Computer from USA

Leopard

It does amuse me when I see Brits gleefully going to a lot of trouble (and, presumably, legal risk) to buy in America items that they could purchase for substantially less money at the Refurbs section of the Apple Online Store in England.

timbim_2

Doing it totally leagally, you have to pay VAT at 17.5% and import duty at some exorbitant rate. Not worth doing. Cheaper to buy a new one from the British store.

Marty_J

markymoo wrote: »

no shame at all... $40 is still hell of a lot cheaper than £59 that someone else was stating... as they said you needed a brand new power supply...

I was just quoting how much an official power supply would be, as that's what you'd get with a Mac purchased in the UK.

In total it still works out more expensive, regardless of whether you pay $40 or £59 for one.

Marty_J

Leopard wrote: »

It does amuse me when I see Brits gleefully going to a lot of trouble (and, presumably, legal risk) to buy in America items that they could purchase for substantially less money at the Refurbs section of the Apple Online Store in England.

There seems to be this idea that Americans are lucky as everything is cheaper in America, but it's just not so. Because of the favourable exchange rate, it is possible to pick up a few bargains, but for many things an American will have to work more hours to pay for something than someone in the UK would. Just because the £10 an hour you get paid is worth $20, it doesn't mean that someone in America is getting paid $20 to do the same job.

M4RKM

timbim wrote: »

Doing it totally leagally, you have to pay VAT at 17.5% and import duty at some exorbitant rate. Not worth doing. Cheaper to buy a new one from the British store.

i've already said you pay only VAT on a laptop, so your import duty at some exorbitant rate doesn't exist!

M

M4RKM

Marty_J wrote: »

I was just quoting how much an official power supply would be, as that's what you'd get with a Mac purchased in the UK.

In total it still works out more expensive, regardless of whether you pay $40 or £59 for one.

but it is the same power adaptor that is in the box, all you need is a figure 8 power adaptor, or the proper apple one to make it look pretty..

and if people forget to pay the VAT at customs, then it does work out cheaper!

M

Marty_J

markymoo wrote: »

and if people forget to pay the VAT at customs, then it does work out cheaper!

The trick is making HMRC forget about paying it!

Seriously though, the customs people aren't stupid, and can tell a new laptop from an old one; especially if you're coming back from the US and they find you with a laptop with a US power supply.

I've heard of people getting caught bringing guitars over. They would buy a dirt cheap guitar over here, go to the US, buy a new one, dump the old one, and bring the new one back. A new guitar looks like a new guitar though, and it's part of these people's job to spot such things.

M4RKM

the big thing with US laptops, compared to UK ones, is the different keyboard layout... the enter key is a different shape, and also, there is probably no CE symbol on it, which states it is safe to use in the EU...

marklar_2

Do you know anyone in Higher Education, either Staff or Student?
The discounts on the apple HE store (through the apple website) are very considerable.
The site needs to be accessed from a computer on the Universities network as apple use the IP address to confirm you are in a HE institution.

S0litaire

Note: Apple has 2 "Education discount" sites!

With one you just need the name of your School (and can be accessed anywhere for a 5% - 8% discount). you just need a form to verify you are a student there.

There is another site that you need to access from the School's network that gives a larger discount (depends on the deal they made with Apple).