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Posted: |
Feb 21, 2019 - 11:16 AM
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By: |
SteveP
(Member)
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I think every post I’ve put on here has been a positive, so please excuse this!
I’m 55 and have been a part of this soundtrack record/cd collecting hobby/obsession/community – call it what you will, for about 40 of those years (originally from the days of Magpie Records, Movie Boulevard, 58 Dean Street etc here in the UK, and later, with the closing of these specialist suppliers having to go further afield – usually to the company that’s released the disc). I’ve loved the whole collecting thing over the years.
But now, I have to say the increasing costs of international postage, taxes and customs are increasingly starting to hurt, to the point that I now rarely take a chance on a disc I may possibly like, and restrict myself only to discs I know that I want.
I’ve just picked up my Body Heat CD from the Post Office. Price of the double CD was $24.95, add to this postage of $15.50, bringing the price to $40.45. This morning I got a customs and tax card through my letterbox – there’s a parcel to be picked up at your post office, £12.29 (Google tells me today that is $16.05). So for a CD that was $24.95, I have paid a wopping great $56.50. It’s gotten ridiculous.
I have always been one for having silvery discs over downloads, but the way I would go now (if given the choice) would undoubtedly be downloads. Sadly (I may be wrong), I think it’s the rights and restrictions from copyright holders within our little niche market which prevent this and allow for only restricted pressing numbers. I am definitely old school, and yes, I prefer to have discs, covers, and sleeve notes etc. But even I’m beginning to wonder if this clinging on to physical media is just a stubborn refusal to change. Can't a limited number of downloads be negotiated? Perhaps I’m being a naïve and techno ignoramus here? But if someone as passionate as myself is cutting down on their soundtrack buying, in what is a very small genre market which needs every sale it can get, then I’m sure there are others who have done likewise. Is there a way around these rights issues in the future which will allow downloads? (even if just a restricted number). I would actually experiment and buy more if this were the case!
The fact that this purchase was to replace a faulty disc in the first place irks and grates and makes it hurt all the more; though I’m the dumb ass there for not originally getting back to the supplier!
Rant over. Next posting will be a positive one!
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The cut off point of £15 sterling over which you have to pay customs duty is far too low and should be increased to £30. I've been an eBayer now for 17 years and it means I have to be careful what I buy from the USA as, if it's only a few pennies over £15 sterling ($20 dollars), it's like paying twice for the item. Added to that, my local Royal Mail delivery office in Leek Road, Stoke on Trent, invariably never puts a customs duty card through my letterbox when my package arrives there and I have go chasing after it. This is more difficult than it sounds, because without that card with the customs number on it, the counter staff won't help and can't be bothered to go in the back and look for my package. Eventually, of course, it'll get sent back to the seller in America because I failed to collect it. But how could I collect it without a card? The last time this happened, because you can't reach the management there by phone or email, I sent a Recorded Delivery letter to the office manager explaining the situation and he must have received it and read it because they soon put the card through my letterbox. But I shouldn't have to run around after them like that. They should have systems in place whereby I automatically receive the card if they are holding a package for me that I have to pay duty on. Of course, after we leave the EU at the end of March (assuming we do), we'll then have to pay customs duty on anything we buy from an EU country. One way out of this as far as items from the USA are concerned would be for the seller to charge his UK customers $5 dollars extra for postage and drop the price of the item by $5 dollars, then any item which costs just over £15 sterling will suddenly be under that amount and not attract import duty. However, I'm not sure about the legality of such a move.
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It would be interesting to know if the high cost of overseas postage and the UK customs / postal charges are having any effect on orders with La Land, Intrada etc.
They must realises overseas orders are falling because of these extortionate costs.
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Oddly, nothing I send for from amazon in the USA has customs charges levied on it, whether it's a CD or a DVD costing over $20. I often wonder why this is. Maybe amazon have some kind of arrangement with UK customs.
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