Buying musical instruments comparable to guitars, keyboards, microphones and so on has been an costly process in case you’re dwelling outside of the USA. Usually local music stores inflate their costs and they end up costing you up to THREE TIMES what you’d pay for a local USA shop. An extreme instance of this will be present in New Zealand the place that John Mayer Stratocaster costs $999 USD in the United States, but by the point it is shipped to New Zealand with workers costs, hire prices, inflation, markup and taxes – you may be paying three times more! For this very reason many musicians worldwide select to purchase from USA stores who ship internationally.
Though they must advertise their products as non-worldwide, a simple phone call to any of these companies can have your merchandise shipped internationally. Most retailers provide DHL, USPS and FEDEX.
For piece of mind you can ship DHL/FEDEX but can be paying twice as much as USPS rates. USPS have more frequent occurrences of goods being damaged in transit, or being lost altogether while FEDEX/DHL are very diligent most of the time. Google the above business names and I am certain you may find a shipper who can deliver musical instruments to your worldwide location for a fraction of the value you could buy at locally. Although do keep in mind currency conversions and 110VOLT/240VOLT adapter differences as you would not want to plugin your new merchandise solely to have it explode because you didn’t take the time to check this minor detail.
Other things to consider when buying online are:
* Power supplies – do they match your local voltage?
* Warranty – what support will you receive in your country?
* Foreign money conversions – check your bank rates earlier than shopping for on-line!
* PayPal safety – At all times shop using PayPal so that you will be covered within the event of problems.
* Import taxes/duties – at the moment Hong Kong is the one country which will not cost you additional taxes when importing gear from overseas. Some nations similar to Australia have a threshold so any worth beneath $1000 is not going to incur import tax/duty.
As to the question of why American listed prices are usually a lot decrease than their retail counterparts within the UK, Australia, NZ, etc. This query has many solutions:
For the final 30-forty years the American Musical Instrument trade and their retailers have been battling it out, trying to beat one another on value – because the years have passed by, these worth pressures have pressured costs down very low while this competitive market continues to be in its infancy in different countries. A common clarification given by retailers in other nations as to why their costs are so much higher comes down to their insistence on shopper warranties – they could argue that their Fender John Mayer guitar prices $500 more because they offer native warranty and restore if required. This is completely true and in lots of cases you will be better of buying a guitar,microphone or piece of DJ gear for that little bit more realizing you may be covered should you face any problems. The complication arises for high ticket objects, resembling John Mayer Signature Fender Guitar – where the savings can get into the 1000’s and the promoting level of native warranty turns into less attractive. Some of the largest Music Stores in America comparable to Guitar Center and Musician’s Buddy retail most of their gadgets on-line which reduces operating costs while many bricks and mortar stores throughout the world must pay a large share of their income towards hire, tax, staff etc.
In conclusion, I might say for gadgets valued beneath $1500 you would be higher off buying locally, assuming the value is right. In case your next guitar goes to value more than this, it might well pay to phone an American retailer and haggle with price and pay shut attention to the unit’s voltage (110VOLT or 240VOLT) and request they declare the worth low so you won’t get stung by customs on tax and/or GST. Australia, for example, will not charge you any import tax/duty for gadgets DECLARED at under $a thousand Australian dollars. For this reason it maybe beneficial to ask the USA shipper to declare your shipment at a low value. Nevertheless, Clarinet if the unit sustains damage in transit – you’ll only be covered beneath this declared value.