Import outboard

fastasfox · 09 May 2022, 11:26

I was watching the sale of a mercury 75hp optimax 2008 with 194 hrs on it and all the controls inc and it sold for £2600 on the nose.....and that was cheap!
This made me think....so a quick search on the old tinter and I was looking at hundreds of outboards for sale in America. I found one on a dealer's site...not ebay or Craigslist and it was a 2014 yamaha f90 with 164hrs on in in near mint condition inc dials and controls......the price $2025 usd thats roughly £1640 sterling.....wow I know you will have to pay import duty...around 2.5% I think plus shipping so let's add £600 That's £2240 for a 2014 yamaha f90.....you can't even find one in the UK and if you do you will be looking at the thick end of 6k.
What am I missing here? Has anybody done the above?
Has anyone got experience of importing stuff from the USA.... It would be nice to hear your thoughts and experience.

Pikey Dave · 09 May 2022, 11:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by fastasfox

I was watching the sale of a mercury 75hp optimax 2008 with 194 hrs on it and all the controls inc and it sold for £2600 on the nose.....and that was cheap!

This made me think....so a quick search on the old tinter and I was looking at hundreds of outboards for sale in America. I found one on a dealer's site...not ebay or Craigslist and it was a 2014 yamaha f90 with 164hrs on in in near mint condition inc dials and controls......the price $2025 usd thats roughly £1640 sterling.....wow I know you will have to pay import duty...around 2.5% I think plus shipping so let's add £600 That's £2240 for a 2014 yamaha f90.....you can't even find one in the UK and if you do you will be looking at the thick end of 6k.

What am I missing here? Has anybody done the above?

Has anyone got experience of importing stuff from the USA.... It would be nice to hear your thoughts and experience.

It’s a lottery. I’ve imported high value stuff from the states & it’s been painless, I’ve also imported low value stuff & the taxes & “administration fees” charged by the carriers have been more than the value of the goods. The high value items have been bought from reputable US companies that were prepared to ship overseas & had the systems in place to handle it. I’d be wary of buying second hand from private individuals. You have virtually no recourse if things go wrong.
Caveat Emptor

TmMorris · 09 May 2022, 11:56

I'd concur. If you can find a dealer with what you want and who has experience of exporting then the risk diminishes but trying to import stuff from the US and coordinating both sides of the process can be really hard work.

Shipping costs are currently very high plus, going to collect your goods from the docks is a bit of a mess at present.

fastasfox · 09 May 2022, 12:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

It’s a lottery. I’ve imported high value stuff from the states & it’s been painless, I’ve also imported low value stuff & the taxes & “administration fees” charged by the carriers have been more than the value of the goods. The high value items have been bought from reputable US companies that were prepared to ship overseas & had the systems in place to handle it. I’d be wary of buying second hand from private individuals. You have virtually no recourse if things go wrong.
Caveat Emptor

I get the lottery part Dave but it has to be said that it's not all that great in our domestic market...tired old outboards at absolute ridiculous prices. Maybe I could ofset a little of the risk by paon my credit card..then if it goes awol I have recourse. As for any work required on the outboard then you have left over budget to make A1. It's just a thought at the moment but I'm going to have a proper look into it. Cheers.

fastasfox · 09 May 2022, 12:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by TmMorris

I'd concur. If you can find a dealer with what you want and who has experience of exporting then the risk diminishes but trying to import stuff from the US and coordinating both sides of the process can be really hard work.

Shipping costs are currently very high plus, going to collect your goods from the docks is a bit of a mess at present.

I'm not sure about shipping costs but I'm going to email them to get a quote.
I will look into it to the point t where I decide it's a no brainer or I discover " arr that's why they are cheap" and forget the whole thing lol.

Mattster · 09 May 2022, 13:03

You're missing VAT on the combined cost + shipping + duty but it may still be a bargain regardless.
I imported a whole boat (new/remaindered) from the US (to Australia at the time) sight unseen when they were cheap just after the financial crisis. No issues for me, but as others have mentioned it is a lottery - the savings need to be big enough to justify the risk. At the time I did it, I got a new 5m Scout centre console and Yammy F115 on an aluminium trailer for roughly the cost of the engine alone locally so it was a no brainer (I paid US$21k + shipping) - although back then was a rather unique combination of very cheap boats and weak USD.

fastasfox · 09 May 2022, 15:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattster

You're missing VAT on the combined cost + shipping + duty but it may still be a bargain regardless.
I imported a whole boat (new/remaindered) from the US (to Australia at the time) sight unseen when they were cheap just after the financial crisis. No issues for me, but as others have mentioned it is a lottery - the savings need to be big enough to justify the risk. At the time I did it, I got a new 5m Scout centre console and Yammy F115 on an aluminium trailer for roughly the cost of the engine alone locally so it was a no brainer (I paid US$21k + shipping) - although back then was a rather unique combination of very cheap boats and weak USD.

A 2014 Yamaha F90 in the UK with low hours would set you back £6000 + but you can't seem to find them at any rate...so I would say the large saving would be worth it. The 90hp outboard I think in the US would be considered at the small end of outboards but with cheap fuel on more of a boating scene I guess why they are less desirable, over here I would say a 90hp would be a healthy size. Cheers.

babbot1 · 09 May 2022, 16:15

Be careful. That sounds awfully cheap in the US too. 90hp is considered a mid range outboard here and would be very common for inland lake fishing boats and pontoon boats.
Maybe a misprint?

We have an independent company Better Business Bureau(bbb.org) that fields complaints for companies. Do a search on the site so see if there are any complaints.

fastasfox · 09 May 2022, 16:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by babbot1

Be careful. That sounds awfully cheap in the US too. 90hp is considered a mid range outboard here and would be very common for inland lake fishing boats and pontoon boats.
Maybe a misprint?

We have an independent company Better Business Bureau(bbb.org) that fields complaints for companies. Do a search on the site so see if there are any complaints.

That's half the problem mate...not knowing the companies and the Americans system....here we would check them out in companies house...you get to see their state of financial affairs. It looks to be a legit marine store (Terminal Marine.com) have a look see what you think about them. Cheers all the best.

babbot1 · 09 May 2022, 16:31

If I have the correct url, I removed the space you posted, they don't look US to me. Bottom of the site has.

TERMINAL MARINE, Jl.Marsma Iswahyudi Balikpapan. Kalimantan Timur.76114

fastasfox · 09 May 2022, 18:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by babbot1

If I have the correct url, I removed the space you posted, they don't look US to me. Bottom of the site has.

TERMINAL MARINE, Jl.Marsma Iswahyudi Balikpapan. Kalimantan Timur.76114

All the prices are in Usd I made the US connection.
Not sure about dealing with an Indonesian company If they are the real deal. Well spotted fella.

paintman · 11 May 2022, 16:40

If you look at the box at the top right of their ad (next to the 'My account' one) it will also show you their prices in Euros.

fastasfox · 11 May 2022, 19:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by paintman

If you look at the box at the top right of their ad (next to the 'My account' one) it will also show you their prices in Euros.

Yes I spotted that, but a lot of websites do that. The problem is when shopping overseas there is so much unknown and you never know when it's a scam site.At first I thought that site was American as I had been viewing the American websites...but Another member pointed out it wasn't American but Indonesian....would you buy from an Indonesian website? Too risky for my taste.

Mattster · 11 May 2022, 19:17

Wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. In fact, I think the very topic of Indonesian dealers has come up on this forum before, and there was a wave of Indonesian based scam outboard websites in the news in Australia not so long ago - which of course is not to say that this website is necessarily a scam.

fastasfox · 12 May 2022, 09:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattster

Wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. In fact, I think the very topic of Indonesian dealers has come up on this forum before, and there was a wave of Indonesian based scam outboard websites in the news in Australia not so long ago - which of course is not to say that this website is necessarily a scam.

Yes that's the conclusion I arrived at......you can see why people are looking further afield when you look at the price of used outboard's, 30 year old outboards selling for 2.5 -3k ....it's mental.

Tim M · 12 May 2022, 17:24

I looked into this a while ago and the numbers stacked up for my purposes. Talk to Peters and May about the import bit - they'll handle everything from shipping to all the paperwork and import duties etc etc. I've used them many times to ship stuff all over the world for work. They run "shared containers" across the Atlantic monthly from Florida - you just pay for the space you need and they handle the rest.