Originally posted by tripodquest Since finding a store that will do markdown is hard enough, suppose I import a k-3 and I have to pay taxes. How much would the taxes be? One listing on fleabay offered a service where they pay the fees so it goes through customs without a hassle. In that the tax/fee was listed as $680 something. Is that for real?
It's not worth it, especially if there's a problem. First, you get a two year warranty within the EU. I don't know what country you're in, but the typically lowest prices on Pentax are in NL and FR. The DE/AT/CH distributor is a disaster and when there are markdowns/promotions/rebates, they scam by making dealers raise the prices. I see this every single time they do the rebate programs- the formerly lower price gets raised ON THE FIRST DAY of the eligible rebate period to well beyond the rebate amount. Luckily, I used a brick and mortar sponsor of the German forum via a price-checking site, who was something nuts, like 130 Euros lower, plus I got the rebate. That was the last one at that price, so there might have been some lag before their new pricing took effect, but I was lucky and sniped it.
The only way I'd get it from the US like that is if I went there (which I frequently do). Then I'd look into buying an extended, worldwide warranty.
Also note that someone above said "EU Customs". There is no "EU Customs", per se. Each individual country in the EU and sometimes overlapping Schengen Area are charged with managing their own ports of entry. So you have to go to the customs office of the port it might come through (which is not always cut and dry, depending on where you are). Then your country's VAT is different and they also base things on the local pricing. It's more hassle than it's worth, really.