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Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

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Buying from BD in USA? 25-May-2005 At 7:08:52 PM Andrew_M

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BD have good service and are very helpful. I've ordered from a few places overseas, including BD and almost every time it would have been cheaper to to buy in Aus simply because of inspection fees/duty. But if the bargain is reeeeally good and if you do some digging on the customs website you can probably get around the problems...if you know the rules.

Dunno if all the rules have changed or not over time, but here's some of things to think about (I've run into all of these and there are probably more lurkingto trip people up!):

Goods are inspected if the declared value is over $500 for normal post and $250 for courier delivered (double check the amounts...could have changed).
Shipping and insurance count in the declared value.
If you go above the trigger threshold then not only do you have to pay duty, but also an "inspection fee" of about $50.
If you calculate how much a shipment costs leave a bit of a margin under the customs trigger cos the exchange rates move...and never in your favour.
Goods originally posted from a foreign country may be delivered locally by a courier (subcontracted by the now privatised australia post)...because of this they get the lower customs threshold, even though they were originally sent by normal post.

Alternatively you could skip the hassle, go to a local non-chain shop you get that warm inner glow from having put some money into a local climbing store owner's pocket rather than a big foreign company. :)