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Buying online from EBAY


X-Man

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HI

 

Just enquiring if anyone on this forum has purchased any items on EBAY?

 

Theres a used frame that I'm interested in purchasing and I have a few Questions??

 

1. Does 1 pay duties etc on used items (if yes, how much)

 

2. Is it safe as normally sellers details are not fully disclosed?

 

Thanks

 

X

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Not sure about the duties, but it is safe. Sellers have to set up an account through Paypal, and the money gets held for 3 weeks after shipping the item, so if there are any disputes on the item, they're forced to get it resolved.

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Bought tons of stuff from eBay over the years from Software to bike parts. Never had any issues - just check the seller's feedback ratings and number of items sold.

 

Don't think there are any duties on a frame except the usual VAT and Post Office clearance fees.

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Agreed - very safe if you buy from sellers with feedback ratings 99%+. There are no duties on a frame and VAT will be determined by the value the seller declares when sending the frame to you. Make sure you agree postage cost upfront as it can be expensive.

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Bought tons of stuff from eBay over the years from Software to bike parts. Never had any issues - just check the seller's feedback ratings and number of items sold.

 

Don't think there are any duties on a frame except the usual VAT and Post Office clearance fees.

 

totally agree,ebay through paypal :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

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Just do your research on the seller. Go through the sellers feedback and enquire about shipping costs before you place your bid. Also do a google search on the sellers ebay user name. Normally if people have been screwed they go moan on forums such as this one. There is no duties on any bicycle goods, but customs may or may not add on vat, i guess it depends on how they feel on the day.

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agreed, i built my entire bike excluding frame form ebay.....

 

IT WORKS...

 

Do research on seller, min 95 % good feedback, and pay with paypal.

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I use Ebay .co.za it then will redirect you to .com or uk but will show all goods available for shipping to SA.

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also with regards to duties. If seller marks as Gift on shipping no VAT is ussually charged.

 

With regards to Duties, no duties/customs on components (ie Groupset,wheels, frame on its own) i think if you order complete bike or clothing/shoes etc you might be charged.

 

On all my goods i only had to pay VAT,Clearing (ussually about R25)fee on total invoice no customs.

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I use Ebay .co.za it then will redirect you to .com or uk but will show all goods available for shipping to SA.

Thanks.

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also with regards to duties. If seller marks as Gift on shipping no VAT is ussually charged.

 

With regards to Duties, no duties/customs on components (ie Groupset,wheels, frame on its own) i think if you order complete bike or clothing/shoes etc you might be charged.

 

On all my goods i only had to pay VAT,Clearing (ussually about R25)fee on total invoice no customs.

 

Thanks Asterix. Good idea to mark as GIFT :thumbup:

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Thanks.

I use Ebay regularly. If you make sure the sellers ratings are top notch, you should not have any problems. As said above, ask if they will mark the package as "gift", that might save you on VAT, but it obviously depends on size and weight, before PO become suspicious.

 

Paid $20 shipping to my PO BOX from China recently for a carbon fork (500 grams).

Just last week paid $30 postage for a tennis racquet from the US (300 grams).

 

The racquet was a steal compared to the prices sports shops charge here in SA. The RRP in SA is R2799, the best online price from a "warehouse" shop in SA I could find was R2500. When I queried the

online shop that I could get the racquet for less than half their price from the US, they had all kinds of excuses like agent prices,

high shipping costs (min $80 !, for a 300 gram racquet !), PO handling charges, VAT, etc, etc, BUT they are willing to sell it for R2250. I said no thanks of course and in the end I bought the racquet from Ebay and my total cost is R1000 !

 

Online sports businesses should really get a wake-up call here in SA.

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also with regards to duties. If seller marks as Gift on shipping no VAT is ussually charged.

 

With regards to Duties, no duties/customs on components (ie Groupset,wheels, frame on its own) i think if you order complete bike or clothing/shoes etc you might be charged.

 

On all my goods i only had to pay VAT,Clearing (ussually about R25)fee on total invoice no customs.

 

 

Ask your seller to not mark your parcel as Gift. It raises a red flag at customs and you may end up delaying your parcel. Its also illegal and customs takes it quite seriously. I had a guy from Europe marking a parcel as gift thinking he was doing me a favour. I ended up having to collect personally from customs at Capemail with my original invoice and having to explain why it was marked as gift.

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No problems, been shopping there for almost decade. Always paid Paypal, which adds a level of accountability to the seller. Only problem is many sellers don't ship outside USA - if you are really keen and they wont ship outside USA (some explicitly don't ship to Africa) think about using MyUSA.com forwarding service, but then some are sticky about that and will only ship to your Paypal address. Also save your bids until the last moment, and consider the "Buy Now" option, if the price is not unreasonable.

 

Just make sure the seller puts a copy of the Invoice on the outside of the parcel: that can hold up the parcel at customs. You can send the Paypal invoice through to customs if this happens if cant get the one from the supplier.

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