Bringing 2nd Hand Goods In From Uk

[silentnine]

hi all ..

i have a few final things to bring in from the UK when i next arrive in LOS.

42" LCD TV

2 Robot vacuum cleaners

epson printer

all are around 6 months old.

i'm not expecting to much trouble with the vacuums or printer as they look well battered around so obviosly 2nd hand .

i asked at the airport last week and the thai guy in the vat refund office (only person i could find to ask) said maybee i pay duty , maybee i not pay , .. when asked how much a very thai answer , can only tell me when i'm here with it .. lol a little to late then !

he was trying to encurage me to sell them in the UK and buy more here ..

selling in uk would ony recoup maybee 30-40% of replacement values 2nd hand

so does anyone know how import duty is calculated and would haveign my thai fiance waiting for me the other side of customs saying the tv is a present for her be of any help to me ?

[JetsetBkk]

would haveign my thai fiance waiting for me the other side of customs saying the tv is a present for her be of any help to me ?

Better if she has a suitcase full of cash...

Why not sell it in the UK and buy a new one here?

[silentnine]

would haveign my thai fiance waiting for me the other side of customs saying the tv is a present for her be of any help to me ?

Better if she has a suitcase full of cash...

Why not sell it in the UK and buy a new one here?

2nd hand resale on tv's are pretty bad imho . paid £950 for it .. would be luckey to get £450 if sold . and replacement value is still around £900 in thialand , so bringing it saves me money as long as tax is not >50% of new value

[mikethevigoman]

would haveign my thai fiance waiting for me the other side of customs saying the tv is a present for her be of any help to me ?

Better if she has a suitcase full of cash...

Why not sell it in the UK and buy a new one here?

2nd hand resale on tv's are pretty bad imho . paid £950 for it .. would be luckey to get £450 if sold . and replacement value is still around £900 in thialand , so bringing it saves me money as long as tax is not >50% of new value

i wouldnt bother, it may well be you are charged 450 quid duty and then you will wish you had sold it there, its a minefield here with importing, and worse if flown in,.

[Upcountry]

Problem with TVs. Picture and sound is rarely the same in any two countries.

In another thread, someone said you might get a good picture, but no audio, or vice versa. Channel and audio frequencies and ranges differ.

Do a search on the internet for UK / Thailand television channel and TV compatibility. I think there are websites that compare various countries.

Selling may be your only option.

As for the vacuums, can a motorized device that works on UK DC electricity work on Thai 220/50 AC in Thailand? Is there any such thing as cycles in direct current? I don't know, but vacuum motors, power tools, etc., are likely to time their motor speed to the electric cycles for the country in which they are designed to work. So, for instance, while I can use my food processor from 110/60 US working with a step down transformer, I can't use it for too long at any one time or it will burn up on 50 cycles. It also runs slower.

Many printers are designed to work universally (check to see if it works on 220/50). If not, it may still work with a step down transformer.

Good luck.

[Crossy]

As for the vacuums, can a motorized device that works on UK DC electricity work on Thai 220/50 AC in Thailand? Is there any such thing as cycles in direct current?

Er, I'm not sure which planet you've been on (one of the 4400 possibly), but the UK stopped using DC in about 1920.

We have 230V 50Hz, sufficiently similar to Thailand that there will be no issues with power supply

The TV is a different flavour of PAL (sound subcarrier) but an LCD is almost certainly multi-standard. Even if it's not only off-air will be wrong, UBC etc via the RCA/SCART will work just fine.

[sumrit]

hi all ..

i have a few final things to bring in from the UK when i next arrive in LOS.

42" LCD TV

2 Robot vacuum cleaners

epson printer

all are around 6 months old.

i'm not expecting to much trouble with the vacuums or printer as they look well battered around so obviosly 2nd hand .

i asked at the airport last week and the thai guy in the vat refund office (only person i could find to ask) said maybee i pay duty , maybee i not pay , .. when asked how much a very thai answer , can only tell me when i'm here with it .. lol a little to late then !

he was trying to encurage me to sell them in the UK and buy more here ..

selling in uk would ony recoup maybee 30-40% of replacement values 2nd hand

so does anyone know how import duty is calculated and would haveign my thai fiance waiting for me the other side of customs saying the tv is a present for her be of any help to me ?

Transmitted TV signals in Thailand have a different sound frequency, and are transmitted in both the VHF and UHF wavebands (the UK is UHF only) so if you are planning to use the TV for terestrial or cable TV you'll get no sound and only a few of the channels (although the sound problem could possibly be fixed with a software adjustment/upgrade). It will work OK if you just plan to use it with a VCD/DVD, satelite system or some other signal source that has a direct audio/video output.

As for the printer I was told by a friend that worked for Epson in the UK that the inks you can buy in Thailand would probably not be compatable. Ink cartridges for Epson printers are chipped and my friend told me that these chips are programed to work with printers designed for the UK market and as the inks you'd buy in Thailand are designed for a different market (Asia) they probably wouldn't be compatable with a UK designed printer. I can't be certain about this but I got round the problem anyway by buying a continual ink system for my printer in the UK and shipping that over with my printer, then I just buy bottles of inks here in Thailand to top it up.

The electricity system is the same over here as the UK so your vacuum cleaners will work over here.

[Upcountry]

Er, I'm not sure which planet you've been on (one of the 4400 possibly)...

Canarsie, where we all sound the same.

- Zappa, Shut up and Play your Guitar

... but the UK stopped using DC in about 1920.

I stand corrected.

[silentnine]

hi all ..

i have a few final things to bring in from the UK when i next arrive in LOS.

42" LCD TV

2 Robot vacuum cleaners

epson printer

all are around 6 months old.

i'm not expecting to much trouble with the vacuums or printer as they look well battered around so obviosly 2nd hand .

i asked at the airport last week and the thai guy in the vat refund office (only person i could find to ask) said maybee i pay duty , maybee i not pay , .. when asked how much a very thai answer , can only tell me when i'm here with it .. lol a little to late then !

he was trying to encurage me to sell them in the UK and buy more here ..

selling in uk would ony recoup maybee 30-40% of replacement values 2nd hand

so does anyone know how import duty is calculated and would haveign my thai fiance waiting for me the other side of customs saying the tv is a present for her be of any help to me ?

Transmitted TV signals in Thailand have a different sound frequency, and are transmitted in both the VHF and UHF wavebands (the UK is UHF only) so if you are planning to use the TV for terestrial or cable TV you'll get no sound and only a few of the channels (although the sound problem could possibly be fixed with a software adjustment/upgrade). It will work OK if you just plan to use it with a VCD/DVD, satelite system or some other signal source that has a direct audio/video output.

As for the printer I was told by a friend that worked for Epson in the UK that the inks you can buy in Thailand would probably not be compatable. Ink cartridges for Epson printers are chipped and my friend told me that these chips are programed to work with printers designed for the UK market and as the inks you'd buy in Thailand are designed for a different market (Asia) they probably wouldn't be compatable with a UK designed printer. I can't be certain about this but I got round the problem anyway by buying a continual ink system for my printer in the UK and shipping that over with my printer, then I just buy bottles of inks here in Thailand to top it up.

The electricity system is the same over here as the UK so your vacuum cleaners will work over here.

ink is the same .. i already use a ink system i bought in tutcom and works fine ..

is there a rule book as such for customs duty ? how do they decide how much to try and screw you for ?

is it a simple matter of if you smile wrong its 80% , or if (for once) like the look of you if only 20%

and the airline (emirates) said that if 2nd hand technicly there is no duty payable on 2nd hand goods .. but they did say to make sure its dirty and looks REALLY 2nd hand as customs in thailand in a rule unto itself ..

it is ONLY UBC/Truevision (and my PS3) i want to bring the TV for , as i was told in another thread all about the diffences in frequencys , i have been told by philips that there modern LCD TV's like this one should not have a problem but if it does i can take it to a service centre in BKK and have it changed (firmware upgrade or mod i don't know) and it would work on coax as well .

wonder if taking a internal fuse out and telling the guys in customs i bought it in BKK and am taking it back for repair would work as its buggered

but serisoly .. how do they decide on the duty rate ? there must be rules

and the vacuumas are the little round flying saucer rechargable roomba robot ones .. fantastic for lazy farangs and tiles floors ..lol

if they try and tax me on either the printer or the vacs they can keep them there , its not worth paying on those, i'm only bringing them as it a shame to bin them.. the TV is my main thing tho. it saves me £900 if i can get it thru on a 2nd hand tax free rule, even if i have to spray paint the plastic back panel a yuckey purple color to make it look naff ! i wonder if i took it apart and brought it in as components . lol

Edited November 12, 2007 by silentnine

[JetsetBkk]

... but the UK stopped using DC in about 1920.

I stand corrected.

And London's not really all that foggy anymore...

[sumrit]

is there a rule book as such for customs duty ? how do they decide how much to try and screw you for ?

is it a simple matter of if you smile wrong its 80% , or if (for once) like the look of you if only 20%

and the airline (emirates) said that if 2nd hand technicly there is no duty payable on 2nd hand goods .. but they did say to make sure its dirty and looks REALLY 2nd hand as customs in thailand in a rule unto itself ..

but serisoly .. how do they decide on the duty rate ? there must be rules

I sent some second hand electrical things over to Thailand about two years ago. Cost me £150 to ship them from the UK to the port in Bangkok and the company I used arranged for a local agent to 'sort everything out in Bangkok'. This agent then charged me 11000 baht (for customs duty, tax, transport, etc) to get my things from the port to my house. When I pointed out I shouldn't have to pay any tax or duty (and his transport costs were eccessive) he just ignored me and walked out of the office. When he came back I asked again and he walked out again. After three or four more attemps over the next couple of hours with the same result I decided that if I wanted my things (and they were worth a lot more than 11000 baht) I would just have to pay him and advise other people to ship 'door to door' and not 'door to port'. I've since been told about this company who ship door to door and include all costs so maybe if you contact them they will be able to give you an honest answer as to the cost,etc.

[jaiyenyen]

When I moved to Thailand I shipped over 4xteachest size boxes of 2nd hand stuff from home. I used a separate company to get the boxes from the port to my new home in Bangkok. They wanted 10,000 baht, they insisted that unless I had a work permit (difficult seeing as how I had retired) I would have to pay import tax.

After paying the thieves (Sorry, company) They delivered my stuff, minus my digital camera and portable DVD player

I gave up trying to complain after a few days.

My advice, If you are shipping into Thailand, get a door to door price.

[jaiyenyen]

but serisoly .. how do they decide on the duty rate ? there must be rules

Yes there are.....But customs read from a different rulebook than everyone else

[PadThaiGuy]

but serisoly .. how do they decide on the duty rate ? there must be rules

They will hold your shipment hostage and there is nothing you can do about it.

Organized crime.

The authorities are all in on it or too afraid to do anything.

Bendix will chime in here soon and claim they are all Saints. Go figure?

[helicoptor]

My advice, If you are shipping into Thailand, get a door to door price.

my advice also, I used a company that provided a door to door service, although it didnt stop the thai delivery company from the docks to my door trying it on to get 1500 baht out of me... I told them to F*&^ off! they delivered nonetheless!

[helitool]

I shipped over two containers. One was 20' containing capital equipment (at least 4 million baht worth). The other container was a 40' and contained my wife's personal possessions which should have been duty free. We ended up paying only $US 3,000 duty on the lathes and mills etc. But had to pay $5,000 duty on the personal stuff. They said the container was too large and we must be bringing duplicate items in. They said they would be happy to unpack and inspect everything, but we WOULD pay more if they did! Our agents fought with them for two days on that one but they wouldn't budge. The only rule the customs agents have is that if one of their mia noi's just has to have a new mercedes before he gets layed he WILL find the money no mater what rule he has to make up to extract it.

[stateman]

Each year the treasury ministry/custom dept. would announce what they were assigned to rake in. At a certain time, they would announce how much they got, and how that compared to their assignment. If they failed to make the number, the head guy's job might be in jeopardy. If his dept. did well, he'd get his due recognition.

Are you surprised then if his guys pad things up a bit to make sure they meet the number?

As to rule, what rule?