So a few years back I got a prize from AdaFruit in a photographic competition of a $30 gift voucher. I knew that the shipping would make it difficult to do anything with it but last week I ordered something that was not in stock in the UK. To make things simple I will assume that $1.00 = £1.00, it is heading that way anyway.
So device = $35 - gift voucher = $5.00
Freight to the UK by UPS = $29.00
Import tax charged by UPS = $11.68 ( although by my calculations it should have been just under $8.00 )
Brokerage charged by UPS = $11.00 ( fee for collecting the tax )
So in all I am charged $52.00 for my effective $5.00 device. And that is before my credit card rips me off another fee for the $34 I paid in U.S. dollars.
I can't afford to win any more competitions in the near future.
LarryD:
UPS is absolutely horrible. (same with FedEx)
I don't agree, I have been dealing with FedEx since a while
recently from Japan, Corea, Hong Kong, CasaBlanca, Dubai
and it has always been an excellent and super fast service
I got a parcel from the USA today, Miami California
& I paid 22 euro customs plus 5 euro to FedEx dude
5 for the service, 27 total on a declared value of 90
so, 22 euro instead of 19.8 euro, I don't care the diff
it won't make me rich
Yes, that kind of stuff is killing me on international sales.
US Postal Service used to charge $5.15 for a small flat rate ship anywhere box.
That's now up o $33.95 for most places (Canada & Mexico a bit cheaper), while many countries charge Import Tax or VAT or Duty or something, and just makes it not worthwhile to buy from the US. My next option is weight-based "package" that ships in 3-4 weeks,with $13.50 being the lowest cost. While China apparently has subsidized shipping and ships their stuff worldwide for free! Doesn't seem fair.
It is a spirogyra, it was a competition for photographs taken with the Raspberry Pi so it is a spirogyra
It is a plant that has sex, passing packages of cells between plants. Spirogyra - Wikipedia
I built the microscope adapter myself.
More from it here:- Raspberry Pi camera attached to a microscope on Vimeo
Or, maybe suspenders
In English English those are not suspenders, they are braces. These are suspenders:-
When I want stuff in a timely manner from China, namely batches of PCBs from IteadStudio, I have them sent DHL.
Anything else - well, anything else I don't order from China. I use Digikey, Mouser, DipMicro, Avnet, Pololu, Sparkfun, Adafruit - and TaydaElectronics for some passive parts, which arrive from Colorado oddly, tho the ordering site is Bangkok, Thailand.
Point of order those fine looking legs are wearing sussies (suspenders) and getting ones hand to the small section above the stocking top is such a turn on cos you are almost at the PONR ( permission permitting) I think they are called suspenders because of the suspense in getting there.
My theory and Im sticking with it...
Ok more mundane but...
Had lots of luck with FedEx and DHL.
Have sent items back after getting notices from UPS with "brokerage" fees that were double the price of the item.
Never seen those fees with FedEx.