Buying and Selling models to/from Europe

[Stefan88]

2 things of interest to note lately:

 

1. My latest Roco spare parts order was delivered by Fedex, previously it was posted with Deutsche Post and delivered by Royal Mail. Total including postage was below the equivalent of £135 so can't comment on the recent possible trend of postage being included in this amount. It took 2 and a half weeks from placing the order to parts arriving - just under 2 weeks from order to parts being posted. I can only assume the spare parts are being warehoused in Slovakia (they seem to have their European distribution centre there) or Romania (last remaining European production facilities) and sent to Germany before then being posted to the customer, hence the relatively long turn-around time.
2. Modellbahn Union seem to have hiked their postage rates to the UK at some point recently - it used to be around 9 Euros for the UPS option, now there is only a DHL option for around 21 Euros. Still not hugely expensive but far from the cheapest now.

[Porfuera]

On 29/03/2024 at 20:22, Stefan88 said:

2 things of interest to note lately:

 

1. My latest Roco spare parts order was delivered by Fedex, previously it was posted with Deutsche Post and delivered by Royal Mail. Total including postage was below the equivalent of £135 so can't comment on the recent possible trend of postage being included in this amount. It took 2 and a half weeks from placing the order to parts arriving - just under 2 weeks from order to parts being posted. I can only assume the spare parts are being warehoused in Slovakia (they seem to have their European distribution centre there) or Romania (last remaining European production facilities) and sent to Germany before then being posted to the customer, hence the relatively long turn-around time.
2. Modellbahn Union seem to have hiked their postage rates to the UK at some point recently - it used to be around 9 Euros for the UPS option, now there is only a DHL option for around 21 Euros. Still not hugely expensive but far from the cheapest now.

 

I can give an update on the postage situation with regard to the £135 limit.

 

My latest package from Modellbahnshop-Lippe was ordered on the 10th March and arrived on 20th (there was a delay of a couple of days in that time because they notified me that the wagon I'd ordered had become unavailable and I had to let them know of a like-for-like replacement).

 

The order cost was €153,59 after German VAT was deducted (so approx £131) and the postage was an additional €9,90, giving a total spend of €163,49 (so approx £139 to £140) - to date I have not had a request/demand for UK VAT to be paid - fingers firmly crossed!

 

Modellbahnshop-Lippe use FedEx end-to-end and from what I remember reading here previously it seems that if the Post Office/Royal Mail are involved at the UK end then the postage is included in the £135 whereas FedEx don't currently seem to do that.

 

Edited March 31 by Porfuera

[Stefan88]

A surprising expected delivery date for an ebay order from Italy being sent with UPS - Monday 8th April, posted yesterday (3rd April). The reason for my surprise is that the last 2 orders from Italy (a couple of years ago, both with UPS) took over 3 weeks! Previously they sat around in UPS's Carpi facility for over 2 weeks before being sent on to the UK, so if it really does arrive on Monday (or even at any point next week) that will be a welcome development. Cost was a little under €19, by far the cheapest way of getting a parcel out of Italy.

[Stefan88]

Parcel from Italy has been delivered today, 5 days including a weekend, had it been posted a day earlier it would have arrived on Friday (sat in delivery office from just after midnight Friday night).