Buying goods from overseas

Hi,

Im looking at buying a kayak from the US. I've never bought anything from overseas and dont use ebay so it's all very new to me.

My main concern is that i feel like it's a sort of gamble (too good to be true). For example, the kayak im looking at can be bought in the US for $400 and shipped over for an extra $135. That works out just short of €400 but i wouldn't get anywhere near as good a kayak for that price if i bought off an Irish seller and it would be second hand.

So just wondering what sort of stuff should i be looking out for because it doesn't make sense why anyone would shell out 700/800 euro here for something they can buy for half the price from the states, France, Uk, etc.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi Pat,

Welcome to AAM.

Daughter uses e-bay a lot and she says the following:

1. Not sure if you will get caught for customs on such a large item.

2. You would probably be better off buying from a professional seller i.e. a store who has very good feedback. You could check with some of the previous customers to see if they were happy with the service.

There are some previous threads on e-bay. You may get some tips here on e-bay. Be careful as son got caught and found it very hard to get his claim processed through e-bay.

Best of luck with the purchase.

I bought some contact lenses online from the US (not via ebay). They took weeks to arrive and I had to pay a large whack of customs duty before I could receive them. In the end it would have been almost as cheap, much quicker and less hassle to buy from VHI.

It's only the US - no problems buying from Europe. Apparently it's luck of the draw whether you get charged. Be warned!