Insanity of global trade - boat circuit breakers

[tazzle]

I needed 8 thermal CBs for a new dist panel I'm building for the boat. ETA 1658s were perfect. Looked at 3 online UK sources - all about the same, but chandlery.net were the cheapest including delivery, at £6.78 each. However, looking abroad, Digi Key in the US were really the cheapest. Including handling and delivery, £4.37 each. So ordered online 2 days ago and arrived this morning (see UPS schedule below).

Just how can it be cheaper and quicker to order from the US than from Hove?

 

[Kilter]

Qote "Just how can it be cheaper and quicker to order from the US than from Hove?"
Beats me but bloomin good service!

 

[R32Stbrigid]

amazing isnt it! You also get the same service / price / delivery from West Marine.

 

[NealB]

Is it to do with for eg..

Volume sold, purchasing power, smaller margins (on bigger volume), lower warehousing costs, greater efficiency, use of TQM and JIT to reduce costs?

But, yeah, it's a strange global village, innit though?

 

[simon_sluggett]

the customs/import tax situation has always put me off buying from west etc. Do you get clobbered for tax every time or is it pot luck. Ive bought CDs from abroad which are labelled as a Gift which have gone through no problem.
But how can they be a gift when I have paid money for it?

 

[Thamesider]

I think there's a monetary threshold before import duty applies but it's pretty low (between £10-15 IIRC). So any biggish or heavy package will likely be opened since it's a fair bet that it will be over the threshold, whilst small stuff may slip through - and once duty is charged, the savings seem to disappear. That's my limited experience anyway.

 

[yogi]

Writing as someone who has recently built a boat and purchased some $25,000CDN worth of parts over the last few years, I think I can add some information.
Equippment came from any country where prices were less, this includes Britain and Australia. By the way I live in Canada and there is a West Marine store some 30 miles from me in the USA. I can say American West Marine prices are normally much higher than a Canadian chandler. We visit England every few years at arround the Southampton boat show time and each time it is possible to find items that can be bought at a better price in England than in Canada or certainly the USA. The last was a folding propeller which in Canada was priced at $1795+tax in England was $695CDN + no tax for export.