Buying musical instruments equivalent to guitars, keyboards, microphones etc has been an costly task should you’re living outside of the USA. Often native music stores inflate their prices and so they find yourself costing you up to THREE TIMES what you’d pay for an area USA shop. An extreme instance of this may be found in New Zealand where that John Mayer Stratocaster costs $999 USD in the United States, however by the point it is shipped to New Zealand with staff costs, rent prices, inflation, markup and taxes – you will be paying thrice more! For this very reason many musicians worldwide choose to purchase from USA stores who ship internationally.
Though they need to advertise their products as non-international, a easy phone call to any of those companies can have your merchandise shipped internationally. Most retailers provide DHL, USPS and FEDEX.
For piece of mind you may ship DHL/FEDEX however might be paying twice as much as USPS rates. USPS have more widespread occurrences of goods being damaged in transit, or being lost altogether while FEDEX/DHL are very diligent many of the time. Google the above business names and Saxophone I’m certain you may discover a shipper who can deliver musical instruments to your worldwide location for a fraction of the price you could buy at locally. Though do keep in mind foreign money conversions and 110VOLT/240VOLT adapter differences as you wouldn’t need to plugin your new merchandise only to have it explode because you did not take the time to check this minor detail.
Different things to consider when shopping for on-line are:
* Power provides – do they match your local voltage?
* Warranty – what help will you receive in your country?
* Currency conversions – check your bank rates before buying on-line!
* PayPal protection – Always shop using PayPal so you might be covered in the event of problems.
* Import taxes/duties – at present Hong Kong is the one country which will not cost you additional taxes when importing gear from overseas. Some countries akin to Australia have a threshold so any value under $one thousand won’t incur import tax/duty.
As to the query of why American listed prices are usually much decrease than their retail counterparts in the UK, Australia, NZ, etc. This query has many answers:
For the last 30-40 years the American Musical Instrument business and their retailers have been battling it out, making an attempt to beat one another on worth – because the years have gone by, these worth pressures have compelled prices down very low while this competitive market is still in its infancy in different countries. A common explanation given by retailers in different international locations as to why their prices are a lot higher comes down to their insistence on shopper warranties – they may 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 better of shopping for a guitar,microphone or piece of DJ gear for that little bit more understanding you will be covered must you face any problems. The complication arises for high ticket objects, akin to John Mayer Signature Fender Guitar – the place the savings can get into the 1000’s and the selling level of local warranty turns into less attractive. A few of the largest Music Stores in America similar to Guitar Center and Musician’s Good friend retail most of their objects online which reduces working prices while many bricks and mortar stores all through the world should pay a big proportion of their revenue towards rent, tax, workers etc.
In conclusion, I would say for objects valued under $1500 you would be better off shopping for locally, assuming the price is right. If your subsequent guitar goes to cost more than this, it might well pay to phone an American retailer and haggle with value and pay close consideration to the unit’s voltage (110VOLT or 240VOLT) and request they declare the value low so you won’t get stung by customs on tax and/or GST. Australia, for instance, won’t cost you any import tax/duty for objects DECLARED at underneath $a thousand Australian dollars. For this reason it maybe useful to ask the USA shipper to declare your shipment at a low value. However, if the unit sustains damage in transit – you may solely be covered beneath this declared value.