[amsat-bb] Re: Trading across borders

[G0MRF@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 5/27/01 7:45:57 PM GMT Daylight Time, 
owner-AMSAT-BB-digest@AMSAT.Org writes:

<< Of course Kuhne expressly states that US sales are only through SSB
 Electronics.  The shipping charge of 35DM which converts to $15.40 seems
 low to me.  It cost me about $30 for UPS shipping from PA to AK!  What does
 it cost for the monetary exchange?
 
 This really does not seem to me that SSB is out of line with its costs.
 I'll bet it would cost an US individual more to buy directly from Germany. >>

Remember that European countries usually have a sales tax of 15 to 20% on all 
goods supplied by medium to large companies. That % can be reclaimed by them 
when the goods are exported out of Europe. As the goods travel across another 
border the cost may increase slightly with the addition of an import duty or 
sales tax.
As an example, if I import any ham radio equipment with a value of greater 
than 25 dollars into the UK it has about 4% import duty and 17.5% Value Added 
Tax added. This makes trade from US to the UK an expensive business, but it 
should be significantly better in the other direction as the price advertised 
in Europe will be 15-20% higher than the same goods without European Value 
added tax. So the margin may be even larger than we think

The cost of shipping will usually include insurance and that is very 
important. Here in the UK I can ship something of an equivalent weight by air 
to the USA for about 6 dollars but if it goes missing  all I get is 10 x the 
value of the stamps..and that is at the post offices discretion. In the end 
you're trading cost with risk. The only problem is usually the company will 
not give you a choice. I recently paid 40 dollars to ship a laser diode from 
Austria to London. The same component sent as a letter without insurance 
would have cost 2 dollars......Ouch...

Finally, my two tickets for Dayton were ordered in March for a total of 36 
dollars. For some reason they arrived by expensive courier at a cost to the 
Hamvention organisers of 20 dollars. 
I would have been happy to collect at the door, but that was the policy.

Monetary exchange costs on a credit card are quite low at apx 1.5 to 2% and 
these can also have a last resort level of insurance on your purchase 
depending on the type of card.

73 es happy shopping

David  G0MRF
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