B&h duty paid film to England

[rbrigham]

Hi

I wish to buy a lot of 8x10 tri-x and since nobody seems to have any in England I'm looking to buy from B&H
B&H offer duty paid export to the UK
has anybody in England tried this service and did it all work out
Any experience appreciated

Thanks

Robin

 

[Ian Grant]

I have bought from B&H before this system, it will save you the PO charging to collect the duty. Just remember that the way it works is initial cost, then shipping, Import Duty then VAT on everything. You can still save money though.

It's a snide trick though you do pay all the UK taxes, if a friend posted the items to you it would probably be Tax free depending on what was on the Customs declaration.

It's cheaper to buy Ilford films in the US and pay all the taxes to have it sent here to the UK. HP5 a great film as well.

Ian

 

[brianmquinn]

Contact
http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/tri-x-400asa-58-c.asp
Ask them to import it for you. If you really want more then a couple of boxes I think they will help you out.
If they do supply you get back with us so that we know this method works.
Also let them know up front that you plan to do this and they might see more sales in the future as a result.

 

[Ian Grant]

Brian, the cost of film is so much lower in the US it's better to order direct even if you pay the extra taxes. Kodak themselves don't distribute 10x8 any more, it's special order from KB Canham and a small number of dealers, the UK dealer "Robert White" has no Kodak products on his website.

I switched back to Ilford films because of far better availability (world wide) and am astonished at the quailty I get with HP5 in LF, I often use it hand-held for 5x4 work. Tri-X in 10x8 is around $75.99 for 10 sheets in the US, HP5+ is $99 for 25 sheets, that's a huge difference in cost and if you're buying multiple boxes a huge saving.

It's also worth looking at Fomapan, their films are excellent quality and offer even more savings Freestyle's Arista EDU Ultra brand works out $143.21 for 50 sheets of Fomapan 400, it's a thirm more for the Foma braded film. It's better however to buy from Fomafoto in Norway who are an APUG sponsor. I've used Foma films for about 6 years now and have been very happy with the results - I've not used Fomapan 400 though.

Ian

 

[AgX]

It's a snide trick though you do pay all the UK taxes, if a friend posted the items to you it would probably be Tax free depending on what was on the customs declaration.

First, that would be illegal. Secondly, I assume that there are limits on the value of gifts to be free of tax or duty as is in other EU member states.
In Germany they are so low that there is hardly a way for playing with figures on gifts. What would be an further offence anyway.

 

[Ian Grant]

It's not illegal as long as the value is shown correctly, and I wasn't suggesting posting as a gift. In the UK not every parcel gets checked so frequently there's no extra charges.

Even paying the taxes upfront there can be significant savings so it's worth checking out when ordering large quantities of film.

Ian