Importing 2nd hand instruments (tax charges?)

[stargazer9999]

What happens if you order a 2nd hand guitar via ebay from Japan or wherever that costs 10,000 baht?  When it's delivered do you have to pay Thailand taxes?  If so, how are they accessed?   Musical instruments seem quite expensive here compared to other countries and there aren't many 2nd hand options locally.

 

Thanks.

 

[Mark1066]

If you are charged the correct duty and tax, it should be the cost of the guitar and freight, plus 10%, then that total plus 7%. In other words, the price you pay for the delivered guitar x 1.1 and that total x 1.07.

 

Most Japanese eBay vendors charge ridiculously high prices for second hand guitars though.

Edited July 7, 2019 by Mark1066

[stargazer9999]

Japan was just an example case.  Any idea where the best place to get a 2nd hand guitar would be?  I thought anywhere in Asia would have decent choices and lowest shipping.  Maybe there'a a better choice.  I'm looking for a Fender Squier bass.  

 

So the 10,000 baht guitar example would actually cost 11,770 baht?  That's not terrible.  I thought it might be more.  Where do you go to pick up the guitar and pay...the closest post office?  They deliver a postal pickup notice to your delivery address?

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

[Mark1066]

You can probably pick up a reasonably priced secondhand Squier bass in Thailand. While not as cheap as the USA, the prices for Squier guitars here are no worse than in the UK, probably a bit cheaper now. Keep an eye on kaidee.com and guitarthai.com classified section and you should find one fairly soon. I'm not sure what would happen in Bangkok but in Chiang Mai, if you order something that has to be assessed for import duty and sales tax, they ask you to come to the customs office at the airport. The shipping charges, and the import duty and sales tax on them, would make ordering a squire from overseas an uneconomical proposition.

[stargazer9999]

Mark1066, you said 'if you are charged the correct duty and tax'.  Do people often get overcharged?  Do you have any recourse if they try to overcharge you?

 

Thanks.

 

[Mark1066]

12 minutes ago, stargazer9999 said:

Mark1066, you said 'if you are charged the correct duty and tax'.  Do people often get overcharged?  Do you have any recourse if they try to overcharge you?

 

Thanks.

 

I've not been overcharged but I believe there is an appeal process in place...no idea how long it would take though. It should be fairly straightforward: musical instruments (and amps) attract 10% import duty and, in common with nearly all imports, 7% sales tax. There's not much scope for misunderstanding with a single item like that. In my experience, it's mixed shipments that cause problems sometimes..shipments with goods that attract a variety of different duty rates.

 

But you'd probably pay ฿3,000 or more in shipping (plus duty and tax) so I'd try to find one here. Theres a white Vintage Modified 70s jazz bass in Din Daeng for ฿9,500 advertised on guitarthai.com at the moment, just to give you an idea of prices here.

 

EDIT: There's also a white VM Precision bass for ฿6,500 in Don Muang on kaidee.com, that just got put on the site this evening, also looks in v. good condition. 

 

If you don't mind the Affinity range, you can get a brand new one for around ฿8,500 ish.

Edited July 7, 2019 by Mark1066

[blackcab]

3 hours ago, stargazer9999 said:

So the 10,000 baht guitar example would actually cost 11,770 baht?

 

No, because you forgot to add in the shipping. Then that needs to be multiplied by the duty and the vat rate. 

[lamyai3]

11 hours ago, Mark1066 said:

I'd try to find one here. Theres a white Vintage Modified 70s jazz bass in Din Daeng for ฿9,500 advertised on guitarthai.com at the moment, just to give you an idea of prices here.

 

EDIT: There's also a white VM Precision bass for ฿6,500 in Don Muang on kaidee.com, that just got put on the site this evening, also looks in v. good condition. 

Concur, many good deals on used guitars on the local Thai websites. This is perhaps fuelled by the large number of middle/upper income locals who are pressured to fork out for a respectable imported brand name instrument (Fender, Gibson, Martin, Taylor etc) for either themselves or their kids, before finding out if they really have much musical interest or aptitude. There are a lot of nice second hand instruments sitting around here barely touched in their cases. 

[stargazer9999]

kaidee.com seems to have a web interface problem when using the English translation.  I can't seem to register.  I'll keep trying.  Maybe a different browser will help other than Chrome.

 

Thanks for everybody's help.

[Mark1066]

You don't need to register - you can just click on the green writing in the ad descriptions and it reveals the sellers' phone numbers. I haven't tried viewing it in English but I'm sure you don't need to register anyway. If you look on the left of an ad, just under the price, there are two short green links......the bottom one (with a pic of a phone next to it) reveals the phone number when you click on it. I normally search for it in Line and add them to chat.

 

I just searched again and at the moment there is a red Vintage '70s Jazz, white VM Precision, white VM Jazz and a creamy beige Classic Vibe Precision (I think the colour is called white blonde), ranging in price from 6,500 to 12,700 Baht. There are also a couple of brand new Affinity Precisions (white or bright red) but you can probably pick those up at one of many shops in Bangkok. Incidentally, a brand new VM Jazz or Precision go for 11,700 and 11,250 respectively so if 10,000 was the actual figure you had in mind, you might be able to stretch your budget and buy one of those new instead. I play guitar not bass but if the Vintage Modified bass models are the same quality as the Vintage Modified guitars, they should be good.

 

(There are a couple more Squier basses advertised in addition to those I mentioned above but they are from a shop that has taken the common Thai music shop practice of not bothering to update their website one step further by placing adverts on Kaidee and guitarthai for guitars they don't have in stock so I wouldn't bother with them.

Edited July 8, 2019 by Mark1066

[Percy Penguin]

On 7/7/2019 at 3:33 PM, Mark1066 said:

You can probably pick up a reasonably priced secondhand Squier bass in Thailand. While not as cheap as the USA, the prices for Squier guitars here are no worse than in the UK, probably a bit cheaper now. Keep an eye on kaidee.com and guitarthai.com classified section and you should find one fairly soon. I'm not sure what would happen in Bangkok but in Chiang Mai, if you order something that has to be assessed for import duty and sales tax, they ask you to come to the customs office at the airport. The shipping charges, and the import duty and sales tax on them, would make ordering a squire from overseas an uneconomical proposition.

Are you in CM then? I would like to pick up a 6-string in the next couple of months, maybe a Tele, maybe a PRS. I was thinking of getting one on ebay or thomann, so it's good to know about the tax, but I'm not crazy about mail order because you don't get to check the guitar out first, and sending it back would be a headache... Would I find that kind of instrument anywhere in CM? I will be in Ho Chi Minh in a couple of months so could potentially pick one up there and bring it back with my baggage. I guess I would have more choice down there, and potentially get more for my money(?)

[Mark1066]

On 7/11/2019 at 9:12 PM, Percy Penguin said:

Are you in CM then? I would like to pick up a 6-string in the next couple of months, maybe a Tele, maybe a PRS. I was thinking of getting one on ebay or thomann, so it's good to know about the tax, but I'm not crazy about mail order because you don't get to check the guitar out first, and sending it back would be a headache... Would I find that kind of instrument anywhere in CM? I will be in Ho Chi Minh in a couple of months so could potentially pick one up there and bring it back with my baggage. I guess I would have more choice down there, and potentially get more for my money(?)

Sorry, only just saw your post. I haven’t been very impressed with the music shops in CM: the one with the biggest range charges 10%+ more than shops in Bangkok and when I asked why, they cited transportation costs! At the time, I was paying 180 Baht to ship guitars (1 at a time) from Bangkok to Chiang Mai with Kerry so that was a ridiculous explanation. That was one of the shops in Chang Klan Rd.

 

The other shop in the same road has a really poor selection and terrible sales staff - I was going to buy an overpriced, old model Schecter from them one day (a moment of madness) but when they refused to throw in an extra tremolo spring I gave up. They’re pretentious, with little to no product knowledge. The guitar was badly in need of a truss rod adjustment - a fact they denied - and their excuse for not being prepared to offer even a small discount was to laugh and say ‘These are imported goods’, as if that somehow precluded the possibility of discounts. Most consumer goods for sale in Thailand are imported so that was complete nonsense.

 

There’s a shop in Central Festival with some PRS guitars but I doubt their prices are competitive - the last time I looked they still had 2016 models in the window for full price.

 

I know what you mean about playing them first but if you already have a good idea of what you want, ordering online is not as crazy as it used to be. They’re all made on CNC machines these days and therefore quality is far more consistent than it was in my younger days (you probably know that anyway).

 

I've never been to Vietnam so I’ve no idea whether you’ll have a better choice there or not.

 

Also, there are a couple of other shops in CM that might have what you want but I haven’t been in them for years and then only briefly so I can’t really comment on them. Once I discovered how uncompetitive local music shops were, I resigned myself to ordering on spec from shops in Bangkok and even that’s harder than it should be because none of them update their websites. If you were to believe CT Music’s website, for example, they currently have in stock pretty much every Ibanez guitar made in the last 10+ years (they don’t obviously). They probably have around 10% of the guitars on their site, and that’s a generous estimate.

Edited July 18, 2019 by Mark1066

[Just Weird]

On ‎7‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 9:21 PM, stargazer9999 said:

Japan was just an example case.  Any idea where the best place to get a 2nd hand guitar would be?  I thought anywhere in Asia would have decent choices and lowest shipping.  Maybe there'a a better choice.  I'm looking for a Fender Squier bass.  

 

So the 10,000 baht guitar example would actually cost 11,770 baht?  That's not terrible.  I thought it might be more.  Where do you go to pick up the guitar and pay...the closest post office?  They deliver a postal pickup notice to your delivery address?

If it's delivered by FedEx, DHL, or UPS (maybe others also) they are agents for the Customs department and you pay to them when they deliver to you.  They itemize all the charges.

 

If it's delivered by post it will usually be delivered to your local Post Office who will advise you that it's been "carded" and unable to be delivered.  That just means that there is duty to pay.  Take the copy of their letter that the PO sends you to the PO and pay any duty that's applicable directly to them.   If it is tracked you can get that same information from Thailand Post's tracking service before the notice gets to you,then you can just go to the PO with your passport and tracking number without the advice notice. 

 

If you dispute the amount charged, you can appeal to Customs but then on completion of the appeal you would have to collect from them, not your local PO.

[Mark1066]

5 hours ago, Just Weird said:

If it's delivered by FedEx, DHL, or UPS (maybe others also) they are agents for the Customs department and you pay to them when they deliver to you.  They itemize all the charges.

 

If it's delivered by post it will usually be delivered to your local Post Office who will advise you that it's been "carded" and unable to be delivered.  That just means that there is duty to pay.  Take the copy of their letter that the PO sends you to the PO and pay any duty that's applicable directly to them.   If it is tracked you can get that same information from Thailand Post's tracking service before the notice gets to you,then you can just go to the PO with your passport and tracking number without the advice notice. 

 

If you dispute the amount charged, you can appeal to Customs but then on completion of the appeal you would have to collect from them, not your local PO.

In my experience, more expensive stuff goes to the customs office by the airport, not to your local post office.

[Just Weird]

5 hours ago, Mark1066 said:

In my experience, more expensive stuff goes to the customs office by the airport, not to your local post office.

Ok.  Not in my experience, though, perhaps I'm just a cheapskate by your standards.

[fusion58]

13 hours ago, Mark1066 said:

They’re all made on CNC machines these days and therefore quality is far more consistent than it was in my younger days (you probably know that anyway).

 

True in some respects, but even if two Fender Stratocaster bodies are made on the same CNC machine, one guitar might end up weighing 7.5 lbs. while the other weighs in at 9.5 - depending on the particular piece of alder or ash used.

 

That's why I always prefer to try before buying whenever possible. YMMV.

[lamyai3]

2 hours ago, fusion58 said:

True in some respects, but even if two Fender Stratocaster bodies are made on the same CNC machine, one guitar might end up weighing 7.5 lbs. while the other weighs in at 9.5 - depending on the particular piece of alder or ash used.

Yes, my '89 strat is at the heavier end of the range... the sunburst finish shows off the ash beautifully. I bought it new, and was chuffed to find out when I unbolted the neck a couple of years ago that the heel was stamped Gastelum. Herb Gastelum was with Leo Fender since 1961 and is a legend in the history of the company, so it was very nice to see he quality checked the neck on mine. 

[Mark1066]

12 hours ago, fusion58 said:

 

True in some respects, but even if two Fender Stratocaster bodies are made on the same CNC machine, one guitar might end up weighing 7.5 lbs. while the other weighs in at 9.5 - depending on the particular piece of alder or ash used.

 

That's why I always prefer to try before buying whenever possible. YMMV.

Ideally I’d like to try before I buy but since moving to Chiang Mai from Bangkok, I’ve preferred to order from Bangkok shops as the prices are more competitive.

[Mark1066]

13 hours ago, Just Weird said:

Ok.  Not in my experience, though, perhaps I'm just a cheapskate by your standards.

Rather an odd comment, not sure how to answer that really. I’m just commenting on what’s happened to me personally: I have no idea of the value of the goods you’re talking about.

[Just Weird]

59 minutes ago, Mark1066 said:

14 hours ago, Just Weird said:

Ok.  Not in my experience, though, perhaps I'm just a cheapskate by your standards.

Rather an odd comment, not sure how to answer that really. I’m just commenting on what’s happened to me personally: I have no idea of the value of the goods you’re talking about.

What is so odd about my saying that is not my experience?

[Mark1066]

11 hours ago, Just Weird said:

What is so odd about my saying that is not my experience?

Nothing. What was odd was you suggesting that I was judging you and perhaps thought of you as a cheapskate.