RateTheFreight Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 Hello, I’ve seen a few US YouTube reviewers (notably Eric’s Trains) review Menards O scale box cars which are more coarse scale than anything but exactly what I’m interested in. They also seem great value. Does anyone know whether Menards (they seem to be some kind of department store) ship to the UK or anyone in the UK who imports them? It’s an ever growing frustration that there seems to be no one in the UK who imports MTH/Lionel etc especially the modern replica pieces akin to our British coarse scale tin plate. eBay has some offerings but the shipping costs often seem vague and expensive! Any leads welcome. gregory Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 Did you try shopping online with them? https://www.menards.com/main/home-decor/menards-collectibles/o-gauge-train-stuff-from-menards/c-14331.htm?vu=trains Coarse O doesn't appeal to me so I know nothing about them. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdvle Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 11 hours ago, RateTheFreight said: Does anyone know whether Menards (they seem to be some kind of department store) ship to the UK or anyone in the UK who imports them? Most / all online stores somewhere have a link to either a shipping information page, or a help page to start the search, usually located at the very bottom of the page (or occasionally maybe at the very top). It is also often in a very small font. In the case of Menards at the bottom they have a link to a help section, which if you follow it and make the appropriate choices you get to https://www.menards.com/main/help-center/orders-shipping/c-19280.htm#helppages Near the bottom they have the convenient question "Do you ship internationally?" with the response of you can't directly from their website and that instead if you need international shipping to use their contact form: https://www.menards.com/main/contactUs.html?online=true Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 (edited) Greg possibly no help with Menards, but the UK (Jersey-based really) importer of MTH is OK on price; once you factor in shipping, VAT, import duty his prices match US box shifters. And, he is a pleasant and helpful chap to deal with. http://www.railking.co.uk/ Kevin Edited October 19, 2019 by Nearholmer 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium BR60103 Posted October 20, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 20, 2019 Menards is a hardware store. When we go there in July, they have no railway stuff whatsoever. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdvle Posted October 20, 2019 Share Posted October 20, 2019 12 hours ago, BR60103 said: Menards is a hardware store. When we go there in July, they have no railway stuff whatsoever. Go in December and you get a different outcome. They essentially have gone direct to China and they import a bunch of O scale stuff, primarily (only?) flatcars and boxcars, but the price is right as the saying goes. Emphasis is usually at Christmas but as it gets more popular it's possible, at least online, that stock is available year round. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium BR60103 Posted October 21, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 21, 2019 10 hours ago, mdvle said: Go in December and you get a different outcome. They essentially have gone direct to China and they import a bunch of O scale stuff, primarily (only?) flatcars and boxcars, but the price is right as the saying goes. Emphasis is usually at Christmas but as it gets more popular it's possible, at least online, that stock is available year round. But we only go camping there in the summer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasond Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 Hi Gregory, haven't looked at Menards site, but this came off e**y after searching for ... er, Menards! https://www.ebay.com/str/selkirktrains/MENARDS-/_i.html?_storecat=30042793011 He looks like an established business with good prices and international shipping offered (via Global Shipping Program). Shipping for one item is more than the item, but he says he'll talk about shipping for a big order. Don't be too British - he'll listen to your requirements and then readily answer your question "What's the bulk shipping on all of that?" OK, yes it does mean the more you order, the stronger your bulk shipping request will be! Anybody got anything to say about Global Shipping? As an O-scale 2-rail trader I used US Postal Service (USPS) where offered and my cost was price of item(s) plus USPS cost then VAT on the sum of the two (no import duty currently on model trains). Parcelforce were usually the handler over here (Post Office for small items) and charged £8 for doing the sums and notifying arrival and choice of home delivery/depot collection. Let us know who you eventually use and how it goes. Can't remember who it was, but one of the east coast stores was happy to do business because England was nearer than California! Jason Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdvle Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 2 hours ago, jasond said: OK, yes it does mean the more you order, the stronger your bulk shipping request will be! Anybody got anything to say about Global Shipping? Global Shipping is an eBay program where your item gets to your door with no additional costs to you - the Global Shipping fee includes the shipping / tracking / customs / VAT / etc. (which is one of the reasons why it can seem expensive, particularly if you are used to getting things across the border without paying the taxes). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Regularity Posted October 28, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 28, 2019 Not only without additional charges, but without the delay whilst the package is “held in customs” whilst they get around to sending you a letter asking for the VAT - if you are lucky. If you aren’t lucky, you are asked to provide a copy of the receipt to confirm what is written on the customs declaration. And then you have to wait for them to open and read that. Don’t ask me how I know this! GSP is slightly more expensive (you pay the vendor to ship it to the GSP warehouse, then pay the shipping thence to you) but it is a lot less aggravating. It also makes it easier for vendors who don’t want to get heavily into international shipping: they simply click a box when listing their item for sale - it can be ticked later on in an edit, I think. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 On 28/10/2019 at 21:30, Regularity said: It also makes it easier for vendors who don’t want to get heavily into international shipping: .... Very true. I've found it frustrating in the past how many US Ebay sellers won't even ship beyond the Lower 48. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdvle Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 5 hours ago, F-UnitMad said: Very true. I've found it frustrating in the past how many US Ebay sellers won't even ship beyond the Lower 48. Another possibility (note: I have not used them myself) depending on how much you order from the US, or perhaps if you can share the costs with some other reasonably local people to you, are the mail/parcel forwarding services that give you a US address and they then for a fee ship it to you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Regularity Posted November 1, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 1, 2019 I have a friend who does this for me when I can't have things shipped directly: he also inspects items. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianusa Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 How come the UK can get away with this nonsense? I can order trains from the UK with no problem and no import or customs problems! I got caught up in this mess when I sent a loco back for repair and in the end a relative had to pay the repairer before he would return the engine. Brian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 1 hour ago, brianusa said: How come the UK can get away with this nonsense? it's not called "Rip-Off Britain" for nothing. You even get the 20% VAT deducted when you buy from British dealers to America. I used to be able to stomach the adding of 20% VAT when I ordered from the USA, as prices were cheaper in the first place, & often still cheaper afterwards than buying in the UK - but a few years ago now shipping costs from the USA went through the roof, at least on Ebay, totally wiping out any chance of saving at all. Years ago I got an Atlas O Plymouth switcher from US Ebay for less than £20 all in, so it didn't even get VAT added. These days, the shipping alone would cost more than that, and - this is what really winds me up - the 20% VAT is added not just to the cost of the item, but the cost of the shipping as well...!!!! 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdvle Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 And when you bought from the US, I am guessing you got the US sales tax deducted too (or more accurately, given how US pricing works, they didn't add it to your purchase). Regardless of what one feels almost every jurisdiction has a sales tax of some sort, and in most cases you are required to pay this regardless of where your purchase originates. This is how Amazon become so big and dominated, with no presence in 49 states they didn't collect sales tax and the buyers predictably didn't self declare. Needless to say, plunging sales tax revenues as physical stores got wiped out soon forced the states to force Amazon to collect the sales tax for them (and given the mess of state, county, region, city, town, etc. sales taxes in the US it isn't a simple process). As for your shipping complaints, several points. One, I suspect you can blame congress. The USPS I seem to recall put through a fairly significant parcel price increase and I think it was about the time under Bush in the mid-2000s when the Republican congress passed a law forcing the USPS to pre-fund its retirment benefits until sometime in the 2050s (and the law only applies to the USPS, no other companies or organizations). Needless to say that law made a mess of the USPS finances. Two, countries around the world, noting the changes in how people buy things with resulting declines in tax revenue, I assume started putting pressure on the Amazons and eBays to collect the taxes for them so it didn't become a game of chance at the border. I used to order from Amazon US because they offered better discounts than Amazon Canada and even with the exchange rate and shipping costs (via the USPS) it would be cheaper than Amazon Canada (though delivery would take longer). Never got hit for taxes crossing the border. But Amazon started collecting taxes for the Canadian government, and add in higher shipping costs and it no longer makes sense to order from Amazon US. The eBay Global Shipping program is likely similarly a result of various governments pressing for tax collection. As for the VAT being applied to the shipping cost, of course it is. Just as if you pay to ship something within the UK you pay VAT on that shipping. Or if I order through Amazon US they charge me GST on shipping. You can make arguments either way, but in general if its taxable within the country you live in then its also taxable when you order online. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted November 2, 2019 Share Posted November 2, 2019 None of the US's Sales Tax rates reach an eye-watering 20%, do they? Anyway whatever the why's and wherefore's of tax schemes, at the end of the day if it makes the cost of buying an item unviable, then the purchase doesn't happen, & everyone loses out, Tax Man included. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Regularity Posted November 2, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 2, 2019 1 hour ago, F-UnitMad said: None of the US's Sales Tax rates reach an eye-watering 20%, do they? It started at 7.5%, then went to15%. And then... That was to pay for reductions in income tax: the lost revenue had to come from somewhere, and the dominant mantra for the past 40 years has been to reduce taxation on earnings and increase it on expenditure. Politics aside, this hits poorer people harder, but it’s what people have been voting for over the last 4 decades, including the poorer people. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdvle Posted November 2, 2019 Share Posted November 2, 2019 7 hours ago, F-UnitMad said: None of the US's Sales Tax rates reach an eye-watering 20%, do they? Anyway whatever the why's and wherefore's of tax schemes, at the end of the day if it makes the cost of buying an item unviable, then the purchase doesn't happen, & everyone loses out, Tax Man included. On the other hand, I was just listening to a podcast where an American mentioned spending $1,500 a month on health insurance for his family as though it was just another budget item. Now without know what exactly he is paying for it does seem a bit high, but still averages are $833 month for a family with a almost $8,000 deductible (and that was 2 years ago) https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/23/heres-how-much-the-average-american-spends-on-health-care.html That is one of the reasons they have lower taxes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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