Online purchasing and international shipping

[noncakes]

For those of us building our own systems in Trinidad, I would ask has anyone had success in somewhat overcoming volume/weight/handling/clearance inbound per-shipment costs of couriers by arranging all/some components to be shipped together in a single container/crate/whatnot?

[TriniXaeno]

A good option would be buying the system already configured/assembled. If you had intentions of ordering the case online in the first place, that would save you a heap on shipping costs.

Instead of dealing with video card box, motherboard box, cpu box, hard drive box, dvd rom box, case box, power supply box, etc.... (Which could easily be hundreds if not thousands in volumetric weight and duty)

You would only have the volume of the system unit box to pay for (all components assembled inside) and certainly escape vat and duty.

Another good direction to go is laptops.

Obviously less volume and definitely less weight. No components to worry about. No vat and duty.

Hope this helps.

[noncakes]

Thank you for the reply. I have considered those options. However, I haven't found a US service that will pre-build exactly the components I specify, including what's out of their stock. I'd quite like to build it myself, and I've had enough of laptops.

You would only have the volume of the system unit box to pay for (all components assembled inside) and certainly escape vat and duty.

Similarly, and sorry to be stubborn here, but should I be able to have each component contained in a single load and apply these charges as a whole? Is this understood as one shipment or will each item box within need seperate clearance?

[Arcmanov]

Welcome to the site.  You're new so I won't rag on you...yet.
All your questions may be answered after you peruse this thread.

Feel free to ask any further questions there.


As for that last question...no.  Courier companies' revenue are directly tied to how many packages they ship,
so they will never compile all your packages into one neat and nice shipment.  I know, because I asked.
Subsequently, each item will be treated separately when it arrives, and then all clearing costs are tallied.

[Crixx_Creww]

the problem with shipping the parts individually, even if its under one shipment
is that you will then pay vat and duty on the individual parts.

You said you havent found a service to your liking? what services have you tried?

[TriniXaeno]

yeah crixx is right, you still won't avoid the duty and vat. Might get away from the volumetric weight but that's only if they repackage. IE, take the items out of their original boxes and repack them tightly in another box together.

That opens a huge can of worms.

1) theft
2) damage
3) theft

If you really want to build it yourself then you have no choice but to face the music. Pay the extra shipping, handling and customs charges.

Many of us have done it since internet memorial. Nothing beats the feeling of getting exactly what you wanted. (even though you pay the price)

Arcs thread (the one he linkeD) has great advice on precisely how to do that. Give it a read when you have time.