Importing a Pinball From The States - How Difficult?

[Steve]

Has anyone on the Forum bought a pin from the US and had it shipped over? If so how hard/easy was it, how is the import duties worked out etc.

 

[Moonraker]

The last time I looked at importing a pin about 8 years ago it was probably going to cost about £800 so probably £1k+ now.

 

[Judge Dreads]

Probably not cost effective unless the machine is substantially cheaper than UK (unlikely) or if it's a machine that is not available here and you have to have it, think Dave Bishop was considering importing a BBB a few years ago (you would have to check) he may have more answers on single pin importation cost

 

[lukewells]

I did one years ago for 400. I believe it is 600+ now for a single machine, so you are best off sharing a small container with other people so it works out much cheaper per machine. Most us imports you need to pick up directly from the shipping terminal and pay the taxes before you can take it away.

 

[Poibug]

I did one years ago for 400. I believe it is 600+ now for a single machine, so you are best off sharing a small container with other people so it works out much cheaper per machine. Most us imports you need to pick up directly from the shipping terminal and pay the taxes before you can take it away.

and if a new Stern you would need the converter board

 

[Judge Dreads]

Taxes are potentially a killer depending on value.

 

[Replay]

Done it a few times. VAT is a killer as charged on cost of pin AND shipping - rip off. And you have to find someone to crate a game - another pain. Some shipping companies ship door to door. Cheapest quote I found was £600 but it depends where it is in the States. Some games ( em's ) , the shipping plus VAT is more than the game - insane really but some of these games just not available here.

 

[abaxas]

Warranty replacement INNIT.

 

[Jughead]

Would it be possible to have it marked as a gift/sample or claim it was repaired to avoid the taxes?


Sent from my Windows Phone using Tapatalk

 

[Wiredworm]

Would it be possible to have it marked as a gift/sample or claim it was repaired to avoid the taxes?

I think you'd struggle to find a seller in the USA that would be prepared to do that for such a large and expensive item. And you could land yourself in a pile of crap for even talking about such a thing as it's fraud/tax evasion.

 

[zpeakabonk]

i imported several game's thing i did was pay in 2 time's with Paypal, and i always did mention payment ...... pinball machine, after i took a shipping company and i payed approx 550 usd for 1 machine, after you pay some fee's du to the handling in your country and VAT over what you payed, so the first (lower) part of the payment!!!!!

i could give you the name of the shipping company if you like


worked always for me,

 

[Paul]

Actually thats a good point - Would it be cheaper customs/duty/shipping wise to have shipped into somewhere else in the EU and then pick it up... eg is it cheaper for example to import to France because of taxes and Duty etc and then collect...

 

[zpeakabonk]

don't know we have 20% Vat but like i did it worked fine to me, always payed 25% first payment to Block the game and give me a proof and payed the rest a little later

 

[Steve]

Thanks for the replies guys, the shipping is not too terrible at around £600-£800, I could live with that but the 20% vat on top of purchase price and shipping makes it not worth the effort.

 

[replicas]

Steve, can you not source the same machine closer to home ?

 

[Wiredworm]

It's a bit sad that there's no exemptions for these items. If you import a classic car from overseas the import rate is 0% because they're classed as 'collector’s pieces of historical interest'.

Surely the same could be said of a Pinball machine which could easily be 20 of more years old?

 

[replicas]

You would think anything over a certain age would be excluded from a import charge.