Buying musical devices equivalent to guitars, keyboards, Violin microphones etc has been an expensive job if you’re residing outside of the USA. Usually native music stores inflate their costs they usually end up costing you as much as THREE TIMES what you’d pay for a local USA shop. An extreme instance of this can be found in New Zealand the place that John Mayer Stratocaster prices $999 USD in the United States, however by the point it’s shipped to New Zealand with staff prices, hire costs, inflation, markup and taxes – you may be paying 3 times more! For this very reason many musicians worldwide select to purchase from USA stores who ship internationally.
Though they have to advertise their merchandise as non-worldwide, a easy phone call to any of those firms can have your merchandise shipped internationally. Most retailers offer 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 common 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 am sure you may find a shipper who can deliver musical devices to your international location for a fraction of the value chances are you’ll purchase at locally. Though do bear in mind forex conversions and 110VOLT/240VOLT adapter variations as you would not want to plugin your new item solely to have it explode because you didn’t take the time to check this minor detail.
Different things to consider when buying on-line are:
* Power supplies – do they match your native voltage?
* Warranty – what assist will you obtain in your country?
* Currency conversions – check your bank rates earlier than buying on-line!
* PayPal protection – At all times shop using PayPal so you will be covered within the event of problems.
* Import taxes/duties – at present Hong Kong is the only country which is not going to cost you additional taxes when importing gear from overseas. Some international locations reminiscent of Australia have a threshold so any worth underneath $a thousand is not going to incur import tax/duty.
As to the query of why American listed costs are generally a lot lower than their retail counterparts within the UK, Australia, NZ, etc. This question has many solutions:
For the last 30-40 years the American Musical Instrument trade and their retailers have been battling it out, trying to beat one another on worth – as the years have gone by, these price pressures have compelled costs down very low while this competitive market is still in its infancy in other countries. A common explanation given by retailers in other international locations as to why their prices are a lot higher comes right down to their insistence on shopper warranties – they might argue that their Fender John Mayer guitar costs $500 more because they offer local warranty and restore if required. This is totally 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 knowing you may be covered must you face any problems. The complication arises for high ticket objects, comparable to John Mayer Signature Fender Guitar – where the savings can get into the 1000’s and the selling level of native warranty becomes less attractive. Among the largest Music Stores in America corresponding to Guitar Center and Musician’s Friend retail most of their gadgets on-line which reduces operating costs while many bricks and mortar stores all through the world should pay a large proportion of their income towards hire, tax, staff etc.
In conclusion, I would say for items valued beneath $1500 you would be better off shopping for locally, assuming the worth is right. If your subsequent guitar goes to value more than this, it could well pay to phone an American retailer and haggle with price and pay close attention to the unit’s voltage (110VOLT or 240VOLT) and request they declare the worth low so you will not get stung by customs on tax and/or GST. Australia, for example, will not cost you any import tax/duty for items DECLARED at below $a thousand Australian dollars. For this reason it maybe useful to ask the USA shipper to declare your shipment at a low value. Nevertheless, if the unit sustains damage in transit – you will only be covered below this declared value.