Nebiroth
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2008
- Messages
- 748
- Real Name
- Richard Gregory
Thanks. It is true that the Archive titles do tend to show up on other sites, such as Amazon, the coverage is often patchy and there can be a long wait between release on Warner itself and the listing elsewhere. Special sets - such as the Chaney pack - tend not to show up at all.
There is also the difficulty that prices are higher, and no access to special offers or discount codes.
Lastly, and I appreciate that this really is a peculiarity of buying overseas, there is the issue of import taxes. In most of Europe the "Personal Import Allowance", that is the value of goods one may import as an individual without attracting Customs fees and other taxes, is very low. It is currently around US$26 for me here in the UK. As one can see, it is therefore necessary to buy Archive titles one at a time - else there is an additional 20% in tax to pay plus the carrier's "administrative fee" for processing the tax, this is typically US$15 here.
Other countries are more generous (Americans get $100, and those lucky Aussies get AUS$400!). Sadly Europe is an insular and protective enclave where lot sof things are overpriced, so there's a powerful lobby that staunchly opposes people buying stuff cheaper overseas.
Access to the sales and discounts could mitigate this.
Unfortunately, I suspect the the reply from Warner will be negative. No studio anywhere sells product direct to customers outside the domestic area. Rights and copyright are often cited as the problem, but I suspect it is more to do with the additional costs of administering overseas sales, since it includes shipping problems plus each package has to be accompanied by a CN22 Customs Declaration.
I think that the trickle-down of releases to third parties such as Amazon is in fact Warner's way of dealing with the overseas-buyer problem.
They somewhat rashly committed to overseas selling at the start"where rights permit" before, I think, investigating the problems it implies. Certainly, the facility to ship overseas was pulled very quickly.
There is also the difficulty that prices are higher, and no access to special offers or discount codes.
Lastly, and I appreciate that this really is a peculiarity of buying overseas, there is the issue of import taxes. In most of Europe the "Personal Import Allowance", that is the value of goods one may import as an individual without attracting Customs fees and other taxes, is very low. It is currently around US$26 for me here in the UK. As one can see, it is therefore necessary to buy Archive titles one at a time - else there is an additional 20% in tax to pay plus the carrier's "administrative fee" for processing the tax, this is typically US$15 here.
Other countries are more generous (Americans get $100, and those lucky Aussies get AUS$400!). Sadly Europe is an insular and protective enclave where lot sof things are overpriced, so there's a powerful lobby that staunchly opposes people buying stuff cheaper overseas.
Access to the sales and discounts could mitigate this.
Unfortunately, I suspect the the reply from Warner will be negative. No studio anywhere sells product direct to customers outside the domestic area. Rights and copyright are often cited as the problem, but I suspect it is more to do with the additional costs of administering overseas sales, since it includes shipping problems plus each package has to be accompanied by a CN22 Customs Declaration.
I think that the trickle-down of releases to third parties such as Amazon is in fact Warner's way of dealing with the overseas-buyer problem.
They somewhat rashly committed to overseas selling at the start"where rights permit" before, I think, investigating the problems it implies. Certainly, the facility to ship overseas was pulled very quickly.