Heisen
Herald
Options to get stuff shipped from China...Lets discuss
- Thread starter raksrules
- Start date
raksrules
Oracle
Alibaba...depends on what shipping rates are offered by the Seller. Sometimes it is 2x - 3x of product price. They are all bulk sellers so 1 piece shipping is astronomical. I have used on alibaba seller for replica lego but I got it shipping locally to a freight forwarder who shipped me to India. SNS works same way, tell alibaba seller to ship to SNS address and they bring to India.
Also some sellers will outright not ship within China or won't be ok with single piece
yeah that single piece problem with your lego sets and figures but I have ordered 2 onus, 2 hdds and several sfps and all were delivered safely.
yes you can pay online also as soon as it clears customs or if not it will be collected at delivery.
now for rates it depends most of the alibaba sellers I have ordered with take 3-5 USD to ship to SNS shanghai and then sns takes 18 usd to india for a .5kg parcel.
now 2 days ago I placed a order for few network products paid 27 USD shipping direct to India by fedex priority.
most of the sellers on alibaba also ship directly to india but its a bit costly, ali express sellers dont do it.
you may ask your seller to use yanwen express its cheap but generally customs is avoided totally by that.
some photos of the incoming parcel
raksrules
Oracle
Since the raid on pandabuy, it seems that although they have partially resumed operations, adding some stuff that can cause copyright infringement is not being allowed to buy it seems. I tried to add copy lego sets from couple of stores from where I have bought before and just checking the listing throws an error that they cannot purchase it.
Hachune
Forerunner
I don't know what SNS means but aren't those forwarders extremely expensive as well? The ones I have checked started their pricing from around Rs 3000 regardless of the item price.
I also find that alibaba can be quite cheap sometimes. I am not sure if it's depending on the item or the seller. Last time I asked they quoted me $4 for shipping price.
raksrules
Oracle
You are right about SNS charges. They are high and you 100% cannot escape customs at all. It is like they voluntarily make sure customs is charged. I don't use them anyways for this reason.
You do know that skipping customs directly or indirectly the escape intent you have posted is illegal right?
I am sure this forum doesn't want to promote anything that's illegal
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Rezep
Galvanizer
Pandabuy is unofficially gone, if you still want to use agent you'll have to look at others. Don't really know what's the scene with the agents rn tho. If I ever need to buy stuff again then I'll probably use an agent and then ship it to a trusted freight forwarder who from what I heard has a flat shipping rate where there's no risk of customs. It's only clothing and shoes though if I'm not wrong.
Also try and contact sellers of items you see on aliexpress or alibaba or whatever site it may be, they can often set up ways for you to pay alternatively and ship it to India too. Recently contacted a football jersey seller who is trusted on r/soccer00. He shipped it to India via Epacket for 400rs and I paid for my order by proxy ordering a placeholder item on his store on aliexpress.
raksrules
Oracle
I know. I am saying that using post etc. can sometimes minimize the chances of customs getting charged. Or may be less customs. Let us not pretend that we want to pay customs. No one wants to pay customs which is ridiculously high and that too on their stupid "assessed value" and not on the actual price I paid.
Why you didn't pay on alibaba directly? I recently bought 3 lego clone sets from alibaba sellers (2 sellers) and got it shipped within China and paid using my Scapia Credit card in USD.
I have given up on pandabuy as I don't think they will come back. I have used freight forwarded wherein I bought from alibaba and it was shipped to forwarder who had flat rate per kg incl customs.
Rezep
Galvanizer
Not sure what you meant. I did pay directly on aliexpress and used a different address. Paid for it, informed seller on whatsapp and then seller shipped it via epacket to my real address. Pandabuy is literally not coming back, they got raided lol.
raksrules
Oracle
Ah sorry. I thought you found item on alibaba, contacted seller, he gave you link of place holder item on aliexpress and you paid there.
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why would I want to pay customs? any sane person would avoid paying customs
no sns is the cheapest option for you right now if you want to get something from china.
for usa there are various options.
SNS would only declare the value to customs that you provide the invoice to them [check dm once]
have shared some details there as some people will be offended here.
Because that is the law of the land for imports. A sane person would follow law and not circumevent it.
raksrules
Oracle
This comes to ethics. I respect yours and you want to pay tax / customs and by all means go for it. I don't want to, simple. You are free to judge me. This is like opposing piracy, as if one is paying for every subscription under the sun and judging people who pirate.
I am already paying tax in this country (and I am sure you too) while 99% people do not and still get treated badly, I make some profit in mutual fund...tax, give my home on rent and pay lots maintenance barely breaking even w.r.t rent received...taxed...and that too 70% of my income from rent, so it is negative returns for me.
So yes, I do not want to pay customs and I will leave no chance of doing it and hence I am ordering stuff through my cousin as he can carry it unboxed. When I order by other means, I do end up paying tax.
Ethics is obeying laws of the land. It's not optional for anyone. You are free to do what you want. But don't boast about evading paying duties or taxes publicly as you might end up in trouble. That's a humble advice. We have deviated from this thread and should stop. My last message on this.
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Abhishek Shukla
Forerunner
If one followed the law of the land of every country, specially, throughout history, they would be one of the most immoral people to have ever existed.
Examples Modern, Historical
rsaeon
Herald
Quick note here: there are provisions in the law that allows for customs to be exempted: for example, hand-carrying items — either for yourself, or on behalf of another, or as a gift for someone, within the hand-carry limit. If you import through post/courier 50K worth of gold, you'll have to pay customs tax on it. But there's no tax if you hand-carry the same amount on a flight or across a border.
There are other provisions, within the law, for reducing/exempting customs tax. For example, I've never been charged customs for parcels coming in from SAARC countries, even if they're declared 20K or above. Same for Malaysia/Indonesia, even though they're not part of SAARC.
Sometimes what's ethical isn't in line with the law, and sometimes the law isn't in line with what's ethical. You could argue that these 'loopholes' are not ethical because goods are being imported and the government is being deprived on taxes through these 'loopholes'. But those 'loopholes' are the law.
This is true, though not the second half, it's that everyone will end up being effected. Laws were enacted that caused parcels marked as gifts to be taxed over 77%, since it became widespread that people were importing commercial shipments as a gift:
Why gifts from abroad are no more a good idea
The government can argue the change targets only those residing abroad but the fact remains that it does affect the kin and friends in India of non-residents.
www.rediff.com
.
Anyway, I received my first order through eBay from China, with no customs through the post office, parcel was valued at $25.
It took sixteen days, from payment to delivery. Parcel was routed from Hong Kong to Europe to Delhi.
Fully valid. But if you see the discussion above it was not about the exemption limits or exemption items but how to avoid customs altogether for any and everything which was my context to respond as such.