[Gnomon]

I do most of my shopping except clothes and food on the internet and have found amazon generally the cheapest.

Can you buy from amazon in NZ? If so are there any restrictions and has any one bought blu Rays from amazon in NZ?

David

[Elainep]

I'm sure someone in NZ will come along soon and answer your question, but I do remember a thread while ago about someone ordering from the UK Amazon site and getting items delivered via Royal Mail re-direction to NZ (redirected from their OLD UK address). So I suppose it's do-able. I'm particularly interested in books, because what I can't access through the local library, I get on Amazon. I think that I'd come out in a rash if I had to buy a book at the list price :laugh

[Bozeman]

You can buy from Amazon but, in general, the only thing Amazon ships outside the US is books. There may be other exceptions but I have not noticed them.

Please note that anything over some amount ($50) may be taxed by the IRD.

[enb]

Please note that anything over some amount ($50) may be taxed by the IRD.

Is it $50 or $400?

[Nathan]

You can buy from Amazon but, in general, the only thing Amazon ships outside the US is books. There may be other exceptions but I have not noticed them.

Please note that anything over some amount ($50) may be taxed by the IRD.

Our Amazon orders of CDs, books. and DVDs totaling over $50 have not been taxed.

Cheers

[IanW99]

Our Amazon orders of CDs, books. and DVDs totaling over $50 have not been taxed.

Cheers

It's all quite complicated, see Customs Charges (http://www.customs.govt.nz/importers/Private+Importers/Customs+Charges.htm) for actual details.

It certainly more than NZ$50 worth of goods.

The point to note is that as long as the total charge is less than NZ$50 then it is waived.

Ian

[Jo Jo]

I've bought a few books from Amazon in the UK, but the postage costs really add up. I've started using The Book Depository (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/) instead - the book prices are similar to Amazon, but postage is free, and they send every book separately, so even if you place a big order it won't attract customs charges.

[Bobbysox]

Just bought a DVD from Amazon UK for £3.98, postage was £3.58, and it arrived 6 days after ordering it. No problem.

[dilanium]

I've ordered DVDs from amazon in the US and they arrived no problem (though it did try to tell me I should order a different DVD because of the regions, but I have a region 1 player, so I wanted what I was actually trying to order).

I have had issues with some books not being able to be shipped direct to here though (mainly my giant textbooks) so those I have shipped to my mother in the states and she forwards them over to me.

[Kanga]

I've used UK amazon for books and CDs and found even with postage it was cheaper significantly than buying in NZ- not always though so worth doing a decent comparison but twice I bought things I wanted for less than £1!

[Familyofmonkeys]

We always compare amazon.com and amazon.co.uk and bookdepository against the price of books from Borders with the discount vouchers (can sign up on-line for weekly vouchers etc). One place doesn't seem to be consistently cheaper than any other once you factor in the shipping, and occasionally fishpond (offer you discounts for unbought items saved in your cart) and thenile (offer 5% off most orders with discount code) work out cheaper too.

[Farfields]

I bought a bunch of DVDs and two big books from UK amazon. Cost was about £40 and the postage was only a few pounds. O thought it wad a bargain. Took about 10days to arrive. No customs issues.

[PeteS]

Amazon? No problem at all. We had Life on Mars before NZ had even heard of it!

[Janey]

Amazon, M& S, fat face and CD wow are all good in fact CD wow is free delivery or was when I last had something. It does however depend what you order with amazon I went to order a game and book and they wanted 40 gbp so aborted purchase but other things have been a lot less

[Gnomon]

I looked at cd wow for blu rays and there expensive generally 50% more then Amazon.co.uk. Blu Ray only have 3 regions europe and africa and new Zealand all the same region then Asia then US. So hopefully we can buy them from amazon when we arrive as I would suspect there not cheap in NZ. I bought Crocs for the kids on amazon US and the postage worked out more than the shoes, but still much cheaper then Crocs EU.

[RJLink]

It's all quite complicated, see Customs Charges (http://www.customs.govt.nz/importers/Private+Importers/Customs+Charges.htm) for actual details.

It certainly more than NZ$50 worth of goods.

The point to note is that as long as the total charge is less than NZ$50 then it is waived.

Ian

Thanks for the link. I'm reading it as saying that if your customs charges are less than $50, they don't bother collecting it. So if you would otherwise owe12.5% GST, you'd have to be importing over NZ$400 worth of goods for them to actually charge you.

I recently ordered a couple books from Amazon in the U.S. Shipping is actually fairly expensive ($US15 for $US25 worth of books), but I think it's still cheaper than trying to buy books in the shops here.