# Buying a Vostok from Russia. Added vat & duties questions



## Atlantia (Mar 7, 2021)

Afternoon All,

Excellent forum and community here, glad to have an excuse to join!

I've ben talking myself into an Amphibia and I like the 1967 types.

They are (as I'm sure you all know) running at around £60 from Russia on eBay with 20% vat having been pre-added by eBay.

Has anyone bought anything this way recently and if so, are UK HMRC adding any other charges when these things arrive?

Also, has anyone got any recommendations for sellers or other cost effective options?

Many thanks


----------



## Lampoc (Oct 31, 2010)

I recently bought a Vostok from https://soviet.market/ and didn't have any extra to pay when it arrived. Meranom.com and komandirskie.com are my other normal places to buy Russian watches but I haven't used those 2 since the recent Brexit/borders faff.


----------



## Atlantia (Mar 7, 2021)

Lampoc said:


> I recently bought a Vostok from https://soviet.market/ and didn't have any extra to pay when it arrived. Meranom.com and komandirskie.com are my other normal places to buy Russian watches but I haven't used those 2 since the recent Brexit/borders faff.


 Hi Lampoc,

Thanks that's really helpful.

What are soviet-market like to deal with? What sort of timescale for arrival did you have?


----------



## Lampoc (Oct 31, 2010)

Atlantia said:


> Hi Lampoc,
> 
> Thanks that's really helpful.
> 
> What are soviet-market like to deal with? What sort of timescale for arrival did you have?


 They were surprisingly fast (for a Russian watch company anyway) - less than 2 weeks.


----------



## Atlantia (Mar 7, 2021)

Well that seems like very good service. Thanks for the info.


----------



## AndrewMacdonald (Oct 11, 2020)

I have not purchased a watch recently. But I have bought parts from Meranom and various eBay sellers based in Russia since the Brexit changes (I also live in Northern Ireland so have that extra knock-on from the sea border) and have not had to pay anything in regards to customs fees or duties.


----------



## scottswatches (Sep 22, 2009)

Anything goes with import duties currently - nothing, 20%, fees to collect the tax, or just incompetence - I have had all.

Fedex sent me a bill for £231 for importing a watch bought before the 1st January, but didn't arrive until after. They also sent me all the sellers details, including copies of their ID card. Not heard back from their data protection officer yet.

DHL have charged me for returning a watch that they couldn't deliver to Greece, and charged me import VAT for my watch! They agreed that that shouldn't have happened, so wiped out the £11 fee, but I still had to pay £300 VAT and reclaim it on my next VAT return - so that money is tied up for months, through no fault of my own.

Delayed customs bills are quite common, so that makes budgeting harder.

A watch repaired in Poland had to be returned, but they are charging him import VAT - despite it being declared as returned under warranty.

I have seen a dramatic fall in sales to Europe following brexit, to almost nothing. But UK sales have jumped up to compensate


----------



## ed335d (Aug 29, 2012)

These can be had for sub-£40 from here:

https://online.vostokinc.com/amfibija-muzhskaja/09-korpus/

Bit tricky to navigate & pay, but no issues with delivery or getting stung on import.

Also worth a look are:

https://www.vostok-watches24.com/e-home/e-amphibia/e-amphibia-k-09/

and

https://komandirskie.com/catalog/amfibiya/amfibiya_klassika/090k/

I've purchased from all of these (and Mernom) recently.


----------



## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

I always use meranom.com

Very reliable service and never had a problem with delivery


----------



## JonnyOldBoy (Mar 28, 2017)

I don't import from Russia , but a colleague who does has had a random set of experiences since January. Prior to that he was consistently charged appropriately for all import duties and taxes. The last parcel worth a few hundred sailed in net of VAT via UPS and he has not been billed. They can't because no one has taken any of the three copies of the invoices from the cellophane envelope. The consignment before that was FEDEX and he was fully charged. All shipments are coming through with a delay of about 3 days from usual.

[ My art business only imports from the EU and I have had the same mixed bag of randomness with duty and taxes and my last UPS consignment also had no invoices removed from the cellophane ]


----------



## Atlantia (Mar 7, 2021)

AndrewMacdonald said:


> I have not purchased a watch recently. But I have bought parts from Meranom and various eBay sellers based in Russia since the Brexit changes (I also live in Northern Ireland so have that extra knock-on from the sea border) and have not had to pay anything in regards to customs fees or duties.


 Thanks Andrew,

I want to kind of factor in the overall costs, especially now that ebay and some other sites are already factoring in the 20% vat. It's useful to know that in general there aren't any more hidden costs when things arrive.



scottswatches said:


> Anything goes with import duties currently - nothing, 20%, fees to collect the tax, or just incompetence - I have had all.
> 
> Fedex sent me a bill for £231 for importing a watch bought before the 1st January, but didn't arrive until after. They also sent me all the sellers details, including copies of their ID card. Not heard back from their data protection officer yet.
> 
> ...


 Hi scottswatches,

You've not been lucky recently.

Hopefully those large bills were for watches far higher in value that anything Vosok produce?

I know that you mean though, I remember Parcelforce phoning me to let me know that they had a carcel from me and that I'd have to drive 15 miles to collect it and pay £300 import duty and fees before they'd release it.

I'd run out of curses by the time I got there.


----------



## Atlantia (Mar 7, 2021)

ed335d said:


> These can be had for sub-£40 from here:
> 
> https://online.vostokinc.com/amfibija-muzhskaja/09-korpus/
> 
> ...


 Hi Ed,

Thanks for the recommendations.

That first link is a bit of a shock. Thise prices are crazy cheap!

Looks like free shippoing too?

The site's a bit odd to navigate as you say.

I'd rather be using paypal than entering my CC details into a Russian website, are you sure it's on the level?

I notice it says: 'The official website of Vostok watches'. But then komandieskie.com makes a similar claim?



JoT said:


> I always use meranom.com
> 
> Very reliable service and never had a problem with delivery


 Thanks, another vote for Meramon.



JonnyOldBoy said:


> I don't import from Russia , but a colleague who does has had a random set of experiences since January. Prior to that he was consistently charged appropriately for all import duties and taxes. The last parcel worth a few hundred sailed in net of VAT via UPS and he has not been billed. They can't because no one has taken any of the three copies of the invoices from the cellophane envelope. The consignment before that was FEDEX and he was fully charged. All shipments are coming through with a delay of about 3 days from usual.
> 
> [ My art business only imports from the EU and I have had the same mixed bag of randomness with duty and taxes and my last UPS consignment also had no invoices removed from the cellophane ]


 Hi Jonny

So even less rhyme or reason than before the current mess. I guess we shouldn't expect anything else.

Thanks.

lol, so where is the edit button so I can fix my typos?


----------



## ed335d (Aug 29, 2012)

I've ordered two from there without issue and have another two on the way!

I picked up a 170 and an 090 for less than the 170 is on other sites.


----------



## Eddiex (Jan 8, 2020)

This is interesting to know.

I quite fancy something like a Scuba Dude to use on holiday (should that ever happen again!)

I camp and have fairly active holidays so I would like something a bit robust. The investment isn't going to break the bank should it get damaged or lost.

I know I could probably buy a watch from Steel dive or any number of other makers that would do the job very well for similar money but I quite like the character of these Soviet watches.


----------

