Tottenham Court Road suppliers

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Will
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Hi guys – First post here, so I hope I'm not breaking any rules!

I am trying to buy some sound gear (new radio mics + sound recorder) and went down to Tottenham Court Road the other day. Prices look much better than any of the other stores in London, but I was wondering what the drawbacks were, and, basically, how they're able to keep their prices so low and flexible? They seem to offer some sort of warranty, so I was just curious about whether people had positive or negative experiences with TCR shops.

Also, I see some websites like AllGain, Bonanza, SLRHut, Top End Electronics...etc who are selling camera gear really cheap (compared to the dealers I would usually use). Is there a catch there? Or am I a fool for trying to buy from TCR at all when these sites are offering cheap as chips gear.

Cheers,
Will
 
Those websites you have listed sell grey imports ie they sell from overseas and don't normally charge VAT hence they can sell cheaper. With most of them you run the risk of it being stopped by customs and then having to pay VAT on top anyway.

You'd be better looking at places like HDEW (they source from overseas but will provide a VAT receipt so you wouldn't have to pay any extra) or Panamoz (they also don't pay VAT but do promise to refund it if you are charged VAT). Both are usually very competitive and have good feedback from buyers on here
 
Awesome, thanks Mike. I'll take a look at both those websites.

With regards to the stores in TCR, are those also grey imports? I note that I'm being charged VAT on my quotes, but are they importing it in a way that makes it possible to sell things cheaper?
 
With regards to the stores in TCR, are those also grey imports? I note that I'm being charged VAT on my quotes, but are they importing it in a way that makes it possible to sell things cheaper?
They might be grey imports, but there is an important distinction to make between the grey market and the black market.

A grey import is simply one which has been imported into this country via a channel which is not the "official" one. For example, if you want to sell Canon lenses in this country, the "official" channel is to get them from Canon UK. It's not illegal to buy them in places like Hong Kong and bring them in yourself, but that's what makes them "grey". Some manufacturers don't provide local warranty support for grey imports and insist that any warranty claims must be lodged in the country where you bought the items (Hong Kong in this example).

However, a completely separate issue is whether or not the applicable import duties and VAT have been paid on the item when it was imported. If these are not paid, the import is illegal. That's how many internet retailers of camera equipment manage to offer lower prices - they either import stuff illegally, or they connive in allowing you to import it illegally.

I would expect that a company with a physical presence in TCR is not making illegal imports, because it would be too easy for HMRC to get at them. (The reason most illegal importers can get away with it is that they don't have a UK presence.) They may well be grey imports, but that's probably not really important so long as you understand the warranty situation. So they will have to charge VAT. If they're still cheap, it's down to the usual reasons which aren't rocket science: keeping overheads down, buying in quantity, buying overstocks, exploiting differences in price/popularity between countries, buying just-recently-superseded models, that sort of thing.
 
I don't know what TCR is like nowadays, but around 15 years ago there used to be a lot of cheap computer/sound shops there.
It was a very saturated area for this type of shop, and I think that part of the reason why the prices were so cheap was to try and out-do their competitors.
I never had an issue buying computer equipment there, warranties/after sales was always honoured.
 
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