Buying a IPad and shipment to Europe!?

don't bring me on ideas lol. Im from the netherlands and i do NOT need an iPad, but i want one

maybe a loyal macrumors visitor can pick one up for you and send it over. of course you would need to trust a person for it to work.

i also believe you gotta get insurance on that shipment.

You are importing it from US so I think you have to pay customs fee (you are in EU) as well so check that out before buying so there won't be unpleasant surprises

champ01 said:

I need someone to unwrap it (keep the empty box and Apple stickers for himself) and sent it to me as a gift.
I believe that way there would be any import tax necessary

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I would still call the customs department and ask because if there is, as that may change your mind if there is

bundlebox or viaddress, they sort out the customs for you and last time i bought something through them, customs diddnt get me my friend has just bought an ipad through bundlebox and it has cost him £435 so like €410

This type of request should go in the Marketplace. Since you don't qualify for the Marketplace forum, you should find another way.

miles01110 said:

This type of request should go in the Marketplace. Since you don't qualify for the Marketplace forum, you should find another way.

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Well, he isn't buying or selling anything

He is just asking for help what would be the easiest and cheapest way to get iPad in Europe. It would be different scenario if he asked someone to buy it for him and then ship it.

Nothing wrong with that IMO. I'm sure this isn't the only thread we'll see about this as there are many people in Europe wanting a one and tired of waiting for the release date info so...

Hellhammer said:

Well, he isn't buying or selling anything

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Oh, yeah I guess they haven't asked directly for someone to buy it and ship it.

miles01110 said:

Oh, yeah I guess they haven't asked directly for someone to buy it and ship it.

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OP hasn't but SXR suggested something like that:

maybe a loyal macrumors visitor can pick one up for you and send it over. of course you would need to trust a person for it to work.

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Anyway, neither of us is a mod so lets leave moderating to moderators

champ01 said:

I need someone to unwrap it (keep the empty box and Apple stickers for himself) and sent it to me as a gift.
I believe that way there won't be any import tax necessary

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Most countries have a limit to the value of a "gift" that you can receive without having to pay tax and usually it's not very much so you'll need to check into the details or your ipad might spend a lot of time at customs waiting for you to scrap up some cash to rescue it. You may find you'll have to pay VAT as opposed to an import tax.

Hellhammer said:

OP hasn't but SXR suggested something like that:



Anyway, neither of us is a mod so lets leave moderating to moderators

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Didn't know that that wasn't allowed, sorry about that!

You have to pay import taxes on anything imported from outside of the European Union.

Why not wait till the end of the month when it gets available in Europe?

Pressure said:

You have to pay import taxes on anything imported from outside of the European Union.

Why not wait till the end of the month when it gets available in Europe?

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Agreed, it will definitely be in the UK and a few other EU countries by the end of the month. You could then order it and have it shipped from there.

cjmillsnun said:

Agreed, it will definitely be in the UK and a few other EU countries by the end of the month. You could then order it and have it shipped from there.

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You can't really do that, the online apple stores don't offer cross-boarder shipping and only accept domestic credit cards.

BeachChair said:

You can't really do that, the online apple stores don't offer cross-boarder shipping and only accept domestic credit cards.

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But you can then buy it from eBay and get it shipped to your door step without any customs fees as you don't have to pay them if you import from another EU country

BeachChair said:

You can't really do that, the online apple stores don't offer cross-boarder shipping and only accept domestic credit cards.

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Not completely true. They don't offer cross-boarder shipping, but they definitely accept foreign credit cards!

JNickyJJ said:

...my friend has just bought an ipad through bundlebox and it has cost him £435 so like €410

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Just for the record, 435 quid are 500€, not 410!

Is it really coming out in Europe at the end of the month? If it does, then probably in Germany and France .... but not in the Netherlands of course.

You could try legalitunescards.com but their prices are outrageous - the 16gb model is $699! (although they do include shipping in that) Don't know about the removing stickers, etc part - but you could ask.

Ebay is also a good place to go although recently I have been having some bad luck with dodgy sellers - 90% of my transactions are very smooth but 10% leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Edit - Good luck getting it for 450 euro - remember that cross-border credit card transactions cost up to 5% or more in fees, etc.

why are people always comparing prices in Europe and the US...

ok it's the same company, but different territories, different taxes, etc


plus shipping, plus import duties...

If you import from the US you'll have to pay both import duty and (especially) VAT on it, currently 19.5% in the Netherlands I believe. On top of that the charger will not be compatible with your sockets.

You're not the first guy who thinks he'll evade the taxman by having it sent as a 'gift'--> they're not stupid and for your gift to be exempt the value has to be <20 EUR. If someone carries it across for you you've got a decent chance of getting it in and not paying a dime, if you ship it...no way.

I'd personally never buy it on eBay, not since a friend of mine purchased an 'iphone' that looked exacly like the real thing until you tried to operate it, that was (runs some linux-clone, is dreadfully slow, half of the features don't work etc).

Xenophon said:

You're not the first guy who thinks he'll evade the taxman by having it sent as a 'gift'--> they're not stupid and for your gift to be exempt the value has to be <20 EUR. If someone carries it across for you you've got a decent chance of getting it in and not paying a dime, if you ship it...no way.

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That's because you're in India and I know how Indian customs and postal services work - they tried to charge a friend of mine (who I shipped a tub of protein powder) 95% duty on it, lol.

Shipping to Europe, Australia, etc is very different - duties do go down depending on the value of the shipment. It's common sense to declare something sensibly - for e.g. a $2000 macbook pro can be declared $1400 or so.. but if it's declared $400 then obviously customs will suspect something's up.

In many places items up to $150-$200 are completely exempt from duties.

Thank You

macchiato2009 said:

why are people always comparing prices in Europe and the US...

ok it's the same company, but different territories, different taxes, etc


plus shipping, plus import duties...

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ditto.

I'm from The Netherlands as well, and I'm personally waiting for the iPad to arrive in the UK and Germany, so I'll pick one of those countries and head there myself in the first week of May. (If they've finally been released there by then, of course).

I personally do not think being ahead of the herd by two weeks is worth shelling out an additional €100-200.

However, might you still want one right now, there's a thread going on over at the Dutch Tweakers forum:
http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/1399545

about importing an iPad. Most of the lads there have found a genuine bloke living in the US who's dealing in iPads. I believe he charges like $750 for a 16GB (WiFi) iPad, all-in. (Shipping AND additional Dutch customs charges).