Buying stuff in the USofA

[woollypigs]

Well it looks like we are heading to New Amsterdam aka New Yarg (or how ever they say it over there).

It used to be the place to buy electronics "much better, faster and cheaper", than compared to over on this side of the pond.

Is that still the case? Since we now have 'tinterweb here too.

I'm thinking about a new dSLR and one of them mini"what ever you call them"laptops.

[TimO]

I guess if nothing else you'll largely avoid the VAT, so long as you aren't too blatant on going through customs.

[Jaded]

Check prices before you go. Remember that there is a Sales Tax in most states added to the quoted price. Remove all packaging and make sure the item has been used and no longer looks new.

Warning. This advice may be encouraging you to break the law.  

[tatanab]

If buying a laptop, remember you will get a USA keyboard with some characters in different places and some UK characters missing and USA ones substituted.

[woollypigs]

@Jaded Yup that is what I hear you have to do to get the "savings". Just wonder if it is worth it any more since the www.

@tatanab That can be done in the settings, I never look at the keys any more.

[Jaded]

If buying a laptop, remember you will get a USA keyboard with some characters in different places and some UK characters missing and USA ones substituted.

Which also makes it hard to claim it was bought here!

woolly, the big difference when I was alleged to have bought some stuff in the US was the exchange rate.  

To add to that, I also bought some stuff that is only available in the US*, and I had it shipped to my hotel. They were happy to do that, and the hotel was happy to accept my packages.

*So costs a packet in shipping and spurious FedEx/ParceFarce charges

[bobb]

If buying a laptop, remember you will get a USA keyboard with some characters in different places and some UK characters missing and USA ones substituted.

I had a USAian keyboarded laptop for years that I used when I was away from my UKian keyboarded desktop. It was no problem. You get used to it very quickly and your fingers go on autopilot. A bit like riding a different bike from your stable.

As for VAT and stuff. I A friend of mine bought lots and lots of dollars worth of snowboarding kit back to the UK from the US and nobody at customs batted an eyelid......

[robgul]

If you're buying anything significant check that the warranty is worldwide (or at least applies here) - the other thing to check is that stock is the current model - a lot of the stores in NY seem to have old stock that they flog at current model prices.

Probably the best place to look in NYC (and online before you go to check out prices .. don't forget to add the tax they put on at the till!) is J&R -  
      J&R: Electronics, Digital Cameras, Computers, Appliances, Software, Video Games, DVDs, CDs .
     - they've got a row of shops at Park Row (Manhattan side of Brooklyn Bridge/by City Hall - just north of Wall St/Financial District) - seem to stock everything electronic known to man.

If you're tempted by a cellphone check out that it works with your own SIM

... if you look at Best Buy (the sort of Currys of the USA)  - check the stock and prices even more carefully!!

Rob

Edit : the other trick following on from Jaded's comment about leaving the packaging behind is to post the bill, credit card chit, guarantee card, manual etc to your home address here.

AND on the sales tax thing - the rate varies from state to state .. it may be worth looking at mail order from a low-tax state and getting it delivered to the hotel/address where you are staying (although they are trying to clamp down on cross-state-border tax thing)   I've done it quite a few times with clothes from LL Bean .. no/low tax at the their HQ - delivery to the hotel.

[tatanab]

Depending on what you buy it may be worthwhile declaring it anyway.

A friend of mine bought a very very expensive spotting scope for shooting.  The sort of thing that is very obvious in your baggage.  He also had some baggage that would make him a prime candidate for being stopped.  In this case he'd bought a guncase to safely carry back a souvenir Arapaho bow.  I was with him, and he decided it best to go through the red channel.  The customs man said "excellent.  Now I can class that as sporting equipment which will cost £x, or optical equipment which is a tenth of that" - or some such classifications.  So they are human and with a sense of humour.

[PaulF]

I found prices generally cheaper in the US than here. As said unthread know how much it costs here and shop around!

I can second Best Buy as a retailer. When I was looking for a camera there found lots of places with great prices but no stock both online and on the street.

[Regulator]

Depending on what you buy it may be worthwhile declaring it anyway.

A friend of mine bought a very very expensive spotting scope for shooting.  The sort of thing that is very obvious in your baggage.  He also had some baggage that would make him a prime candidate for being stopped.  In this case he'd bought a guncase to safely carry back a souvenir Arapaho bow.  I was with him, and he decided it best to go through the red channel.  The customs man said "excellent.  Now I can class that as sporting equipment which will cost £x, or optical equipment which is a tenth of that" - or some such classifications.  So they are human and with a sense of humour.

I've exceeded the limit several times, coming back from a number of countries.  I've gone through the red channel, declared stuff and been waved through without paying anything.  I think that unless you're taking the mickey or obviously importing stuff for resale, they canbe fairly lenient.

[Ham]

As far as buying camera stuff in NY is concerned, B&H are a must-visit stop if only for the experience. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ They are closed on Friday afternoons and Saturday as it is run by hassidic jews.

[marcusjb]

+1 for a visit to B&H - all those conveyor belts and magically appearing goods make it a unique experience.

We have a friend who works there (one of the few Gentiles). He says the back room operation is something else!

In general, prices in the us can be cheaper for certain goods. But the days of two dollars per pound are a distant memory (luckily that period tied in with a time when I was in the us 3/4 times a year!).

Clothes can still be a good purchase, as you can get real quality stuff for very little. used to go with a virtually empty suitcase and pick up a few shirts, jeans etc. each trip.  Keep your eye out for one day offers (virtually every week) in places like banana republic etc.

Electronics less so these days - though there are still savings to be made. As others have pointed out, warranties are an issue to be aware of.

I have the advantage that my girlfriend is a new yorker, so we can get stuff delivered to her parents place from online us shops and then pick it up when we visit. Going over to avoid the whole royal wedding nonsense this year to make up for me not getting there at Christmas due to the small snowfall stopping planes.

But to reiterate, go to B&H!  Ones of life's unique experiences. You'll never go into a shop like it.  Watch Jewish holidays as well as the Friday pm and Saturday closing.

[CAMRAMan]

The hassle of having to put an adapter on anything electrical is a PITA, even if the voltage issue is largely irrelevant these days.

[ian]

I confess to serial naughtiness when it comes to US purchases (I practically still live there, or so it seems) - savings certainly not as good as the $2=£1 days, but a lot of companies still do the dollar=pound equivalency (Apple, I'm looking at you) which can still make for a good saving. With electronics, it's usually just case of swapping the power lead for proper chunky UK electricity. Most warranties seem to be global these days, I've never had an issue. J&R and H&B are NYC essentials for cameras and electronics.

Clothes and shoes are also generally cheaper.

As mentioned, watch for sales tax, since quoted prices won't include it. Runs at 8.875% in NYC, which is one of the highest rates outside of California. Some states levy no or differential rates on clothing. There are a few states with no sales tax (New Hampshire, Alaska, Montana, Oregon, and Delaware) - things aren't always that cheap though, for instance in Delaware the state taxes the business direct on their receipts, and so they pass it on via the sale price of an article. Still, it's always a lot less than 20%.

[Greenbank]

The hassle of having to put an adapter on anything electrical is a PITA, even if the voltage issue is largely irrelevant these days.

If it's happy with UK voltage then it's a pretty trivial job to chop off the US plug and put a UK plug on.

[woollypigs]

That bit I'm not worried about I got plenty of adabters, cables and can easy modify one to fit.

[ian]

The hassle of having to put an adapter on anything electrical is a PITA, even if the voltage issue is largely irrelevant these days.

If it's happy with UK voltage then it's a pretty trivial job to chop off the US plug and put a UK plug on.

Or just plug it in via a US>UK adaptor.

That said, I've not bought anything recently that didn't have a standard power cord that couldn't be easily swapped for the British equivalent.

[Biggsy]

Often you can just use an alternative lead, that saves even changing the plug.

But the warranty issues and risk of getting caught for customs puts me off buying electrical equipment outside of the EU.  Cameras: you can find good deals in the UK if you look/wait hard enough.

[woollypigs]

Yeah since the exchange rate isn't the best any more, I think I will just go for a deal here in the UK. It doesn't sound like there that a big benefit with getting goods over there at this time.

[tatanab]

Yeah since the exchange rate isn't the best any more

it is 1.56 to the pound, which is pretty much where it has been +/- 10 cents for most of the last 15 years.  I lived in the US for the 3 years up to 2000 so had a keen interest.  So many parts are a dollar to the pound equivalant that I still regard things as cheap.  For additional savings, shops have open box sales.  This is where items are bought and returned and sold off at about 1/3 of the original price, or where packaging has been opened in store.  This is helped by a culture  where it seems normal (to some) to buy things, keep them a couple of weeks and then decide you don't like it and so return it for a full refund.  I bought some walking boots at about 1/3 label price.  I also bought a shirt of the quality I would not normally afford for $5.  It had a very small ink mark, but since the shirt was blue the ink pretty much washed out.

I suppose none of the above would apply if you were looking at electronics or camera stuff with full guarentees, but for clothing or outdoor kit it may well be worthwhile looking more seriously - assuming you have the time.

[Greenbank]

Yeah since the exchange rate isn't the best any more

it is 1.56 to the pound, which is pretty much where it has been +/- 10 cents for most of the last 15 years. 

True on average, but there were notable spikes. For most of 2007 it was over $2/£

Graph of £/$ exchange rate (1971 - today)

[Jaded]

This is helped by a culture  where it seems normal (to some) to buy things, keep them a couple of weeks and then decide you don't like it and so return it for a full refund. 

I think that culture is driven by the punitive Consumer Law in the US. Return it in 2 weeks, or cross your fingers for a Class Action.

[robgul]

Yeah since the exchange rate isn't the best any more

it is 1.56 to the pound, which is pretty much where it has been +/- 10 cents for most of the last 15 years. 

True on average, but there were notable spikes. For most of 2007 it was over $2/£

Graph of £/$ exchange rate (1971 - today)

The rate in 2008 was almost 2-1 - various stores on the eastern seaboard ran out of carrier bags once my wife had visited them - notably Banana Republic  ..... http://www.beewee.org.uk/bags.jpg  - we had to pack that lot to bring it home!

Rob

[TimO]

The hassle of having to put an adapter on anything electrical is a PITA, even if the voltage issue is largely irrelevant these days.

It's not always the case though, so you need to be a bit careful.

A few years back, for some odd reason Apple laptops in Europe had multi-standard power supplies that would operate on 110V to 240V, whereas the USA version would only operate on 110V.

As others have said, it's quite likely to be the case that it will work on 240V anyway, but you want to make at least a cursory check.