I've previously had problems paying for goods on Newegg, I think it knew my PayPal or credit card was in Australia.
How do you manage to get through the checkout ok? Cheers.
These questions keep popping up from this side of the pacific and the other side of the atlantic. Perhaps I should pen this up in a bit more detail and organized fashion,so there is a reference point.(will discuss with Patrick)
I work on the basis that if there is a will, there is a way
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The very first step is to investigate and understand your local / country options. This takes time, energy and commitment. I have found good deals in Europe in fact I just received some Supermicro parts from Europe.
The IT business is universal and recycling goes on all over the world, You just need to find the right door. Here in Australia if it is HP or Dell you want there are many options. Supermicro is far less common...
There are many options to buy in USA from Australia and other countries. Luckily I have lived in all parts of the globe in including USA, so this has helped.
These are in no particular order and are options or requirements to achieve the goal of buying what your heart wants.
- In the beginning I did use work colleagues and friends in the US as a shipping address, and they would forward them on. Consider this only for small items and irregular purchases, as your friends dont have access to good shipping rates, and I didnt like the impost on them to send stuff on.
- You should talk with your bank and get your foreign shipping address setup as an address in their system, this generally stops any issues with "some is buying on your credit card in xyz" calls from the bank, and makes transactions easier, as the address matches their system.
- Try to limit your purchases from a handful of companies. Choose these companies wisely and understand their systems to mitigate issues.
- First port of call when visiting a website is to check out there payment options. Most US retailers are not setup for foreign shipping and so dont have good rates with international freight outfits, but there are more realizing that the global market adds $$$$ to their bottom line.
- Generally try to use paypal as many sites can use foreign paypal accounts. However a few including Mr Newegg insist on a US based paypal account. However newegg have shipping destinations and local currency options at the top RHS of their site for UK, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Ireland, Australia and NZ. ( note they do not sell all their products, for example all of the great deals wont show up..)
- Get a US paypal account and align your shipping addresses with this account for newegg or,
- Pay shipito or others to buy your newegg purchases and similar shops which require US payment system to buy for you, they offer this service, this costs a % but if it is a good deal, then so what..
- Have yet to find one online retailer that has everything you want, eg wiredzone is good pricing on some things, generally have items in stock, but they get your $$$$ on the smaller items. Note the more shops you buy from teh more headaches with shipping etc..
- For Ebay purchases most accept global paypal, ensure your US shipping address aligned with paypal shipping addresses, you can have multiple setup in paypal.
- Choose your ebay merchants carefully if you want to ship directly to your country..otherwise use shipito or such like...
- Dont confuse EBAY global shipping with what different ebays sellers charge, they are entirely seperate and different. Some ebay shops put huge multipliers on international shipping costs to deter foreign buyers, for various reasons. Important note here unless the shop is a big user of a freight company they get high rates. Shipping is like buying, the bigger qty you buy, the lower the unit price.
- HOWEVER some ebay sellers have very good international shipping rates, A supermicro barebone workstation based on 732 case (patrick's favourite) with a E5V3 motherboard was about 50 ( single lga2011) to 101USD ( dual lga2011) to ship to australia depending on which model, so on a 700USD purchase with 9% sales tax = ~65 dollars the saving on having to pay US state sales tax almost covered the intl shipping. The shipping to land of Fjords and the land of Tulips is 40% less than to Australia. They will pay import tax on items probably no matter how the item gets into country, so that is possibly not really come into the comparison. In Australia there is no import tax if items total to less than 1000AUD, so always keep shipments under this value, unless paying tax is cheaper than dividing the shipment into 2....Actual pages from ebay are below...
- Remember heavy = expensive shipping..Consolidate shipments at shipito etc to save weight and volume, ir dont pay to ship empty space around the world..
- Have fun, do Your homework, shop and ship cheaper...
