Pentax lover and was uncommitted to a brand, I have to say I loved the feel of the Nikon D90 and 18-105mm lens for £779...it would take some persuading to get me to spend the additional £400 for the K7. They both have a similar solid feel and weight in my hand from what I recall of the K7.

All other things considered, as many people have said in this forum (who are all Pentax devotees) is it really worth double a K20d? Whereas if it were in the £800-900 range, almost all the serious shooters here would upgrade without blinking is my take on it

By the way, please give me all the reasons not to buy a D90 as I haven't read much about it, but it sems like a D300 in a smaller body