- Joined
- Aug 11, 2022
- Messages
- 47
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- 78
Hi everyone. This is a late comment on this topic, but I just bought the Trumpeter Titanic a few months ago and would like to add a reply to the Model Monkey comment. (sorry for my not so accurate English). Beside the purchase cost of aftermarket stuff, we as EU citizens (I am in Belgium) have to add serious import costs. And I can assure you that the most of these parts and kits are not to be found within the EU. A lot of them I can only found in the UK or USA or Korea or China or whatever other country. When I want to buy a little cheep part like for instance one of Model Monkey it will cost more to pay for VAT and custom clearance then the parts itself. I ordered a $10 (€9...) worth package at MicroScale in USA and paid €27,50 for EU entry...
My plan was to order stuff from Woody's MaritimeModels website, and do this sheet by sheet as the building progresses. Rather than that plan I ordered the complete kit available from his site, over €1000, and pick it up in the UK to avoid these ridiculous extra costs if I had ordered them piece by piece. It was cheaper for me to travel to the UK with my Motorcycle than to have the package sent to Belgium. But I am lucky to live close to Calais-Dover ferry lines, most of the people living in the EU are not so lucky. I also would have ordered parts from Model Monkey or other companies who make extra stuff for our hobby, but still in doubt if the extra import costs are worth paying them. I'm also building a Caldercraft HMS Victory and already received parts from Woody's site... and paid a lot of money for clearance.
I guess these taxes are not worth to buy small stuff from outside the EU for many modelers in order to improve little things on their model. In addition of this situation I think none of the modeler shops and websites within the EU provide all this beautiful stuff available in the world. There are hundreds of kits, and sheets and parts only to be found outside of the EU and thus not available for us at a reasonable price. All of the modeler shops do sell the Trumpeter and Airfix and all these kits, but none of them the aftermarket improvement stuff.
I hope my English made it clear enough to make my point ;-)
Daniel
We completely understand and agree (and your English is excellent!)
VAT, GST and other import taxes and fees frustrate customers and harm sales. Hopefully, a distributor or hobby shop in the EU and UK might choose to carry our products in the future. That may help take the sting of the tax authority away.