Just wondering how people get around some import charges for mid value cards.
I am based in the U.K and am constantly being put off buying cards that I want because of this. A recent example was a card priced at around £1000 but the import charges from the US were almost £800! Why would I practically pay for the card twice?! This seems very excessive
I’m curious if anyone else has had this problem or has found a way round this?
Personally I’d usually just target cards - if I was on eBay, for example - that are shipped under eBay’s Global Shipping Programme. Such shipping shows you the exact import charges, which are usually low, mind you.
U usually land private deals and ask the seller to declair low value, most sellers are fine with that from which I have expereinced but i guess theres risk if your parcel goes missing bt ive been ok up till now but I havnt done this with anything higher than $2000
Sorry mate, I guess we in the US have it lucky. I order cards from Europe and Canada all the time–never get charged import duties or fees.
Pay your taxes it’s the patriotic thing to do.
As a Canadian I get hit with import charges when I buy from ebay if the seller is located outside Canada. It is nice to be able to find private deals where the seller can claim the value as low to avoid import charges. I have been lucky to have had some luck buying from @garyis2000 recently 
Thanks for all the quick advice. This is the reason I love e4. It’s so quick to get advice and different opinions
never buy from sellers that use GSP (global shipping program)
if you want to buy a card that has a market value of 800, message the seller and offer him 1k if he can declare low value when shipping it to you. Most sellers will take you up on such a deal.
Why? It’s usually indeed pretty overpriced, and I prefer to use a contact in the US to buy them for me and forward them a lot cheaper. But you do pay any import fees right then and there for auctions using GSP, so you can see the total of product+shipping+import fees the moment you pay, and can decide whether you want to buy it for that total amount or not. I prefer that, over paying for just product+shipping initially and then get a surprise import fee on arrival.
For me (The Netherlands), whether I get import fees or not is usually pretty random, and I still don’t know where it’s based on tbh. Anything under 22 euros is without import, and anything from within Europe is also without import, that I know. But apart from that I have to pay for about 1/3rd of my packages above 22 euros from around the world. EMS I usually have to pay; DHL sometimes; any other shipping service is completely at random in my eyes. It also hugely depends on where it’s shipped from. If it’s from the US or Australia, chances are pretty high I would have to pay fees. From China never. From Japan sometimes. Other countries usually as well, although not always.
I do agree import fees in general sucks. I once had to pay 350 euros (~375 USD) on a 2k item… 
But usually it’s 30-100 USD. Either case, it’s a waste of money imo, but we can’t help it. It’s either choose to pay, or let them send it back, which you obviously also don’t want…
Greetz,
Quuador
The complaining about import taxes is like complaining to a seller who wont match last sold price. It comes from a place of entitlement. “I want to illegaly evade taxes to get this card at the lowest price while paying no additional fees. I want the seller to take all the risk because they cant declare or insure at full value.” Especially when with import taxes the total prices comes out to something you’d pay. A $1,250 no fee item is the same exact price as a $1,000 one with 25% tax and is the same price as a $250 item with $1,000 shipping and no taxes. Just worry about the all in and pay it if you like the price and don’t pay it if you don’t like the price.
When someone asks me to match last sold and I won’t I tell them to buy that last sold item then.
When someone tells me to declare low or ship direct without GSP I tell them to just buy in their country at that price to avoid the taxes.
You can use PWCC Vault and have the cards shipped to the vault address in the US. Afterwards, you can request the cards to be shipped back to you, I am sure PWCC can mark the value down.
So you can order from US sellers and not worry about shipping costs and import charges, if you actually don’t want to have the cards in hand.
I haven’t done it myself yet , but you could in theory buy an American virtual address. send any packages from USA to there , this includes eBay listings that don’t send internationally . they often provide a service where they repackage it all for you and send it out to you.
since you are technically sending the parcel to yourself… the declared value is to your discretion.
This method is really only financially viable if you are buying multiple listings often.
You dont have many options unfortunately. VAT and customs charges will hammer you on any large purchases. You may aswell pay the premium on UK/EU cards, they usually work cheaper anyway once you’ve factored in the additional costs buying from elsewhere I.e. States, Australia etc.
I’d use a middleman