A couple of days ago i finally recieved my two little films from steve at reel image. The superb trailer to pulp fiction which i will review later and the old 400ft cut down of three on a couch.a good old jerry lewis film. Total price was 40 dollars with the trailer being the bulk of this due to the rarity and its a pre stripe stock film so the sound really is stonking.
Unfortunatly i had to pay shitty import crap of £14.50, £8 of this being the rip off charge from royal mail. That makes this an expensive buy and a piss off experience with the twats at royal mail as i let rip when i paid. Funny how how ive never had to pay this before. It sucks ass and now i probably wont buy from the us again unless it is something extremly special that i want.
Happy new year to all but royal mail go f*** yourself.

For a great many years I imported 16mm films from the US, mainly features. They always turned up via Parcelforce with no problems whatsoever. But I've now stopped as it appears that Customs & Excise want their share. Not only do they charge VAT on the price of an item, they also include the postage. 16mm feature films are heavy and can be expensive to post from the US. And then of top of that, the greedy Post Office charge a fee of £8 to handle the shipment information.

If goods are imported into the UK from a non EU country import VAT will be charged if the item is over the purchase price of £18 including duties.

If the goods are over £120 in value Customs Duties will be charged, however, this would be waived if the amount of calculated duty is £7 or less.

Don't forget that Switzerland is not in the EU. I bought an expensive Super 8 projector and was canned with very high duties, not only that, it was held for over a fortnight by the Customs agents who wanted proof of what I paid for it.

Be warned. The Tax Man is waiting if you import from outside the EU.

Our Norwegian taxes are double, I think the hard work of filling in the paper must be very difficult, as they charge around 25 GBP for just that part, in addition, 25% on ALL prices, ot just the goods, the shipping too.

If EU, I send to Sweden and get it without taxes at all

I suppose UK residents will not enjoy imports tax free when we leave the EU. Best to buy from abroad before the cut-off date.

And vice versa, for EU residents, like me. . I buy a lot from U.K. today, but after Brexit, it can be same costs, as importing from USA.

If I purchase anything from the USA I always expect to pay some kind of import tax no matter what the value says. I did once question them and how they select who gets charged and was told its done "randomly" ?, so I guess its like working at cadbury's where the bad chocolates are pulled from the conveyor belt for closer inspection. I just don't think it matters to them I suspect they get some really abusive calls from the public so its like water off a ducks back, if you factor in to your purchase this tax and don't get it its a good day for a celebration, but in experience in doesn't happen very often.......

Paul"s entire experiences here with our customs and excise teams, exactly mirrors those of my own.

More often than not I have had to pay the extra duty.

It has ranged from a few pounds to the worse case of around £70 I had to pay when the seller insured the goods for a higher amount than I even paid for it.

As Paul says it is like working at Cadbury in their random test selection process and in my experiences this process is very much like the famous Forrest Gump quotation "life is like a box a chocolates and you just never know what you are gonna get".

Tom, there's been a lot of complaints about these extortionate charges recently, including articles in the papers over just the past couple of days. People have been receiving Christmas presents from abroad and paying much more in fees here than the value of the gifts themselves. I was trying to find an opinion column in The Telegraph on this very issue, but couldn't find it again when I looked just now.

I am looking into this myself, to be this random is ridiculous and this charge of £14.50 for goods coasting $30 (around 25 quid) is utter bollocks.

Tom, with the numbers of parcels from overseas that they get, its just about the only way the system can be administered.

Just be glad it's £14.50 and not £70 like you can easily find yourself having to find.

Many is the time I've paid £50 upwards just in importation tax for goods that originated in this country with the levy already paid once in this country for the goods.

This is the norm for a feature.
Occasionally,..very occasionally I have to say, I've been lucky and paid nothing but what really helps here is for the sellers to do us all a few favours along the way, which if they choose to, they can do without any compromise to themselves.

You have paid only nearly around 50% of the total amount of your imported goods just as a result of their minimum taxation charges.
You probably could have imported goods to the tune of around £80 in value with no extra taxation.

i guess so chaps, at least i got me trailer though, and the jerry lewis short

re buying from abroad any film over $21.00 you are liable for import duty which can be expensive get the seller to put on the declaration form gift used film no commercial value and you will save the fees or better still buy from the uk with no problems

got any new lists there David?

I much prefer to buy locally from the UK at all times if I can.
Trouble is, certain titles I have been seeking and found over the years would never have been found otherwise without global searches.

You are very limited indeed on Super 8mm if you only ever stuck to just film from today's UK marketplace.

Many of the rarer Derann features I search for, nearly all found their way overseas at some point in time since official original release dates in this country.

Add a 16mm collection, Andrew, there are plenty of features out there. Super 8, in my opinion, is quite limited.

I don't see it as limited as such Maurice, just harder to find the ones you want at times, that's all.

There's plenty to go at from over 50 years of releases.
I won't ever be a 16mm or 35mm collector for that matter Maurice.
My ears won't ever allow me to. 😁😁

Having handled 35mm for all those years I am quite happy with 16mm collecting. Good picture quality and good sound. 8mm and Super 8 were for me to make films of the children growing up.
I love musicals. Have just bought MGMs "Maytime" with Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy. Also, in Technicolor and CinemaScope, Vincente Minnelli's "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever" with Barbra Streisand.

That's an awful lot of quality Super 8mm machines you've invested in Maurice just to show some of your family home movies upon! 😁😁

I love musicals also Maurice, especially on polyester low fade stock and in glorious Stereo!

True.
But you know I love projectors, whatever the gauge.
And projectors, whatever the gauge, need films to show on them.

A while ago,i was looking into purchasing "the lady killers" from the US,but it quickly became clear it would become a very expensive feature,with import duty etc.
So I am still looking for this,having owned it in a previous super 8 life.