143 replies to this topic

[Hybrid Theory]

Craig, on 10 February 2021 - 05:25 AM, said:

If they had the UK market all to themselves, they'd charge even more still. I'd rather go without out or wait till the 90 day import thing has passed.

What is the 90 day import thing?

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[Craig]

I'll have to see if I can find it as I can't remember fully.
From memory, on the news it said that a certain value of goods (in the millions of pounds) were coming in tariff free, then it was said to be 90 days.
It might not relate to this though.

The other thing is, on one of the OttO Mobile news letters, they said after 90 days all will return to normal.

[Guiddy]

So it seems Modelissimo have delivered another via Parcel force that hasn't required any payments.

Certainly seems a good time to be ordering using Parcel force as they are just flying through with no duties to pay. Saving a good 20% per model! Very handy on something like a BBR F12 TDF for £250 posted!

Edited by Guiddy, 12 February 2021 - 03:33 AM.

[Hybrid Theory]

Good to know, I was eyeing up a TDF too in red, although the one at modelissimo has the two tone wheels which I’m not keen on.

CK has the red with silver wheels, has anyone had a parcel from them yet to the UK?

[Guiddy]

What worries me about CK as I know they use DHL, which I've always seen charges for! Does the CK one have the chunky doglegs though? I asked directly and they were dodging the actual question!

[snowman]

In my experience, HMRC always find these loopholes in the end.

For a long time, you could get a lot of stuff shipped in from Hong Kong with near zero chance of paying VAT and fees, but mostly you can't now.

Make hay while the sun shines :)

M

[ferrariforever]

Hybrid Theory, on 12 February 2021 - 05:00 AM, said:

Good to know, I was eyeing up a TDF too in red, although the one at modelissimo has the two tone wheels which I’m not keen on.

CK has the red with silver wheels, has anyone had a parcel from them yet to the UK?

The Modelissimo one is the updated BBR F12 tdf, with beter hinges. The CK one is the old one from 2018. I would go for the updated one.




And I see a yellow sticker under the hood in the updated version. So there seem to be more improved parts beside the hinge!

[Hybrid Theory]

Thanks for that comparison, never realised they updated the model.

Also got another parcel through dhl to parcel force today no problems.

[Guiddy]

Got this one coming via DHL. Chose standard delivery so yes, hoping it gets handed over to Parcel force for final delivery! Let's see if the good run continues.

Edited by Guiddy, 18 February 2021 - 02:44 AM.

[mcaf123]

Has anyone ordered from Toms.nl since Brexit? I think they ship out with TNT which then moves over to FedEx once it arrives in the UK if I'm not mistaken?

[Hybrid Theory]

mcaf123, on 18 February 2021 - 08:05 AM, said:

Has anyone ordered from Toms.nl since Brexit? I think they ship out with TNT which then moves over to FedEx once it arrives in the UK if I'm not mistaken?

Not since brexit, there postage is crazy high now, 20 Euro’s + 8 euro’s for each kg on top.

1 x 1/18 is usually up to 2kg so 36 Euro’s for one model, nuts.

[Guiddy]

That's almost as crazy as one Italian seller that wanted to charge me 11 Euros to send a 5" square decal sheet!
I questioned it and she had the cheek to tell me it was delicate and needed to be sent as a parcel!

[mcaf123]

Hybrid Theory, on 18 February 2021 - 08:35 AM, said:

Not since brexit, there postage is crazy high now, 20 Euro’s + 8 euro’s for each kg on top.

1 x 1/18 is usually up to 2kg so 36 Euro’s for one model, nuts.

I've got my eye on a 1:12 model from them and it also says an expected shipping cost of 36EUR - they remove the VAT at checkout but not sure I want to risk getting stung

Edited by mcaf123, 18 February 2021 - 11:12 AM.

[mcaf123]

Seems to be a little spat going on between CK and Diecast Legends judging by the email I got from them earlier.
Here is the text - I've left out any memes or whatever they put in....

Why buying your diecast from Europe costs more

(Don’t believe anything you’ve read from CK-Models)!

Now, this is not normally our style. We would usually allow baseless tittle-tattle to go unchallenged, but we were so incensed by a recent round-robin circular from cut-price, German seller CK-Models that we felt obligated to respond.

Now, let’s cut to the chase. Let’s confront the elephant in the room. For many years, diecast has been cheaper on the continent. Of course, those who buy their models overseas to save themselves a few quid tend to come from the school that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. But so be it. Buying from European retailers works fine until things go wrong! Nonetheless, it’s still a fact that diecast has long been cheaper from European sellers; and that’s largely because most models come into the UK via distributors; and those distributors add between 15% and 25% to the prices.

But, since Brexit, the tables have been turned a little. For all kinds of reasons, which we will enumerate, there is no longer any financial advantage in buying your diecast from sellers based in the EU. But, recently, concerned about losing its UK business, one well-known German retailer, CK-Models, distributed a statement suggesting that buying from them could still save you money. Well, they’ve not been completely straightforward and honest about the numbers. In fact, they’ve deliberately cheated them; and the picture they have created is misleading, a little disingenuous, and just downright wrong!

They have based their figures on a Minichamps model that they sell, and that you can also buy in the UK. And they have purported to calculate the total cost that a UK buyer would be facing if he imported the model from CK. But CK-Models has not played a straight bat. The starting price they have quoted is a temporary one, as it reflects the price in their current winter sale. So already, their cost comparison is weighted in their favour. They omit the shipping charge, they use a beneficial and unrealistic figure for their exchange rate calculations. They have incorrectly, and probably knowingly, misinterpreted how the VAT is calculated, and they have totally failed to mention the admin. charge that will be levied by the courier when your model is delivered.

And so, to put the record straight, we have redone the numbers, based on a model that you can buy both from the German seller and from us. The model we have selected is a 1:18 Minichamps Lewis Hamilton car that, on our website, is priced at £179.99. Buy it from us, and you’ll pay an extra £4.99 for postage; meaning that the total cost would be £184.98. We’ll come back to this figure later.


The same model at CK Models is priced at 179.95 Euros. On CK’s website, they show an approximate, but ultimately misleading, price in pounds, but if you buy with a credit card or on Apple Pay today, your exchange rate will be around 1.1 Euros to the pound. This means that the VAT inclusive price in pounds is going to be very close to £163.59.

Now, the Brexit deal means that you no longer pay VAT to the seller; you pay it to the HMRC when your model arrives on your doorstep. And so, when CK removes the German VAT of 19%, the price you will be paying is £137.47.

The shipping price from CK on any model priced over 150 Euros is 19.95 Euros. At a realistic exchange rate, (as above), the shipping price in pounds will be £18.14. The duty payable on diecast is 4%, and so, when you receive the model, you will be in for an extra charge of £5.50. There will also be an admin. charge that you will have to pay to the courier when he turns up on your doorstep. Now this charge is to compensate the carriers for collecting the VAT and duty. The charge can vary, but we have placed a number of orders from overseas sellers in recent weeks, and the lowest charge we have seen is £15.

Following so far? Now CK’s next mistake, deliberate or not, was to calculate the VAT on the wrong figure. The 20% VAT is raised on the ex-VAT buying price plus the shipping, plus the duty. So 20% VAT on top of £161.11 brings the figure to £193.33. On to this you need to add the admin. charge of £15; this brings the total to £208.33. In other words, the cost of this model from CK-Models will be 12.5% more than the cost of buying the same model from us. To remind you, the cost from us would be £184.98. Become a Diecast Legends club member, and the price from us of this model would only be £161.99. And, therefore, the CK model would actually cost you 28.5% more!

So, the first moral of this tale, if you are a serial collector, is to become a Diecast Legends club member. You’ll get 10% off every model you buy, and if you are resident in the UK you will also pay no P&P. The second moral of the story is not to believe everything you read.

But if you are still seduced by the perceived benefits of buying from the EU, there are some other things you need to be aware of. Let’s say you don’t like the model when you see it in the flesh. There’s a flaw in the paintwork or a wheel has fallen off. First, you have to send it back to the seller at your cost. Send a model back to us, and it’s free of charge. But there’s more. Send a model back to the seller and you won’t get the VAT back, you won’t get the duty back and you won’t get the admin. charge back. When things don’t go as smoothly as you would wish, you can find yourself seriously out of pocket.

So, the third moral of this tale is not to embark upon a course of action solely on the basis that things will go as smoothly as you would always want. Because they don’t. But even if things do go smoothly, we can say, pretty definitively, that it does not make financial sense to buy your diecast from anywhere other than a UK seller.

I generally don't like the way Diecast Legends structure their emails - always seems to be very doom and gloom, not giving their customers enough credit for being clever and savvy shoppers, plus using certain phrases to almost force people to buy from them and NOW!

A couple points I've noted from the above email:

• They seem to be very concerned about being 100% honest and transparent, yet they failed to admit that a lot of customers who buy from CK will have the standing 10% forum discount, regardless of the long-running winter sale currently on!
  
• They fail to mention that the Diecast Legends club membership costs £65 per year - https://www.diecastl...membership.html

Finally, their prices are very meh and their stock is nowhere near as broad as CK'S!!!

[ferrariforever]

Guiddy, on 18 February 2021 - 10:16 AM, said:

That's almost as crazy as one Italian seller that wanted to charge me 11 Euros to send a 5" square decal sheet!
I questioned it and she had the cheek to tell me it was delicate and needed to be sent as a parcel!

I feel the same about Autoart spares. Charging me about 20 euro shipping from Germany to the Netherlands for a wiper.

[slartibartfast229]

This is the diecast legends that I tried to buy 'on sale' items three times.
On each occasion I was told the items in question were sold out (ALL of them!).
The items were still showing on their website as being in stock.
Fool me once - shame on you.
Fool me twice - shame on me.
Fool me a third time - I take the hint.
He also claims returns are at the senders cost - not in my experience.
I have to send an exclusive item back to Norev themselves.
They don't have any agreement with a Irish based shipping company.
I will pay the charge to return the item, and they will refund that cost.
And aside from any other issues, he doesn't stock many popular brands - such as Otto.

Edited by slartibartfast229, 19 February 2021 - 11:14 AM.

[kasparek]

mcaf123, on 19 February 2021 - 09:56 AM, said:

The duty payable on diecast is 4%,

Is that correct?
I don't know it this is the correct code, but it seems no duty.
https://www.trade-ta...03003000#import

mcaf123, on 19 February 2021 - 09:56 AM, said:

The 20% VAT is raised on the ex-VAT buying price plus the shipping, plus the duty.

Here it states that if you buy from a "marketplace", VAT is not calculated on shipping (strange, but better):

Goods that are outside of the UK at the point of sale

The online marketplace must work out the consignment value of the goods by deciding their ‘intrinsic value’, this is the price the goods were sold for, not including:

• any transport or insurance costs, unless they are included in the price and not separately shown on the invoice
  
• any other identifiable taxes and charges

https://www.gov.uk/g...ne-marketplaces

Anyway, I think that this kind of trade will be reasonable only when the seller, or someone else like ebay, will collect the VAT for you.

[Craig]

I'm still wondering if I'm meant to get the VAT back on my 1/12 OttO Mobile BMW E30 Ravaglia car. I paid for it last year, but it only came a couple of weeks ago. I paid duties etc on it to get it delivered.

[mcaf123]

If you paid for it before Brexit, you shouldn't have been charged anything when it arrived in the UK.
However, if Otto didn't clearly put the date of purchase on the invoice that HMRC checked upon arrival they aren't expected to know! I guess you'll have to reclaim the charges from HMRC.