Tír Na HiFi

Hi,

This maybe of interest to anyone ordering music from America.
I bought 3 records from elusive discs.
Delivered within 6 days that included the weekend. Packed very well. No issues.
No customs either which was a definite plus.

Recommended

Cheers
Ian

Interesting! What was the value and shipping costs?

Ordered once some box set from USA, but paid a little bit of customs, don't remember any more how much.

Total was 138 dollars including 32 for shipping.

You got lucky! I can't imagine how the Customs Authorities let this one through? You should have paid 23% VAT on the Euro equivalent of USD $138. Were the items correctly declared at full value on the specific type of Declaration that is now required by the European Union? For anybody who is reading this post, I would advise you not to place an order with Elusive Disc on the basis that no VAT charge will be levied. It will or should be in any case. I ordered a lot of records over the last 30 years or more from ED in Anderson, IN. U.S.A. They are good people, very obliging and efficient. Their packaging is absolutely first class. In recent times, I only get vinyl cleaning accessories and SACDs from them as I can get most of the records I want here or from Germany. Jason and his colleagues do a great job! Enjoy your records.

I had budgeted to pay the vat.
Lucky I suppose but do customs check everything?,

Well, everything is barcoded now so it's unlikely to 'slip through' the system. I get records from Japan fairly often and since Ebay (in my case) takes the VAT at the point of purchase and remits it to the Irish Revenue, it works very well. I presume that Discogs work similarly?

Dealing with individual businesses (as opposed to global conglomerates) would be different I imagine and in addition to VAT, one would also be subject to a €3.50 Post Office administration charge. I recall importing one record from the U.S.A. in 2021 and I had to pay VAT amounting to €6.55 but the real sting in the tail was an additional €10 Post Office administration charge. That was daylight robbery and I'm glad that common sense has prevailed and that the administration charge has been been reduced to €3.50. Far more palatable.

Well somehow they did slip up, who knows?
I've ordered before from usa and no vat added then either. All legitimate purchases.
FedEx delivery then local courier delivery

In my past experience with FedEx, the bill for the Customs charges came after the event, that is to say after the delivery, out of the blue. Its a bizarre system they have or at least had whenever they were the carrier for items I ordered from the U.S.A.

Sometimes Fedex send you a bill afterwards. The kicker there is the 18e they charge for admin fees.

The whole thing is a minefield but for what its worth, addresspal is the best solution for buying stuff from UK or USA where the seller is not fully set up to charge VAT etc. In other words all smaller shops and sellers. You will pay VAT and the addresspal fee but you will get your goods, and shipping within the USA is much cheaper than outside.

Unfortunately I didn't have a courier choice. FedEx was only option from elusive discs.
If or when I receive a bill from FedEx it seems an odd system to deliver then ask for the fee afterward.