Hey everyone, I asked Phil to make the post as I didn't want something about shipping to be my first post on here. Just thought i'd jump in and say that i've been shipping stuff in container loads now for about a year (started collating around January and shipped our first in May and done a total of 5 so far.
I do this as a service not just for myself to share with others to split my own costs down so don't worry about when the next one will be, i'll keep running them until there's no more need. All the video game guys who've shipped through me have so far been satisfied. I'll be the first to admit i've a bit of a backlog of jobs i've offered to do for people on arrival but any straight through shipments have had no hiccups.
I've started doing a container from CoinOpWarehouse as well to let everyone take more advantage of the bargains that are there and a shorter route into the UK.
All shipments are fully insured and duty declared right up to my door in Blackburn. I have a large warehouse so unloading isn't a problem and we're used to handling all different types and sizes of machines.
I can keep your machines for a short while until they can be collected but please try and collect sooner rather than later - i'm pretty flexible so just ask if there's something specific.
I know a lot of you will know me from the events but i'm terrible with names so i'm hoping by joining on here as well i'll get to know some of you better rather than just a "hi mate" at a show
If you want to buy something from CoinOp, just buy it direct from them and pay them first. Let them know it's going in James' container and then tell me what it is and how much you paid in USD (for duty purposes) and i'll confirm it with them - this is what they've asked me to do to ensure everyone knows what's happening. They have about 17-20 container loads on the go at any one time so its not possible for them to always keep track of individuals but their shipping customers are smaller in number.
I have a fairly lengthy post over on UKVaC about all this from early last year, i'm sure a lot of you know about it.
A 40ft container can take about 44-46 standard sized games - in video games this is 65cm x 85cm (the height isn't important). I have to work in these spaces to maximise the capacity on the container. I think most pinball's folded down will fit that width (or near to) at least for the backbox, I think the depth might also fit that space - can someone advise. The CoinOp guys have been doing this for years so will pack machines in safely for transit.
Pinball machines can get expensive and can attract a fair bit of duty from UK customs. The price is £395 GBP per standard sized machine upto a value of $1500 USD - from CoinOp that shouldn't be a problem as most are priced below this level. If buying from a private collector I appreciate its usually a lot more. For anything over there's the difference in duty above $1500 - eg a $2000 purchase carries a $500 taxable excess at 20% in GBP - working on 1.25:1 would add £80 GBP on top of £395.
I can, and am very happy to massage this formula and settle on a higher threshold and set a price for that so that the absolute bulk of anyone's pickups would fit.
I went through the discussion of "can't you just figure out the duty for my item" with loads of the video guys privately but ultimately we figured a standard fixed price worked better on average.
When I looked around to compare, it seemed to be about £500 just to land an item at the port on top of that you'd have to pay duty and more often than not a release fee.
Smaller items that might pack around things I can price accordingly. There's almost nothing I won't ship (that's legal of course) - just not vehicles - there's too many import complications on arrival.
CoinOp sell video games, pinballs, juke boxes, pool tables, darts machines and various signs and other vintage amusement stuff - grab whatever you want and i'll happily get it to the UK for you.
First one from there should I hope be leaving around end of February/early march at the rate it's filling up.
Please ask anything you want, i'm happy to help.
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