I have been reading about some of you guys in different coutries that either can’t get Biotest products shipped to you or the shipping is so expensive that it’s not worthwhile. This makes me sad
I’m a stay-home mom looking to make a few bucks here and there and I am wondering if this might be a win-win situation. I am able to order the products at the website prices (free shipping) and would be willing to ship them out - you pay shipping charges and a small handling fee.
I honestly don’t know much about international shipping, prices, regulations, customs, etc. but I’m a smart girl and willing to learn. I don’t want to do anything illegal.
Who might be interested in something like this?
How can I learn more about international shipping?
How can I arrange for people to pay me? Can a single person open a Paypal account or something like that?
Are there any legal ramifications I need to be aware of?
Anyone have any thoughts, tips or suggestions? Thanks!
You could just get ppl to directly transfer the amount to your bank account. Where it’s complicated is that you have to work out the currency difference.
Well, your plan doesn’t work too well for anyone living in Alberta. Chances are high that Customs will take our Biotest goodies whether or not it is T-Nation or you as the supplier. What we do need, though, is a better priced supplier in Canada.
Part of the problem is shipping, the other being the way customs assesses goods(incorrectly assigning taxes, banning items).
I do my part by hooking people up in Canada with Biotest products.
The sad part is I can only help people who live in Ontario as shipping rates even within Canada can be costly. If I could find out what the demand in Canada is; I could possibly negotiate a rate with a courier and help others out.
You could just get ppl to directly transfer the amount to your bank account. Where it’s complicated is that you have to work out the currency difference. [/quote]
Sxio,
You can get it here at biotestedge.com.au or myopure.com.au. But the trouble is the expense, after shipping and taxes etc it all adds up, although it could be possible that small shipments would attract less tax, and definitely less freight because they are not so bulky. However that would drive the people like Jillybop mad sending so many small shipments!
I also not sure if any special customs checks have to be performed as it is bringing a foreign food item into the country.
I’ll see if I can find out what the deal is with import taxes etc. We may be able to make it work, paying $60-70 AUD for the different Grow! products is way over the top, especially when you can get it in the US for about 40% of our price. ($23 USD is about $31 AUD at the moment)
I live in Australia and would give it a go. Probably not with Grow! though. Things like Max Strength HOT-ROX (which we cannot get), Alpha Male and Carbolin 19 etc etc. These are very expensive in Oz and the bonus is that they are smaller and cheaper to post from the US.
For example, Alpha Male costs roughly $85-90US in Oz + shipping on top of that, compared to $49US. This is probably the worst case scenario. Even the bloody threshold for free shipping from Biotest in Australia is $40US more than you guys have to pay ($99 vs $140) - sheesh!!
I can attest to the Canadian customs tax, I shipped a $5 metal flange to a guy and he was charged $40 customs fee for it. Ontop of the shipping.
I hate to take anything away from you jilly but I think the best change for our Canadian memebers would be for one of the Canadian contributors to start dealing… lol… That sounds bad.
I thought Nafta was suppose to get rid of all these stupid taxes??
Great attitude and way to go! Yeah, I think I could use your services. I have plenty of friends in the USA but I do feel guilty having them resend big boxes.
Before you get bogged down by a lot of details, remember that a lot of the hassle is on our end, and not your’s. Also, much of the discussions regarding customs and such are regarding having everything above board, i.e. setting up a distribution market in another country. That’s not the same as having a friend send me a package (we’re friends now, right?)
The important things to remember here are:
There is nothing, absolutely nothing illegal, immoral or even fattening about this.
It is always incumbent on the receiver to deal with any hiccups. Senders can pretty much do anything that’s legal in their countries, it’s always the points of ingress that have the burden of control.
Something else we could do is order the items ourselves, have them shipped to your address and then just send you the reshipping/handling fee. That way, you wouldn’t be risking as much. Depends on who wants the credits for purchases!
PayPal is less than convenient for non-USA people in my experience. That might have changed. I can look into that. Meanwhile, a second option is www.moneybookers.com.
We’ll get the ball rolling - find out how much it would cost to send 2, 4 and 6 jugs of Low-Carb Grow! to Madrid, Spain from where you live. Zip is 28028 if they need it. I think T-Nation should be able to give you dimensions and weights.
Much customs angst can be avoided by the declaration of what’s in the boxes. Don’t lie. That’ll send you down a slippery slope. But for example “Gifts” will be less likely to encounter a stop than “Atomic Supercharged Plutonium Drug Pills”. Do what you think is best.
I think Grow! will run into less problems than HOT-ROX and Alpha Male. Also, the more personalised the package looks, the less likely that someone ordered it commercially. My friend’s sister sent her an iPod through the mail and it never stopped.
PM me if you want to chat more about this.
And thanks for at least stepping out and trying for a solution!
I am another Aussie having issues getting Biotest supps (Grow! is avaliable in Australia but reasonably expensive).
I understand that the entire range of Biotest supps are available from biotestaustralia.com; however, are super-duper expensive).
Now follow me here…
Thinking about it the other day, these are shipped from NZ. I understand that shipping Biotest stuff to NZ is no problem regarding customs. However, it is difficult to get the stuff from T-Nation into Australia (admittedly I have not tried). Why biotestaustralia.com (based in NZ) can ship into Oz and T-Nation (based in USA) can’t might be due to the trade agreement between Australia and NZ, which is how they 1) get around customs issues and 2) charge an arm and a leg as they have a virtual monopoly.
Solution? As USA and Australia have recently executed a free trade agreement (if I am correct), trade and customs issues between the 2 countries may have changed for the better, ie T-Nation may actually be able to send their products through to the land of Oz. This should be investigated as laws change constantly.
Secondly, another way is to have a T-Nation member log in on the biotestaustralia.com website which gives purchasers who are members of T-Nation a discounted rate (ie Aussie dollar equivalent of USA prices + shipping costs to NZ and Oz).
If the first is not possible, the second should definitely be considered. If I could get my stuff from NZ at discounted rates similar to what my fellow T-Nation bretheren pay in USA, I would be loading up somthing big.
I sincerely hope Tim Patterson looks at this thread for us Aussies…
Thanks for the thoughts and input so far. I need to do more reading to better understand all the customs stuff, but just to start somewhere I did some rough shipping costs on shipping a box to Madrid, Spain.
I compared prices for shipping a 20lb box 24"x24"x24" with a declared value of $50.
USPS - Airmail Parcel Post (4-10 days) $72.25
USPS - Economy (surface) Parcel Post (4-6 weeks) $33.25
FedEx - Int’l Economy $451.20
UPS - Worldwide Expedited $423
DHL - Worldwide Priority Express $568.04
I don’t understand why there is such a big difference between USPS and the others, and why the others are so expensive. Any thoughts?
I checked out www.moneybookers.com and paypal and they both seem to be able to do what I would need.
Like I said, I was just thinking this might be a nice way to help out some people and make a few $$. I’ll keep reading and post more when I can. Thanks!
Thanks again for doing that Jillybop - nice to see the T-Nation crew sticking together!
I’ve no idea why things are so expensive with UPS and FedEx. The USPS is the cheapest but you wait for it - also I don’t know if they track or no. 20lb is a heavy box, consider that 6 Low Carb Grow! jugs would be about 12 lbs. That $35 seems to be a minimum price up to a certain size.
Look into it more, and let me know if you want to give it a whirl. I know I want to do the Velocity Diet before next summer (bulking/eating right now) so that means I’ll eventually have to get about 20 Low-Carb Grow!s into my house.
Oh yeah - remember, customs information is the official guaranteed-no-problems stance. If you ever travel internationally, you’ll know that strictly speaking you can hardly bring anything back with you and you have to declare everything. However, most people bring a little more and don’t run into problems unless they are blatantly excessive and very unlucky. So maybe have a chat with other shipping companies on their success rate (doesn’t have to be supplements).
I ordered Grow! way back when it was still on other websites and it took 8 weeks to get to me but it arrived no problem. So it’s possible.
[quote]Jillybop wrote:
I’m a stay-home mom looking to make a few bucks here and there and I am wondering if this might be a win-win situation. I am able to order the products at the website prices (free shipping) and would be willing to ship them out - you pay shipping charges and a small handling fee.
[/quote]
sounds intresting.
i would like to test some Biotest products but they aren’t sold in Italy. i can buy them from UK but at really expansive fee.
for Italy it is quite simple…
the only remark is total weight. it is better to stay under 3.5kg
What is legal in US is legal in Italy (the only difference were the prohormones, but by now they are out also in US…)
me
ask at the custom office.
however fot Italy i can help you a bit (i usually buy from US)
yes you can. but you can also use egold or something like that.
as far as i know you have to know only US laws. you are not responsable of foreign law issue.
you can’t sell items illegal in US or that can’t be exported (but usually that are restrictions applied to know-how or technology…)