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Author Topic: Buying from the US of A.  (Read 5173 times)

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Offline su888

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Buying from the US of A.
« on: October 27, 2011, 08:17:38 AM »
Folks, wanting to spend my dollars wisely with mods and have looked at a number of items here compared to the US and would like to take advantage of the strong economy.

A couple of things on my mind are warn winch, lightforce lights, and rope.

Can anyone provide some feedback on how feasible it is to get the stuff from OS and any problems they incurred.
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Offline GGV8Cruza

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2011, 08:30:23 AM »
Bought a rope from Winchline the other day and only took 5 days to get here, easy as. I was going to get a winch but found one locally for close to the same price. Just make sure you factor in any import duties in your price comparision.

GG
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Offline medion

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2011, 08:32:05 AM »
A few things you have to be wary of are delivery times and insurance if the item goes missing. Warranty is the biggest thing. A lot of companies in Aust won't cover your warranty if bought overseas. So if your winch played up you might have to pay for postage there and back to get it fixed.

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Offline DeLuxHiLux

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2011, 08:36:23 AM »
Unless you were going to bring a Warn back in your hand luggage, i'd think the postage would kill any savings you'd make. there are plenty of other reputable brands of winch which dont charge like wounded bulls because of their logo on the front  >:(.

On other matters, i've brought a few car and non car related products in from US and China etc, and warranty can be hit and miss, and you often have to pay return freight if something goes wrong/doesnt fit/doesnt work/wrong item etc. It might cost, say $20USD to get something sent here from the States, I've found that the return trip is considerably more expensive. It may turn out to be not worth returning. I had a large box of clothes/sports goods sent over which cost $20USD by USPS. It had several Tshirts, some sports gear, a couple of Hoodies etc. estimate to return 1T shirt , $20 AUD!! and that was for Snail mail, notAir mail which was how the original parcel arrived (Was here 5 days after i ordered!!)

Like many things we buy here on fleaBay/EvilBay, many manufacturers are now not honoring warrantees on items sold on "auction  websites" as you are not the original purchaser or the item is a possibly a Factory Second etc. Check the details of any warrantees.

Small inexpensive items are often good value, and if you had to reorder because of issues, its no big issue. you might blow $20-$50 if something goes wrong, but thats the risk you take,but it doesnt happen often if you choose reputable sellers, who value their reputation

Good Luck!!!
« Last Edit: October 27, 2011, 12:00:58 PM by DeLuxHiLux »
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Offline Bird

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2011, 09:28:05 AM »
Quote from: DeLuxHiLux
Unless you were going to bring a Warn back in your hand luggage, i'd think the postage would kill any savings you'd make.
theres been several people do it, landing new warns for <1000 and high mounts for <1500.... and funny enough tyres are a bargain from USA in 17in rims.

Theres numerous threads on gettin stuff from USA, have a search of the forum.
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Offline JCOJ

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2011, 11:50:18 AM »
i have got 2 winches from www.4wd.com - excellent service and much cheaper than getting it here - even with all the freight and taxes - and that was when the dollar was in the 80c's.
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Offline wholehog

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2011, 02:07:19 PM »
Tires don't really work out much cheaper due to the weight, to ship in 4 mickey thompsons ( 265/65/17) I would have saves about one hundred bux by the time u pay for fit and balance
Alloy rims on the other hand-5 rims landed at my door for a shade over $150.00 each plus 330 or so frieght,
They wanted over $400.00 each hear
So some things I say go for it,but others where weight and warranty issues arise I say buy local
« Last Edit: October 27, 2011, 05:02:06 PM by wholehog »
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Offline Bird

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2011, 02:22:37 PM »
Quote from: wholehog
Tires don't really work out much cheaper due to the weight, to ship in 4 mickey thompsons ( 265/65/17) I would have saves about one hundred nix by the time u pay for fit and balance

Have a look at Squalo's thread where he saved $800 on his BFG 285's.
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Offline Camel Tow

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #8 on: October 27, 2011, 03:33:58 PM »
If your buying several things from various suppliers like Amazon / Ebay USA you may benefit from setting up an account with one of the mail forwarding companies.

We buy most of our kids brand name clothes (Addidas etc) from Amazon and have found that there are quite a few suppliers that do not allow shipping to Australia. We have set upa US address with 'www.myus.com' and use this address as our shipping address. When all of the items have arrived to the 'myus' box they bundle them all up together into the one package and send to me here in Aust therefore saving on shiping fees.

Cheers
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Offline Alloy C/T

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2011, 04:50:52 PM »
Anything that does not weigh a great deal  is worth sourcing otherwise the freight can be excessive , bought  Firestone airbags from trucksprings USA for 1/3 the price of Aust quotes delivered within 5days of ordering , same sort of saving on winch rope ,ordered on a Sunday and delivered on the Friday which is excellent service seeing whenever we order anything from Melbourne we are allways quoted 10/15 working days !
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Offline Wandering Tassie

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #10 on: October 27, 2011, 05:02:53 PM »
i have bought a far bit of camera gear from the US over the last 6 months and have had no issues.
If you keep your orders below a $1000 you avoid the tax. I had one order for some lenses that was over a $1000 and had the supplier split it into 2 seperate orders and saved the tax.
Will be ordering a Xantrex linkpro Battery Monitor for the camper soon and will save about $200.

Trevor
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Offline Blueroo

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #11 on: October 27, 2011, 05:04:16 PM »
I got a new radiator fan (Toyota OE) for the 100 series landed at the front door for $119 from Texas. The cheapest I could get it in Oz was $250. Quite a saving. You just need to check around and consider the options and risks.
cheers
Stue
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Offline Symon

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #12 on: October 27, 2011, 05:08:41 PM »
Something to bear in mind if you are getting stuff from the USA that is mains powered, they use 110V @ 60Hz over there and we use 240V @ 50Hz.... I know plenty of people have been trapped with that one, and end up spending more in the end because they need a stepdown transformer.
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Offline DeLuxHiLux

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #13 on: October 30, 2011, 07:50:03 PM »
Quote from: Camel Tow on October 27, 2011, 03:33:58 PM
If your buying several things from various suppliers like Amazon / Ebay USA you may benefit from setting up an account with one of the mail forwarding companies.

We buy most of our kids brand name clothes (Addidas etc) from Amazon and have found that there are quite a few suppliers that do not allow shipping to Australia. We have set upa US address with 'www.myus.com' and use this address as our shipping address. When all of the items have arrived to the 'myus' box they bundle them all up together into the one package and send to me here in Aust therefore saving on shiping fees.

Cheers

As a slight deviation from topic, can I ask Camel, what sort of ball park prices you pay for postage?? I just chekced the MyUS website as this sounds great as my family are into baseball and stuff un the US is CHEAP!!! The postage comparison quoted me $140 to forward a 12.5Lb parcel by FedEX/DHL etc . I just had a 12.5lb parcel delivered by UPS from a US vendor for $35.99!!!!! thats a hell of a premium  for having a "US street address". Can i assume that there is something awry with their postage calcualtor or is it really that expensive??
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Offline Heiny

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #14 on: October 30, 2011, 08:00:33 PM »
So it's ok to purchase from the USA but not China ??? how ironic ::)

bubba :cheers:
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Offline DeLuxHiLux

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #15 on: October 30, 2011, 11:04:28 PM »
Quote from: 73bubba on October 30, 2011, 08:00:33 PM
So it's ok to purchase from the USA but not China ??? how ironic ::)

bubba :cheers:

Unless you're buying Chinese stuff FROM the US ....... ;)

 It's crazy though that the same product you buy here for $120, can be purchased fopr $39 in the US!! crazy Import duty isnt that much!!!!!
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Offline Heiny

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #16 on: October 31, 2011, 05:33:25 AM »
Quote from: DeLuxHiLux on October 30, 2011, 11:04:28 PM
Unless you're buying Chinese stuff FROM the US ....... ;)

 It's crazy though that the same product you buy here for $120, can be purchased fopr $39 in the US!! crazy Import duty isnt that much!!!!!
Yes it's crazy but probably has more to do with greed, so why wouldn't you buy OS ???

bubba :cheers:
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Offline Wandering Tassie

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #17 on: October 31, 2011, 06:41:16 AM »
Budda, your right greed has a lot to do with it, and to many people with the greed. A lot of products go from an importer to a wholesaler and then the retailer. All wanting a big margin.
I am happy to buy locally if the are competitive, if not overseas for me.

Trevor
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Offline Camel Tow

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Re: Buying from the US of A.
« Reply #18 on: October 31, 2011, 07:29:53 PM »
Quote from: DeLuxHiLux on October 30, 2011, 07:50:03 PM
As a slight deviation from topic, can I ask Camel, what sort of ball park prices you pay for postage?? I just chekced the MyUS website as this sounds great as my family are into baseball and stuff un the US is CHEAP!!! The postage comparison quoted me $140 to forward a 12.5Lb parcel by FedEX/DHL etc . I just had a 12.5lb parcel delivered by UPS from a US vendor for $35.99!!!!! thats a hell of a premium  for having a "US street address". Can i assume that there is something awry with their postage calcualtor or is it really that expensive??

My last one was $106 for 11.6lbs including insurance. This package was a consolodated package consisting of goods from 4 different vendors that arrived at the MYUS site on 4 different days.

While the shipping costs may not be that cheap, we have found many items that will simply not ship to Aust. I am not sure if this is the vendor or Aust Customs restricting it. I often get to the 'checkout' and get a message that tells me "this item cannot be shipped to your address" ??
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