Buying direct from sideshow to the UK help.

I am looking to but the Premium Format Snowtrooper direct from Sideshow. This would be my first purchase from Sideshow instead of waiting for it to hit the UK stockists, and wondering if anybody had any experience dealing with Sideshow, namely import Duty charges and how long it take to arrive etc.. Any help or advise would be appreciated.

I don't know about customs in UK. I had to add about 20-25% to the total price when adding custom taxes here in DK. I have always received my packages from SSC very swiftly. In some cases less than a week!

Vat is always 20% of the price.
Then add another £10 for delivery from Fed-ex.
Can take between 3 - 5 days depending on how long customs sit on it.

And just so you know, Fed-Ex deliver first and then sting you with an invoice a week later.
I've been told that you can open a Fed-Ex account and get SS customer services to link to your SS account.
Allegedly (and I've said this on another thread so I hope its true) you don't have to pay the £10 delivery charge and it clears customs quicker.

It works out you pay slightly more getting direct from Sideshow so it's only really worth it if the EX is something you really want.

i bought the legnedary scale savage predator from states a few monthsw back, if i remeber rightly it was about £25 import taxes, and another £8 for royal mail to delivery it to me for something i had already paid postage on and they would have delivered to me anyway dont you just love the royal mail

Blame the customs, well actually blame the government for failing to spend their tax money efficiently resulting the need to impose import tax, Royal mail has to clear them for you, in some countries you either go to the customs and pay the tax & bring back the item or you pay a minimum process fee to the courier to pay the tax upfront ship it to your nearest depot (which you personally pay the tax+processing fees & collect them) or have them deliver to you at extra cost. Some areas has customs very far away which makes it more expensive to drive back & forth. Toll & petrol fees plus your valuable time.

shanks said:

i bought the legnedary scale savage predator from states a few monthsw back, if i remeber rightly it was about £25 import taxes, and another £8 for royal mail to delivery it to me for something i had already paid postage on and they would have delivered to me anyway dont you just love the royal mail

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I ordered the Hot Toys Man of Steel figure from sideshow and got charged £30 by customs.

Mr Quimper said:

Vat is always 20% of the price.
Then add another £10 for delivery from Fed-ex.
Can take between 3 - 5 days depending on how long customs sit on it.

And just so you know, Fed-Ex deliver first and then sting you with an invoice a week later.
I've been told that you can open a Fed-Ex account and get SS customer services to link to your SS account.
Allegedly (and I've said this on another thread so I hope its true) you don't have to pay the £10 delivery charge and it clears customs quicker.

It works out you pay slightly more getting direct from Sideshow so it's only really worth it if the EX is something you really want.

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What Mr Quimper said.. the FedEx charge is for fast-tracking (and paying in advance) the VAT charge for you, so they can deliver direct to your door.. also useful to have a Sideshow account, if an item is exclusive to Sideshow and does not get an official UK release.. yes, Hot Toys 1/6 Midas, I am looking at you.


Welcome to the forum, OG.

shanks said:

i bought the legnedary scale savage predator from states a few monthsw back, if i remeber rightly it was about £25 import taxes, and another £8 for royal mail to delivery it to me for something i had already paid postage on and they would have delivered to me anyway dont you just love the royal mail

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Buying from Sideshow direct doesn't involve the Royal Mail in any way.

I was charged Duty on my last purchase and a £20+ freight insurance charge.
Think Fed-Ex make it up as they go.

Don't buy from sideshow, find a seller on eBay from Hong Kong, message them and ask if they will ask as low value gift.
Most will.
Get your figure, statue 6-9 months before everyone else and save on customs charges and ultimately get the figure/statue cheaper.
Also do this as soon as released because in the weeks after the price always goes uo


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creasy said:

Don't buy from sideshow, find a seller on eBay from Hong Kong, message them and ask if they will ask as low value gift.
Most will.
Get your figure, statue 6-9 months before everyone else and save on customs charges and ultimately get the figure/statue cheaper.
Also do this as soon as released because in the weeks after the price always goes uo


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if it's from sideshow how would you get it 6-9 months earlier from other sellers? also EX figures can only be bought off Sideshow, getting from other sellers means you have to pay 50% more, which is much more than the VAT you'll be paying.

this is what i hate about Exclusives, can't they just make everything standard, and if you want the EX you have to pay a premium long time membership to get a choice to make the purchase?

What i know is Sideshow was the one who started all these Exclusive nonsense.

Well, atleast their CotD line has no Exclusives. Guess that's a plus.

egel said:

Well, atleast their CotD line has no Exclusives. Guess that's a plus.

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It's relevant, but I'd still go with W2C if I had a choice.

Shouldn't be an issue really, but I would rather purchase from within the UK. I have ordered the Hot Toys Infinity War Captain America Movie Promo Edition however from Sideshow. Not only because I wanted to try Sideshow out but also because this particular figure I couldn't really find for anything lower than £280 (since it's a movie promo edition). I just received a £200 figure from Japan and the customs charges with £30 shipping was £66.50 which included the handling fee. My Captain America due to a code was only £180, so I reckon i'll only be charged about £55/£60, which all together adds up to about £270/280. But as I said, I wanted to try Sideshow since it was an exclusive piece and wanted to see how their service was. Usually, I would purchase from the UK though, as customs usually increase the price to the value it is availanle in the UK for. Hope that helps.