Hello everyone,
I’m from Thailand and i’ve been nailing to an American model railroading for very long time.
My planning is to have my own N and HO Scale layout , 1 thing to make my dream comes true is to have most everything needed on the layout such as Locos, Freight cars , Passenger cars, Building ,Tracks , turnouts, etc.
I’ve exprienced order some of N Scale from USA two years ago, they shiped me with USPS and i was charged around 70 plus dollars all together 500 something dollars. and Taxation in thailand with 25-30 %.
This month i’ve ordered again with N and HO Scale ( not complete yet) they costs me 715 dollars , and by surprise the USPS shipping Quote have changed the way the charge for pacle postage and have increased their rates significantly.
Now they charged using new fomula that includes not only the weight and the destination of the package, but also the size ( dimensions ) of the package itself. In this order i have 3 boxes and The USPS views them each as individual packages,the shipping Quote costs another 199.5 dollars and not including the Taxation when arrive to Thailand. 914.5$ total…
I don’t know if i’ll be very happy or sad.
http://s232.photobucket.com/albums/ee67/bertaxm/
Have you tried getting your stuff from Australia?? (if you can) It’s a lot closer. Maybe the shipping is less. I wonder if using Federal Express for the shipping might be cheaper??
The ironic thing is all our US train stuff is made just to the North of you in China! There must be a way to get it before it’s shipped to the U.S.[%-)]
Welcome to the USA via the MR forum. Yes, it does cost more money to mail packages than we would like. I hope you enjoy your model railroad items in spite of the cost.
That sucks. But I’ll tell you what doesn’t suck: Your scenery work. Great job on that, and your entire layout.
I’m sorry to hear that things are so expensive for you berlingo. If I were you I would do a great amount of research to see if I could find much cheaper sources to buy and ship my items to me if at all possible.
Good luck to you.
Tracklayer
I’ll chime in on this one from a UK perspective.
Shipping of a single item like a passenger car or something isn’t the greatest way to get good value, but it seems that you have worked this out and place a big order.
Last time I had a big old box in from Walthers with about 50 passenger cars in it, and including shipping and import (VAT) duty they cost individually £17.50 rather than the £25.00 to £30.00 that UK retailers tend to charge, so although postage is expensive the deal overall can be cheaper.
Also if you are going to give Aus a try check their rates before you plunge in. I have had things from Canada and the postage from there is - at a guess - double that from the US. Who knows why.
Lastly I had a trip on a the train from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur in March and loved every minute which got looking for an HO model of a Thai train - preferrably one of the Alsthom diesels, but couldn’t find them readily. Any tips?
Hello everyone,
Thank you very much for your informations,supports and your compliments as well.
That’s right i have to enjoy my model railroad items in spite of the cost, it’s already done.
And i have noticed that many items that i bought from America today are labeled made in China. And surely the company will control their pricing, i get no informations at all from China where to buy them, too. Anyway in Aus maybe would be the same case, there are big amount of Aussie’s trains and European’s.
But i’ve collected American model railroad and have been lovin’ em so much.
To mj3200 there is no Thai train model ,But hand made , check it out.
http://www.trainsforthais.com/newsupdate12.asp
I believe USPS changed the shipping process last year and they eliminated the Ground (via Boat) to Europe - but I must say that shipping US to Switzerland is much better quality wise.
It takes only a few days even with the cheapest method and thanks to the low Dollar and the good deals it saves me a lot of money.
Luckily Switzerland “only” charges the 7,6% VAT but doesn’t charge any Import or Custom duties.
Thanks for the link Berlingo. Shame there aren’t any models produced by the mainstream makers. The prices on that site seem to be exactly as they are in the UK to the penny.
I find quite frustrating sometimes modelling North American Railroads. I have only a couple of LHS nearby but they’re UK only, not even a snifter of European stuff, let alone American brands. (Although Woodland Scenics are appearing in more places now)
Sure there’s the old internet, but you can’t beat stopping by the LHS for some inspiration or that item that you’d never think of that they’ve got in stock.
And the postage charges are a real pain if you do order from the US.