Buying musical instruments corresponding to guitars, keyboards, microphones and so forth has been an expensive job if you happen to’re dwelling outside of the USA. Often local music stores inflate their prices they usually find yourself costing you as much as THREE TIMES what you’d pay for a neighborhood USA shop. An excessive example of this can be present in New Zealand where that John Mayer Stratocaster costs $999 USD in the United States, but by the time it’s shipped to New Zealand with staff costs, rent prices, inflation, markup and taxes – you may be paying three times more! For this very reason many musicians worldwide choose to buy from USA stores who ship internationally.
Though they need to advertise their merchandise as non-international, a easy phone call to any of these firms can have your merchandise shipped internationally. Most retailers offer DHL, USPS and FEDEX.
For piece of mind you may ship DHL/FEDEX but shall be paying twice as a lot as USPS rates. USPS have more frequent occurrences of goods being damaged in transit, or being misplaced altogether while FEDEX/DHL are very diligent a lot of the time. Google the above business names and I’m positive you will find a shipper who can deliver musical devices to your international location for a fraction of the worth you could purchase at locally. Although do keep in mind forex conversions and 110VOLT/240VOLT adapter variations as you wouldn’t want to plugin your new item only to have it explode because you did not take the time to check this minor detail.
Different things to consider when buying online are:
* Power provides – do they match your local voltage?
* Warranty – what help will you obtain in your country?
* Forex conversions – check your bank rates earlier than shopping for online!
* PayPal protection – At all times shop using PayPal so that you might be covered in the event of problems.
* Import taxes/duties – currently Hong Kong is the one country which won’t charge you additional taxes when importing gear from overseas. Some nations reminiscent of Australia have a threshold so any worth beneath $one thousand won’t incur import tax/duty.
As to the question of why American listed prices are generally much decrease than their retail counterparts in the UK, Australia, NZ, etc. This question has many answers:
For Saxophone the final 30-40 years the American Musical Instrument trade and their retailers have been battling it out, making an attempt to beat one another on price – because the years have gone by, these price pressures have forced prices down very low while this competitive market continues to be in its infancy in different countries. A typical rationalization given by retailers in other nations as to why their prices are a lot higher comes all the way down to their insistence on client warranties – they could argue that their Fender John Mayer guitar costs $500 more because they offer local warranty and repair if required. This is completely true and in many cases you’ll be higher of buying a guitar,microphone or piece of DJ gear for that little bit more figuring out you will be covered should you face any problems. The complication arises for high ticket gadgets, similar to John Mayer Signature Fender Guitar – the place the financial savings can get into the thousands and the selling point of local warranty turns into less attractive. Some of the largest Music Stores in America akin to Guitar Center and Musician’s Buddy retail most of their items on-line which reduces operating prices while many bricks and mortar stores throughout the world must pay a big proportion of their revenue towards rent, tax, employees etc.
In conclusion, I’d say for objects valued below $1500 you would be better off buying locally, assuming the worth is right. In case your next guitar goes to price more than this, it could well pay to phone an American retailer and haggle with worth 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 instance, won’t charge you any import tax/duty for objects DECLARED at underneath $a thousand Australian dollars. For this reason it perhaps useful to ask the USA shipper to declare your shipment at a low value. However, if the unit sustains damage in transit – you may only be covered below this declared value.