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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 6:26 pm
by Dave_L
Friend bought a pickup truck from the US and also bought an large/expensive exhaust pipe bending machine at the same time, had it delivered to the garage where he'd bought the truck and had it loaded onto the bed of the truck (Dodge Ram) and bob's your uncle!

Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 11:55 am
by TarmacLady
Dave, I once shipped a case of American biscuits to a customer in Switzerland -- safely tucked into an empty 20-litre bitmac pail -- and neatly strapped into the rest of the pallet.

Whatever it takes.

Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:35 pm
by Dave_L
haha - there's always a way!!! Nicely done :)

Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 8:38 pm
by lutonlagerlout
yep there are some weird anomlies, when i used to be into rowing,a concept 2 machine costs £1000 in the uk but $1000 in the US ,about half price
i tried to buy a machine from the american site but they wont let you,they say that uk costs are different?? how?
also when i tried to buy sopranos and coca cola merchandise from HBO and atlanta HQ they both refused to ship abroad,no reason, just sorry we do not ship to europe
such is life in a small island
what part of the states are you in tarmac lady?
regards LLL :)

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:49 pm
by TarmacLady
I'm in not very sunny Florida --grey and drizzly today, but still 20 degrees!

In all the years I've been selling US products in the UK, I've always found a good rule of thumb to be that the numbers on the price tag is almost always the same -- i.e., a product that you lot pay 20 quid for will usually be on the shelf for $20 here.

BUT...remember that your price includes 17% VAT...and sometimes import taxes and duties (another 5-10%, most of the time) -- and the transportation itself is a huge part of the cost -- even shipping by ocean, my tarmac products usually cost me 15-20% of the total cost just to get it to the sheds -- then there's the cost of the lorries, and so on and so on.

Usually when someone says they don't ship to Europe, it's either because there are licensing issues (software especially can't be sent out of the US without a special license, and that goes back way before 9/11) -- or there are ingredients that are illegal in the UK (like asbestos -- still used in lots of roof coatings here, but illegal there for yonks) -- or there simply isn't anyone in the company who knows how to get it to you in any sort of reasonable time period without massive damage. (The tarmac company I used to work for had losses of 15% per shipment before I started -- I got it down to less than 1%.)

Like I said -- let me know if there's summat here you can't get shipped, and I'll see if I can help.

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 6:05 pm
by lutonlagerlout
very kind of you TL,same here if you need any brown sauce or such like
i was in atlanta a couple of years back and i shipped some bits home and they got there before i did via surface mail!!
cheers LLL :)

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:24 pm
by Ted
bkdavies86 wrote:Why not just hire one?
I think I will try to hire to start with to see what works best. My local hire shop doesn't have any so will have to look a little further afield.

Thanks for all the other suggestions too.

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2006 3:26 am
by TarmacLady
LLL, cheers for that -- I always slip a couple of bottles of brown sauce and a box of PG pyramids in my luggage before I head home. (Plain choccie hobnobs, too, before they quit making 'em!)

(talk about price? If I run out of proper tea, it costs me US$5 for a small box of 40 tea bags that's clearly printed 99p...go figure!)

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2006 7:56 am
by seanandruby
ted if you build a strong bench and put pins sticking up in the right places you can bend steel to any shape. guys i am horrified by your advice as to your methods of bending they are accidents waiting to happen. if "neccesity being the mother of invention" then i would say ..."improvisation is the father of disaster." do it safe ted and buy /hire a bender, or buy them bent m8. :;):

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 1:27 pm
by Dave_L
Rebar bender (110v) on ebay - looks useful!

£500 - could be useful, but at that price?

[url=http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Reinforcing-ReBar ... 003QQcateg
oryZ64810QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item130068145681]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Reinfor....8145681[/url]