importing

[Robyn n Rich]

Hi all...

Just a serious note for a second... found a rather nice style bar
in the Moss Motors Miata catalogue,,, and ordered it off the web.
Biggest problem,,,, couple of greenhorns like us,, didnt think to check how
they deliver... so it arrived in four days, (air freight) with another $155
US for freight added to the price tag, and $87 NZ to pay to customs.
Damn it... put into Kiwi $$$ the damn thing ended up costing over $600. NZ

Looks good... but what an expensive lesson... we need to find someone
with a container coming I think...

R n R

[MadMaz]

Hi Robyn & Rich

Glad to see someone understands the pitfalls of importing. (I import from
Australia). It's not all that easy for us importers despite the high dollar -
you have to make sure there's a decent load on your order or otherwise the
import unit cost quickly becomes prohibitive, soaking up all your profits.

And you've got to pay the total NZ GST value on the goods up front to Customs
on delivery - then as well as freight charges there's fuel and war surcharges
etc etc...and marine insurance. Then stock sits in the warehouse for months
before it's sold and then it's up to another two months after a sale before
you get paid.

If you market locally produced goods, you can often arrange delivery straight
from the manufacturer to the purchaser when an order comes through - without
having pay for the goods & freight until it's sold. And no GST to pay up front
prior to sale. But what's being produced in New Zealand these days generally
falls into only fairly narrow segments of market requirements...& what is
produced is often just not price competitive with overseas.

Cheers
Mark

[Darryl Curran]

If you are importing for your own use, and you are not in a particular hurry
for your parts, try finding someone who imports cars/boats etc that may allow
you to put parts in their containers.
I have just paying US$250+ for freight for some custom axels for two of my
cars. it hurts when the freight costs are a high percentage of the origional
cost. As I have some other small but heavy parts to order sometime for my drag
car , I have luckily been able to find someone who imports boats from the US
that will allow me to send parts to his suppliers to be bought back with the
boats in containers. Its just so happens he is also my local Mazda dealer
Also always check to see if any duties are to be payed on a part once it gets
here as this could also be an unexpected cost.


Darryl Curran

[Grant]

If importing small parts, try and get them shipped using the postal service.
Many suppliers insist on using FedEx, UPS, DHL etc. but you can sometimes
convince them to use the post. The freight bill is usually at least double
the USPS price. Also, if it comes via the courier companies, you are much
more likely to get stung for the GST. Much more likely to get it without GST
if sent by post. USPS have a good online tracking system so you can monitor
the progress of your parcel. I received some parts this week that came
straight in and was emailed less than 4 hours later from USPS to inform me
(and the sender), so not too bad. Took 6 days to get here.
Freight from the USA is still very expensive though.
Grant.

[garry]

I import what i need from time to time, there are a few tricks, either have
the item marked "used" or "sample" or "gift" and valued at $20, it doesnt work
all the time but most of the time it comes in free or if there are charges
they are minimal, samples for instance are often free.

Postage is more likely to get past gst and duty etc in my experience, rather
than courier or freight which always seem to get caught.

Garry

[Zak B]

Hi all,
This is good web site for samples etc. Not that good for MX5 parts (I never
tried to be honest) but if you are after MP3 or DVD player for a car try this
web site.

www.globalsources.com

PS
As Gary said, it doesn't work all the time:)

Cheers

Zak