Threadless T-shirts $5 (£3-ish) sale

MSE_Jenny

What's the deal?

Threadless, the US T-shirt brand, is now having $5 (£3.50-ish) sale (though you'll have to pay postage on top). If you;ve not heard of it, Threadless prints witty & quirky T-shirt designs submitted and chosen by its users,

How can I get 'em?

Browse the sale collection at Threadless.com, and add whatever takes your fancy to your basket. The shop's easy to navigate, and there've been some nice designs in the last few months. Be quick though; the sale's due to end 23 March.

Postage & Import Duty

Delivery rates to the UK are very reasonable; I added three shirts and postage came to $10.10 (around £7). That said, you may wait up to 25 days for your order to arrive.

Whilst some people have noted that orders of less than three items are less likely to be stopped at customs, there's no guarantee of this, so you should be prepared to pay the relevant charges. It ought still to work out a fair bit cheaper than the UK high st.

Read Buying from the US for more details.

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emujuice

Thanks so much. I love threadless. Just bought 6(in 2 shops to save on customs).
Sometimes it tries to charge postage of $15 for 3 tshirts, sometimes $9. If you get $15 try adding only 2 to your basket, then make the quantity of one of those 2 - total of 3 shirts should give you $9 postage. Then add the third shirt you actually want and take the duplicate one off. Postage should stay at $9 instead of $15. HTH.
Enjoy x

patrick0

I got stung for import duty in the last sale when ordering 3 tshirts.

Remember they take the US$ price and convert it to pounds. The US$ is worth a lot more than it was a year ago, so if the cost converts to more than £17 then there's a good chance you'll get charged VAT plus a handling fee. In my case the tshirts + postage + import VAT + Post Office handling charge cost way more than what they would have in a UK shop.

I won't be ordering from threadless any more.

jaz_2

patrick0 wrote: »

I got stung for import duty in the last sale when ordering 3 tshirts.

Remember they take the US$ price and convert it to pounds. The US$ is worth a lot more than it was a year ago, so if the cost converts to more than £17 then there's a good chance you'll get charged VAT plus a handling fee. In my case the tshirts + postage + import VAT + Post Office handling charge cost way more than what they would have in a UK shop.

I won't be ordering from threadless any more.

So that's $15 for the t-shirts, roughly £10? Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the limit for goods (not including shipping) from outside the EU was £18?

I ordered 4 t-shirts last time they had a sale without any problems.

FatAndy

HM Revenue & Customs have a section on their website about importing goods bought over the internet which is quite helpful -

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_PROD1_028719&propertyType=document

Basically you're liable to pay VAT on anything with a value in excess of £18 and customs duty if your goods are valued at more than £120. As emujuice pointed out the trick is to try to spread your purchases if possible (bearing in mind that this may increase the postage cost) so you don't exceed the £18 limit.

emujuice

jaz wrote: »

So that's $15 for the t-shirts, roughly £10? Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the limit for goods (not including shipping) from outside the EU was £18?

I ordered 4 t-shirts last time they had a sale without any problems.

I've also ordered 3 at a time with no probs. Each of my orders this time were $24 including postage. so shouldn't be hit. fingers crossed

Ballymackeonan

The postage gets added in to the total amount for customs duties, so with the lower value of the pound you have to be careful - if the $15 postage was charged on 3 shirts, this would bring the total up to $30, £17.99 at the XE.com rate and more on a credit card conversion! Thanks, emujuice, for the advice on postage.

jaz_2

OK, I've just rung Customs for clarification - the £18 limit is for the cost of the goods alone.

If you go over the £18 limit then they use the total figure of cost of goods + postage + any insurance to calculate the amount of Import VAT you'll pay, but as long as the cost of the goods doesn't exceed £18 you'll be fine.

Redrum_2

I ordered from them recently, and also got stung for an £8 "post office handling charge" - which seemed ridiculous to me, given I'd already paid for postage separately

But overall still a lot cheaper than buying "unique" design t-shirts over here

ramellous1

Are these good quality? Is the print that stuff that cracks after a couple of washes?

the_rottweiler

I saw this site yonks ago and showed ds1, he loved it and wanted stuff but I was wary of the customs rules etc.
Thanks to op for the tip about the sale, and thanks to all the others for clarifying the customs rules
Jb is going to be a happy chappy when he gets home and I let him go for it