On 26 December 2013 11:01, Philip Pemberton <[email protected]> wrote: > Then there's the customs charge (20% VAT plus a £10 handling fee). So in > most cases, buying from China is a bit of a false economy: > > $75 US at ~$1.5 to £1 = £50 > £50 + 20% VAT = £60 > Plus the £10 handling fee = £70 > > So not far off the £75 plus postage (£84 total) I just paid.
And there was me thinking virtually everything from China was valued at $10 - that has been my experience anyway. > They've absolutely rocketed. One of two things is happening -- either > the supply is drying up, or the sellers are capitalising on the fact > that a few prominent Youtube video producers have mentioned rubidium > oscillators. It's quite possible that both things are happening at the > same time... though how anyone expects to sell a heavily used rubidium > standard for $555 US is beyond me. I've got a couple here I bought a couple of years ago. So far I've not connected them up. > I'd point out how quite a few ebay sellers are trying to peddle junk > like oscilloscope probes with cut leads for premium prices, but I think > everyone's noticed that by now. I don't even bother with "best offer", > the sellers I've had experience with won't take more than $10 off the > price. The trick that sometimes works is to put lots of 8's in the offer. That is seen as a lucky number by many Asian sellers! There is one from Singapore who has had a cal kit on eBay for well over a year http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Agilent-85050C-Precision-Mechanical-Calibration-Kit-DC-to-18-GHz-7-mm-/321263641082 He is totally unwilling to negotiate > US/UK sellers (in my experience at least) seem to be more willing > to haggle :) Its also worth contacting them outside eBay, where you tend to get a better price. In many cases it is possible to work out who they are. Dave _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
