where to get 4x5 colour negative and slide in Australia (keeping my arms and legs)

[michaelbsc]

You need to watch what you buy this way though, many times warranty claims can be a problem. Many items are tagged with the country it's destined to for sale, often via a couple of digits in the serial number. So for item X the 3rd and 4th digit in the serial number is 20 for Canada, 21 for the US, 43 for the UK, 86 for Hong Kong.

You're quite right that you have to pay attention. If it's a big ticket item that I'm concerned about warranty, then I usually don't even buy mail order. I'll go to a local supplier so I have someone to argue with if the time comes.

But for a lot of junk on eBay, things like the latest compact flash interface adapter I bought, I got it from a Honk Kong supplier that lists on the US Ebay site, the UK eBay site, the Canadian eBay site, and the Australian eBay site (I can't read the HK eBay to understand what the stuff means, so I avoid that). The same product, on all four sites, worked out to somewhere between USD 8.00 via the UK listing and USD 12.xx via the US listing. (A 30% discount from the "USA" price ultimately.)

The guy in Honk Kong couldn't care less what the shipping address is so long as he gets his price in Honk Kong dollars. The Paypal rate calculators handle all the translation for me, and if the thing breaks in 5 or 6 months, I'm just going to throw it out.

MB

 

[wogster]

You're quite right that you have to pay attention. If it's a big ticket item that I'm concerned about warranty, then I usually don't even buy mail order. I'll go to a local supplier so I have someone to argue with if the time comes.

But for a lot of junk on eBay, things like the latest compact flash interface adapter I bought, I got it from a Honk Kong supplier that lists on the US Ebay site, the UK eBay site, the Canadian eBay site, and the Australian eBay site (I can't read the HK eBay to understand what the stuff means, so I avoid that). The same product, on all four sites, worked out to somewhere between USD 8.00 via the UK listing and USD 12.xx via the US listing. (A 30% discount from the "USA" price ultimately.)

The guy in Honk Kong couldn't care less what the shipping address is so long as he gets his price in Honk Kong dollars. The Paypal rate calculators handle all the translation for me, and if the thing breaks in 5 or 6 months, I'm just going to throw it out.

MB

If you go into Radio Shlock and see the same unit on sale for $4.99 on boxing day... I'm kinda surprized that a US bank would be able to figure out HK$, since many of them have trouble with the currencies from the countries right next door.......