Anyone shipped anything to South Africa?

Comments

• Billybrown Member Posts: 748

  August 2014

  Personally I wouldn't touch South Africa with a barge pole when it comes to posting out there. It's one of the countries on my black list for items that have apparantly gone missing. I don't have that re-occurance with any other country other than Italy on the odd occasion and I sell hundreds of items. Not sure whether thats down to the postal system out their or dishonesty.

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• CCC Member Posts: 20,526

  August 2014

  I've sent probably ten parcels there over the past year, all fine. These have been small parcels to Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.

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• andhe Member Posts: 3,941

  August 2014

  I think the OP is in South Africa and asking about buying from abroad.

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• ecmo47 Member Posts: 2,101

  August 2014

  Just had a successful shipment to Cape town on a 10018 (Darth Maul). Shipping was via USPS at a cost of $86.00.

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• KirstyL21 Member Posts: 27

  August 2014

  I live in SA and have always received all of the shipments I have purchased. I have even received a replacement part from LEGO. Sad that South Africa won't be "touched with a barge pole" ...

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• ColoradoBricks Member Posts: 1,659

  August 2014

  I have shipped to SA, always with USPS, never been an issue.

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• bobabricks Member Posts: 1,842

  August 2014

  I ship world wide at my BL store, If your willing to pay to have it shipped go right ahead, I ain't stopping you.

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• Goldchains Member Posts: 795

  August 2014

  I have shipped to South Africa before several years ago. It was to Johannesburg if I remember right. I had no problems, and it arrived fairly quickly. I would think it should be fine.

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• monkeyhanger Member Posts: 3,169

  August 2014

  I ship pharmaceutical samples to there and receive samples from there on a daily basis in my line of work, DHL is our company's courier of choice. Everything is tracked and nothing (in many hundreds of parcels) has ever gone missing to or from South Africa.
  
  The main thing to consider when shipping anywhere is to obtain proof of postage and adequate insurance or accept the percentages of loss.

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• prevere Member Posts: 2,923

  August 2014

  Had two in a row go missing (ebay buyers), so they are on my banned list now.

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• monkeyhanger Member Posts: 3,169

  August 2014

  ^ Recorded delivery? Did they truly go missing in the post (courier admitted fault and allowed claim) or no proof of posting and buyers claimed they never got them?

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• prevere Member Posts: 2,923

  August 2014

  Just first class international, so who knows, no tracking, and buyer claims they never got them. Small, inexpensive items - so it's not a big deal. And I would consider shipping something via Priority there with tracking.

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• mountebank Member Posts: 1,237

  August 2014

  Well @andhe you did try to get the thread on the right track but it seems no one's interested.

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• simon_ratcliffe_101 Member Posts: 46

  September 2014

  Assuming the OP is asking about purchasing internationally for shipment to South Africa (nothing like these forums for wandering off topic), here are my experiences.
  
  By and large I have had nothing but good success buying internationally. Some eBay, but mostly bricklink and the various Amazons (.com/.co.uk/.de).
  
  Bricklink is generally pretty good, obviously take tracked shipping and insurance if possible. Some of the options take a good long time to get here, but so far have arrived without issue. I mainly buy minifigs from BL, so it might be that bigger items have more trouble arriving at their destination.
  
  The main thing to watch for is that you will pay a reasonable customs fee. Although Lego is zero rated for duty, you still pay VAT on the item, shipping charge and customs clearance fee. Generally I would budget 20% of the total sale price for customs.
  
  Amazon remains the gold standard by some margin. The key is that at checkout time you see an all in price (item, shipping, and clearance) and the overall shipping charges tend to be pretty good for the speed of delivery. You will also have zero hassles should something be missing or damaged.
  
  It used to be well worth while buying on sale sets from Amazon, but since SA Lego is now priced somewhere between the US and the UK, and we generally get all the sets the rest of the world do, this has lessened somewhat.
  
  I find if you can combine Amazon US Lego purchases with something else you are interested in (e.g. I buy a lot of Vinyl from the US as the local stuff is crazy priced and often poorer pressing quality) it can be worthwhile, especially when the US is having some of their 'too good to be true' sales.
  
  Finally, it is worth remembering that the EU Amazons price include VAT which is removed at checkout, which can sometime tip the balance in their favour. For one glorious month a few years back amazon.it had a flat rate 20 euro shipping to South Africa, regardless of volume - I think I may have helped them change that policy very quickly :)
  
  Anyway, hope this is of some interest - feel free to PM me if you have any questions...
  

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