How are you dealing with not being able to order from the EU anymore?

[paradoxum]

It has taken ages but now a lot of sites WILL finally ship here, but only if you spend at least £140. 

I needed a specific cylinder head, an shs ak one, an EU store is the only one I could find it on, including the US, so I had it shipped to https://www.forward2me.com/warehouses/germany/ and then paid them to ship it on to me.

They charged me like £50.

If it wasn't hard enough to get parts in the UK for airsoft, this just makes it 10x worse. I'm now having to wait until I am ready to buy a bunch of stuff from the EU so I can have it all proxy-shipped in one package.

 

[Speedbird_666]

Aliexpress?

I've had a couple orders now. Both had VAT is collected at source, and sailed through Customs.  If you look around you can find SHS or similar products on there.

 

[Chev Chelios]

I have only just started ordering from EU, Emperion seems to have everything I want in one place. I cant say I have had any issue or even paid any duty (knowing that I should have done) on around 9 orders they ship direct to the UK, last order was £240 no duty or charges to pay my end. For parts I almost always go to Hong Kong/Taiwan anyway or like Speed says Aliexpress. Places like https://www.rainbow8.com/ shipping seems to be around £5 regardless of what I order and shipping is around 5-7 days.  Used to use ak2m4 for my sowing machines before I got rid, as his service is always spot on, I would be very surprised if there was an SHS part he could not get.

 

[AlphaBear]

I haven’t bothered getting anything from the EU to be honest. Just can’t be bothered with all their faff. All my TM parts come from HK or Japan and are here within a few days with no fuss. 

 

[Tommikka]

It has taken ages but now a lot of sites WILL finally ship here, but only if you spend at least £140. 

I needed a specific cylinder head, an shs ak one, an EU store is the only one I could find it on, including the US, so I had it shipped to https://www.forward2me.com/warehouses/germany/ and then paid them to ship it on to me.

They charged me like £50.

If it wasn't hard enough to get parts in the UK for airsoft, this just makes it 10x worse. I'm now having to wait until I am ready to buy a bunch of stuff from the EU so I can have it all proxy-shipped in one package.

How did the £50 charge breakdown ?

Was it the cost of forwarding, inclusive of UK VAT by the forwarding ‘sender’ or charges at border?

 

[Rogerborg]

I cant say I have had any issue or even paid any duty

My understanding is that EU sellers can charge VAT and duty at source, and have to do it for anything under £135. It's just that for reasons best known to themselves, aren't bothering.  AliExpress sellers don't seem to have any problems with it - or at least with claiming that they're doing it, which isn't necessarily the same thing.

 

[hitmanNo2]

To be fair, if UK customers only represent a small percentage of sales, I don't think I would bother with dealing with it if I was an EU retailer.  More paperwork, more registrations, more likely more fees, trying to communicate with HMRC etc. 

Aliexpress on the other hand.  Huuuuuge company so it's easy to implement it.

Good video from Louis Rossmann covering it here

 

[Impulse]

When it comes to parts, I typically tried to shop local before Brexit anyway, because something-something-support-local-businesses-and-uk-economy. I typically ask my two local shops if they can get the parts and if they can't I usually look for UK retailers anyway, going through a list of retailers I trust in preferential order because I'd rather give my business to those who have done right by me in the past. Outside of that, I typically go to HK/Taiwan for hard to find parts and have never had any issues with ordering from them. EU retailers that ship to the UK and don't have the £140 cap, I also have had no issues from. Bought some stuff from the Nov, for example, kept it below £135 and watched it sail through customs with no issues. Though it must be said, I don't think I'd import RIFs after seeing some of the horror stories from people importing RIFs. Fortunately, I don't generally need to do this because local shops are quite good at getting hold of stuff.

Never really bought from Europe before Brexit apart from getting cheap RIFs and stuff from Taiwangun, but since I don't really need anything new this is no longer an issue. Plus, not having access to those stupidly cheap prices is helping me avoid the temptation of new things  

 

[ak2m4]

I needed a specific cylinder head, an shs ak one, an EU store is the only one I could find it on, including the US, so I had it shipped to https://www.forward2me.com/warehouses/germany/ and then paid them to ship it on to me.

An SHS AK head, got a few of those, which one did you need out of interest?

I've noticed that since the larger Chinese stores like Aliexpress have implemented VAT at source all of my other purchases from independent HK retailers have sailed through customs with no charges..  It's almost as if no vat and duty checks are being made simply because they are catching the majority at source.  Maybe we'll start seeing the rise of HK stores again similar to mid-2000's.  Who knows, still early days.

 

[paradoxum]

An SHS AK head, got a few of those, which one did you need out of interest?

I've noticed that since the larger Chinese stores like Aliexpress have implemented VAT at source all of my other purchases from independent HK retailers have sailed through customs with no charges..  It's almost as if no vat and duty checks are being made simply because they are catching the majority at source.  Maybe we'll start seeing the rise of HK stores again similar to mid-2000's.  Who knows, still early days.

It was this: 

https://www.airsoftguns-europe.com/metal-cylinder-head-scar-long-shs actually, but I also got the AK and G36 nozzles (I think one of those could only be found there at the time too) because I didn't know what length would work best.

So ended up paying about £20~ w/local shipping (GER) for 2 heads, then had to pay the proxy shipper about £45 to send em' to me. Thankfully no customs / import tax on them.

The only things I'm getting hit with import tax since brexit is the US, which is normal anyway - anything from EU/asia gets through fine.

 

[Sneaky]

I have noticed that Patrol base are working alongside Taiwangun.

I emailed Patrol base, which I am after something from Taiwangun.

They sent me a form to complete and they will get back to me.

Will see what happens, but it is a potential work around for a while.