This really is the pain of buying items overseas, especially from the Japanese auctions as you always get clobbered for import tax etc.
Basically it works out along the lines of;
Anything valued over £17.99 will incur charges. The charges consist of;
VAT = 20%
Import Duty = 10% (I think)
Handling Charge which can vary depending on the carrier, if it is Royal Mail it is about £12, so you could end up paying a couple of £'s for VAT/Duty and then another £12 on top which makes smallish items a devil of a cost.
If you use shipping couriers like DHL they are even more expensive.
About the only way round it is if the shipper sends the stuff by their national rail courier such as Japan Post and then they mark it as <£17.99 and/or as a gift. Even this doesn't always work as if marked as a gift but with a high value you may well get charged still, if marked as a gift but sent by a company they will usually open/check/charge you and even if seemingly from a private individual, marked at <£17.99 and as a gift you can still on occasion still get done, bit of a lottery.
I wouldn't mind too much if it was for 'grey goods' (i.e. stuff you could buy locally, but cheaper abroad), but this applies to everything even if not normally sold in the UK.
Often with the Japanese auctions the customs charges can be as much as the shipping and we all know how much that can be if you play with Jauce
Basically it works out along the lines of;
Anything valued over £17.99 will incur charges. The charges consist of;
VAT = 20%
Import Duty = 10% (I think)
Handling Charge which can vary depending on the carrier, if it is Royal Mail it is about £12, so you could end up paying a couple of £'s for VAT/Duty and then another £12 on top which makes smallish items a devil of a cost.
If you use shipping couriers like DHL they are even more expensive.
About the only way round it is if the shipper sends the stuff by their national rail courier such as Japan Post and then they mark it as <£17.99 and/or as a gift. Even this doesn't always work as if marked as a gift but with a high value you may well get charged still, if marked as a gift but sent by a company they will usually open/check/charge you and even if seemingly from a private individual, marked at <£17.99 and as a gift you can still on occasion still get done, bit of a lottery.
I wouldn't mind too much if it was for 'grey goods' (i.e. stuff you could buy locally, but cheaper abroad), but this applies to everything even if not normally sold in the UK.
Often with the Japanese auctions the customs charges can be as much as the shipping and we all know how much that can be if you play with Jauce
Happily collecting things all my life... 
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