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Buying and Selling models to/from Europe


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10 hours ago, Cor-onGRT4 said:

See my post from August 5 , I mostly use since the option is offered the Hattons trunk,

my last shipment were 2 small pre owned wagons, an Hornby TTS decorder and small platform.

If I had shipped this seperate I had to pay 4 times 4,- pound to the Netherlands, I shipped last time all together from my trunk with RM,

only 5,- pound RM airmail, but trouble like you with duties, never had this with last eight DPD shippings.

Iff I had known this, I would have used DPD for 7,- pound.

But same as you got an invoice to pay customes duty from dutch post, so from now on I only use DPD only.

I can advise you to use their trunk service for small items.

Looks like the shipping with RM is still not solved, so iff I may advise you ,use DPD road shipping

works very good for 7,- pound. 

Unfortunately for Ireland the DPD option is not available.   I  tried a virtual shop last night and put a few items in my basket, the only shipping options it gives for Ireland is various Royal mail and one courier DHL which is quite expensive.  DPD used to be an option for Ireland, but for some reason no longer.  This is the choice of shipping options that I had from my 'virtual' shop.

 

Republic of Ireland

£4.70 Royal Mail. Western Europe. Airmail Economy. Weighs between 0501g and 800g when packed. 5-10 day transit time.

£5.00 Royal Mail. Western Europe. Airmail Priority. Weighs between 0501g and 800g when packed. Avg 3-5 day transit time.

£9.40 Royal Mail. Western Europe. Airmail "Signed for". Weighs between 0501g and 800g when packed. Avg 3-5 day transit time.

£15.00 DHL Express Priority. Insured, tracked & signed-for. Delivered 1 working day after despatch. Zone 1 - up to 1kg

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Bummer to see the problems coming up, Luckily just had probably my last parcel from the UK I'd say from Cornwall Model Boats. They shipped FED EX and I feared the Worst re charges. Driver called to the door and just went here's your parcel. 60 notes worth. Phew.

 

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On 12/08/2021 at 08:54, irishmail said:

Unfortunately for Ireland the DPD option is not available.   I  tried a virtual shop last night and put a few items in my basket, the only shipping options it gives for Ireland is various Royal mail and one courier DHL which is quite expensive.  DPD used to be an option for Ireland, but for some reason no longer.  This is the choice of shipping options that I had from my 'virtual' shop.

 

Republic of Ireland

£4.70 Royal Mail. Western Europe. Airmail Economy. Weighs between 0501g and 800g when packed. 5-10 day transit time.

£5.00 Royal Mail. Western Europe. Airmail Priority. Weighs between 0501g and 800g when packed. Avg 3-5 day transit time.

£9.40 Royal Mail. Western Europe. Airmail "Signed for". Weighs between 0501g and 800g when packed. Avg 3-5 day transit time.

£15.00 DHL Express Priority. Insured, tracked & signed-for. Delivered 1 working day after despatch. Zone 1 - up to 1kg

Did'nt you got a week ago an email from Hattons about international shipping options, there is mentioned DPD shipment by road EU 7,- pound,

to me EU are 27 countries including Ireland, looks to me that's included in these options, should contact Hattons about this, just because they advertise with it, maybe they don't know about it, and it need just a computer adjusment on their system.

 

BTW, I placed my first order for a loco from Hornby Hobbies direct , to look how this would go.

They have a new shipping system , customers in the EU don't have to pay extra charges and you pay in euros on their site, so no exchange rates from your credit card, and free shipping over 150,- pound.

Placed and paid on July 28, eight days later still nothing about the shipment,  so email them on  August 5 at 15:31 about this,

at  August 5 at 19:01 I got a email it was despatched by Hermes with track and trace number.

Never hear about Hermes courier, looks like it is an American corporation.

On August 10 , I got an reply from Hornby on my question , they said it was shipped , what I had found out in the meantime.

But it was since August 8 on the national sorting hub, and since then nothing has changed.

looks like it still hasn't left the UK.

At Hermes track and trace it is mentioned as a two day service, well it is now seven days on his way, oh no it's been on the shelf for seven days:ireful: 

So again I just email them , now another five days for an reply from Hornby.

Think you all know what conclusion I have made after this first order.

If I had ordered it from an average store it would have arrived a few days ago.

 

I will wait for an answer from Hornby, hopefully next week, or there must be a sudden change in the tracking status.

 

 

 

20210813_112712.jpg

Edited by Cor-onGRT4
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3 hours ago, Cor-onGRT4 said:

I will wait for an answer from Hornby, hopefully next week, or there must be a sudden change in the tracking status.

Just got an reply from Hornby customer service, well faster than last time, but they said non UK orders can take till 12 days from dispatch, caused by customs clearance, well if I shipped from Hattons duty free DDP like Hornby now seems to doe, it only take 3-4 days with DPD by road and that is including custms clearance.

Looks like this could take 20 days including the 8 days before it shipped.

Wondering why this takes so much longer.

Edited by Cor-onGRT4
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On 13/08/2021 at 18:17, maico said:

It's still not possible to order from the Trix website if shipping to the UK.

Shipping to Afghanistan or Antarctica is shown as 49.95 euro but GB is crossed out and verboten...

 

https://www.maerklinshop.de/en/shipping-and-costs

Not really an isue - simply order from your favourite retailer who will order from the UK importers & you will get your item at  around the same cost as direct from Trix.

 

If it's available direct from Trix that means it's in stock & can be ordered.

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20 hours ago, SamThomas said:

Not really an isue - simply order from your favourite retailer who will order from the UK importers & you will get your item at  around the same cost as direct from Trix.

 

If it's available direct from Trix that means it's in stock & can be ordered.

Errr, no!

It may be available from your favourite UK retailer but by the time it has gone through the UK importer (who always add their cut plus duty and any additional costs they can) - such an item will be in the order of 25% more expensive than were you able to directly order from Europe.

It’s a bit ridiculous isn’t it? Maerklin/Trix are apparently willing to ship to North Korea but not to the UK. Is the UK considered such a pariah state now? How many other companies in Europe are taking this approach?

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33 minutes ago, Allegheny1600 said:

Errr, no!

It may be available from your favourite UK retailer but by the time it has gone through the UK importer (who always add their cut plus duty and any additional costs they can) - such an item will be in the order of 25% more expensive than were you able to directly order from Europe.

It’s a bit ridiculous isn’t it? Maerklin/Trix are apparently willing to ship to North Korea but not to the UK. Is the UK considered such a pariah state now? How many other companies in Europe are taking this approach?

Quite a few it seems; I've seen a few websites that say "no courier available to your chosen country", or simply not including UK in the drop down list of countries. Or make the shipping cost so high it's not worth bothering with (€70 is the highest I've seen!). 

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Oh, and on an unrelated note, I ordered a book last week from an Italian website. Order placed at 23.59 Wednesday night, €14.10 postage, delivered at 14.30 on Friday. Can't complain about that! 

 

https://www.edizionipegasofirenze.com/2021/06/14/locomotive-di-guerra-vol-ii-austroungariche-ex-kkstb-mav-sudbahn-ex-drb-wd-e-usa-tc/

 

This is the book, by the way. I haven't opened it yet (birthday present for next week), but there's a section on WD locos in Italy; Dean Goods, 8Fs and LMS shunters, for example. 

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20 hours ago, Allegheny1600 said:

Errr, no!

It may be available from your favourite UK retailer but by the time it has gone through the UK importer (who always add their cut plus duty and any additional costs they can) - such an item will be in the order of 25% more expensive than were you able to directly order from Europe.

It’s a bit ridiculous isn’t it? Maerklin/Trix are apparently willing to ship to North Korea but not to the UK. Is the UK considered such a pariah state now? How many other companies in Europe are taking this approach?

Until Brexit, SWMBO and myself used to send occasional parcels to a friend back in England and used a courier company that gave us reasonable shipping cost, insured and tracked. Now when I look for shipping options, like others have found the UK is not available as a shipping destination.

Only option i can find (so far) is to use Anpost (Irish post office) but there prices can be a bit on high side especially for tracked and signed for.  Thank you Borris for your amazing (NO) deal brexit!!

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On 16/08/2021 at 11:50, Allegheny1600 said:

Errr, no!

It may be available from your favourite UK retailer but by the time it has gone through the UK importer (who always add their cut plus duty and any additional costs they can) - such an item will be in the order of 25% more expensive than were you able to directly order from Europe.

It’s a bit ridiculous isn’t it? Maerklin/Trix are apparently willing to ship to North Korea but not to the UK. Is the UK considered such a pariah state now? How many other companies in Europe are taking this approach?

 

I beg to differ John.

 

Certainly pre-Brexit it was often cheaper to buy from one of the well known German  mail order outfits than most of the UK retailers.

 

However, post-Brexit (& I should have been a little more specific in my earlier post) not so much now.

 

Earlier this month a friend wanted a Roco locomotive and got quotes from three German retailers & worked out the cost including duties ect. He then got a quote from a UK retailer & his locomotive ended up around £8.00 cheaper all in.

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It still is cheaper in some cases. I saved £30 on a Fleischmann DCC-fitted DR BR64 purchasing from MSL — and that includes taking into account the cost of the VAT and the Parcelforce handling fee — compared to purchasing from the British importer. The importer didn't have it in stock anyway — it went straight from "new item—awaiting stock" to "out of stock".

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3 hours ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

It still is cheaper in some cases. I saved £30 on a Fleischmann DCC-fitted DR BR64 purchasing from MSL — and that includes taking into account the cost of the VAT and the Parcelforce handling fee — compared to purchasing from the British importer. The importer didn't have it in stock anyway — it went straight from "new item—awaiting stock" to "out of stock".

 

There will always be variations. As a matter of interest what did the total "to your door" price amount to ?

 

If the importers website went to out of stock that quickly that means the BR64 was/is popular & retailers have stocks. The importers sales will always be at full RRP, whereas the dealers will often be cheaper.

 

If you don't give the retailers a fair chance you will never know. Traditionally, a lot of UK dealers don't carry much stock of european items because of the amount of people going to the European retailers, but as the playing field is now a little more level that situation will hopefully improve.

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20 hours ago, SamThomas said:

 

There will always be variations. As a matter of interest what did the total "to your door" price amount to ?

 

If the importers website went to out of stock that quickly that means the BR64 was/is popular & retailers have stocks. The importers sales will always be at full RRP, whereas the dealers will often be cheaper.

 

If you don't give the retailers a fair chance you will never know. Traditionally, a lot of UK dealers don't carry much stock of european items because of the amount of people going to the European retailers, but as the playing field is now a little more level that situation will hopefully improve.


I checked other retailers websites that I was aware of — none had stock. This was a DR era IV BR64 and DCC fitted — perhaps a less popular variant (MSL still had stock after about a month.) The to-my-door price was £192, excluding postage: £150 + £32 VAT + £12 handling fee; the importer's price was £229.95, not including postage. The postage costs were comparable. (Unlike some retailers, MSL haven’t put up their prices for postage.)

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On 17/08/2021 at 08:00, irishmail said:

Until Brexit, SWMBO and myself used to send occasional parcels to a friend back in England and used a courier company that gave us reasonable shipping cost, insured and tracked. Now when I look for shipping options, like others have found the UK is not available as a shipping destination.

Only option i can find (so far) is to use Anpost (Irish post office) but there prices can be a bit on high side especially for tracked and signed for.  Thank you Borris for your amazing (NO) deal brexit!!

You are right, An Post is nuts. Actually has closed me down affectively flogging off stuff  that needs posting anywhere.

 

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4 hours ago, D9020 Nimbus said:


I checked other retailers websites that I was aware of — none had stock. This was a DR era IV BR64 and DCC fitted — perhaps a less popular variant (MSL still had stock after about a month.) The to-my-door price was £192, excluding postage: £150 + £32 VAT + £12 handling fee; the importer's price was £229.95, not including postage. The postage costs were comparable. (Unlike some retailers, MSL haven’t put up their prices for postage.)

 

UK retailers would of course hold more stock if less people bought from the European resellers.

 

I know of a fair amount of European modellers (myself included) who place orders when models are announnced through UK retaillers & they now find the "on the doormat" prices around the same or a little cheaper from UK resellers.

 

Just because the UK importer & the UK resellers were not showing any stock did not mean that they could not have obtained it for you. After all, models railways are a hobby, it's not like you needed parts to get your car back on the road.

 

All I am saying to people is to give UK retailers a better chance, before they are gone & supplies direct from Europe even more diffecult to obtain.

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On 01/08/2021 at 20:23, Bernard Lamb said:

Thanks for that.

Very helpful.

While SWMBO has a German pension which we keep in Germany in euros and we have debit cards to use within the EU we do not have a German email address. We use the phone to buy things to be delivered within Germany. I looked at Yahoo and as I have a UK email address it defaults to that when i look at Yahoo de. I will try to arrange to set up an account from a German address.

Bernard

When my wife moved from Germany she kept her yahoo.de e-mail address.      I opened a yahoo.de e-mail account when she moved in with me in 2012 which became and is still my main e-mail account.    I have never had any problems using a yahoo.de e-mail address alongside a UK residential address.    We have imported a few (non-model railway) items from Germany this year, some direct from German retailers.  In a few other cases retailers were unwilling to post to UK so we arranged for the items to be sent to her daughter in Würzburg who then forwarded them to us.  So far we have not been asked by Royal Mail or DPD to pay any additional charges on deliveries from Germany.

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On 18/08/2021 at 14:49, SamThomas said:

 

I beg to differ John.

 

Certainly pre-Brexit it was often cheaper to buy from one of the well known German  mail order outfits than most of the UK retailers.

 

However, post-Brexit (& I should have been a little more specific in my earlier post) not so much now.

 

Earlier this month a friend wanted a Roco locomotive and got quotes from three German retailers & worked out the cost including duties ect. He then got a quote from a UK retailer & his locomotive ended up around £8.00 cheaper all in.

Do you have details of your friends quotes and final price, please?

Thanks,

John

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Buying from European sellers can be a double edged sword, then again buying from the U.K. can have issues. Recently I wanted to buy another Roco turntable not one U.K. seller had it but MSL did I let you work out who got the order. But even when I do order from my local shop who will obtain it from the importer you can wait weeks or even months before you get an item because Europe will stock there sellers first and the U.K. come second best, this was the same before brexit. These days I tend to not order much from European sellers or for that matter U.K. mail order purchases. Once I ordered a large amount of tillig pointwork from a European outlet over half was damaged and the seller was a pain to deal with, but the flip side I purchased a loco from a U.K. seller and it was damaged yes it was returned but the seller wasn’t interested in return postage. So they lost me for future purchases. So the point buy from your local model shop if your in no hurry, apart from supporting them they take the return costs if item not up to scratch and if you got a good relationship with them possibly discounts.

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16 hours ago, Allegheny1600 said:

Do you have details of your friends quotes and final price, please?

Thanks,

John

I can find out but as the experiences of the people I know are similar I don't think it will achieve much.

 

However, they do not fall into the "must have it in a couple of days" category. They tend to (pre) order & have a little patience.

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At last! After a further exchange of annoying e-mails I finally got the 'Freischaltcode' for my digital subscription to the Modelleisenbahner today- and it works! I signed in, entered the code, and there it was. After 7 months of trying, with numerous e-mails and frustrating phone calls I have all of the missing editions as PDFs. Yeeeeah!MEB.doc

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On 15/08/2021 at 15:10, SamThomas said:

Not really an isue - simply order from your favourite retailer who will order from the UK importers & you will get your item at  around the same cost as direct from Trix.

 

If it's available direct from Trix that means it's in stock & can be ordered.

 

I've normally found it cheaper to buy from German dealers for NOS models, direct or via eBay, rather than UK ones who source from Guagemaster the UK distributor.

Some items were cheaper from the Marklin-Trix website. My last purchase last year was for a replacement Portescap Athlonix coreless motor @ 35 euros + a few bits of track with their standard 8 euros shipping rate.
That's half the price of the same motor (without flywheel) from UK factors like RS Components!

 

Edited by maico
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On 09/08/2021 at 11:34, etendam said:

 

Selling platforms like Amazon and Ebay don't collect VAT on orders above € 150. If you receive a large order the buyer has to pay the VAT + Post or Courier charges at their door in order to receive the package.

 

 

The IOSS is only for B2C sales. For B2B sales you always make an invoice without VAT (Export at 0% ) BUT this can only be done if the Business his VAT number is in VIES. If NOT you have to charge the VAT ! All the bookkeeping / invoice programs that are available have automatic options for this. They check the number in VIES automatically and state the correct VAT amount on the invoice. You also need this when using IOSS, otherwise you need to know all VAT percentages for each EU country for every product group.

As the seller is responsible for the correct VAT it is highly recommended that if you want to do business with the EU that you invest in good software.

 

Sellers that don't use IOSS will have less (and sometimes very frustrated!) customers when they have to pay the Post or Courier charges at their door. With IOSS the costs are € 0. So IOSS will boost your sales but it is very hard for starters and small companies to invest a lot upfront even without sales. The days that you start an international business, and trade with the EU, without money are gone but you always have the possibility to work with a EU partner / Agent and he will handle all EU sales. With the new CE regulations you will need this as well.

 

Ed

 

 

 

I asked Marklin Trix why they don't ship to the UK anymore and this was their reply:

 

"Thank you for your letter dated 09 August 2021.
Unfortunately, delivery is not possible until we receive the UK tax number. Due to the Brexit, delivery is not possible at the moment.

We regret that we cannot send you any other reply.

Please stay well.
With kind regards
Your Märklin customer advisor
Frank Mäder"

 

So, they have applied for a UK VAT number and will collect it for HMRC ?

 

I'm a sole trader with a lowish turnover and canceled my VAT registration last month after 29 years. The changes coming in both the UK and EU VAT reporting are too much hassle for the likes of me!

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That reply from Frank M at Märklin-Trix is virtually the same as the initial responses I had on the phone and by e-mail from VGB as to why my 40 year old subscription to the Modelleisenbahner had been cancelled. I am fairly convinced that VGB has not applied for a UK tax number and has no intention of doing so! Life is much simpler without that handful of UK customers following increased postal charges and other Brexit-linked issues.

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3 hours ago, rekoboy said:

That reply from Frank M at Märklin-Trix is virtually the same as the initial responses I had on the phone and by e-mail from VGB as to why my 40 year old subscription to the Modelleisenbahner had been cancelled. I am fairly convinced that VGB has not applied for a UK tax number and has no intention of doing so! Life is much simpler without that handful of UK customers following increased postal charges and other Brexit-linked issues.

 

I don't understand why the publisher would get confused, there is no VAT on printed matter in the UK. They must also be shipping to countries outside the EU.

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