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How to ship a MCintosh MC-2102 to berlin


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I have a US made MC-2102 amplifier that
may wind uo getting sold to a buyer in berlin. What are all the true
costs? Are there export fees? Are there import fees? Could there be
trade restrictions on US made tube amps to Berlin? What about payment?
Are'nt wire transfers risky since you would be giving away your account
number? Would western union from the buyer to me be practical from
berlin? It turns out folks who ship to berlin, don't pick up at
residences and don't accept drop offs, so how to ship? Who has done
this before? What are the do's and don'ts?










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To be frankly honest, I would

Cancel the Sale.............I would contact the potential buyer, and explain that the cost/hassle isn't worth shipping ............try to sell locally or in the US .

1. NOT accept any form of payment thru Wire transfer i.e. western union and such.

2. Check with Fedex or the Post Office for rates, qualifications and such. JMHO...................

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Thanks Bill, but I'm looking for input from folks who have done it, and I want to understand the do's and don'ts. With the exchange rate in favor of a lot of overseas markets, this is new ground that a lot of folks may need to consider. It seems like I am turning down overseas folks at a 4:1 ratio. Something I need to re-visit. For example, If someone wants to drop 5K in western union and all I have to do is show and ID and get paid, it would seem to me like the risk is on the buyer, not me as a seller. What exactly is the risk to me by accepting western union as a form of payment assuming the buyer pays all transaction fees?

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"I do know that receiving a Western Union Money order has great Risks i.e. Fake Money Orders. "

good point. I'm thinking western union means you go down to the local western union office and show your ID, they look up your name and you get cash. Thats how it was in the old days when I was in the service. I didn't know that western union has money orders that you could send someone. Sure, money orders can be forged.
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No risk at all receiving money at a Western Union office. I get payments like that all the time. The customer sends you a control number which has to match the number they have and you have to know the sender's name and address. You leave with cash or a Western Union check if they don't have that much cash at the office. Your amount you get may not be exactly correct because of currency value changes but the amount is usually within a dollar in my experience. Bob Crites

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No risk at all receiving money at a Western Union office. I get payments like that all the time. The customer sends you a control number which has to match the number they have and you have to know the sender's name and address. You leave with cash or a Western Union check if they don't have that much cash at the office. Your amount you get may not be exactly correct because of currency value changes but the amount is usually within a dollar in my experience. Bob Crites

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Ok, good info.

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Hi Speakerfritz,

This could be to late but I just read this post, so for Information. When we import into Germany we have to pay extra taxes, this is 19% but the coustomer should know this, if not his amp will be waiting for him at cusoms until it is paid. These taxes have to be paid even if it is a gift!!! Normal Western Union or even a wire transaction is no problem. I have imported things from the States and normaly a wire transaction is credited within 2-3 Days.

I think is is best Bank to Bank, for this you need a SWIFT and IBAN number, if you go to your bank and get these the customer could deposite direct to your account. This is normal procedure here in Germany.

Hope this helps

Ran

EDIT: Oh, BTW, I would suggest to ship with UPS, TNT, FED EX or any other big name, UPS is the most trustworthy here in Germany, just my experience.

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germerikan

thanks for the info. it's not to late. I have been refering these folks to mcintosh dealers, but now that I have some info, I might give it a whirl. Western Union sounds better to me....something about giving out my bank account number is making me feel light headed.

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UPS, definitely. Be absolutely certain of the insurance coverage, and let them pack it, if you can. They would be responsible for the packaging, which can sometimes be an issue for shipping claims.

Western money, yes, but your buyer may be hesitant for the same reason we are on that side of the equation. Depending on your bank, you can usually do a "blind" bank to bank transaction, where both you and the buyer will never know the other's account information. All for a fee, of course.

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germerikan

thanks for the info. it's not to late. I have been refering these folks to mcintosh dealers, but now that I have some info, I might give it a whirl. Western Union sounds better to me....something about giving out my bank account number is making me feel light headed.

No problem! Concerning your bank account number from the "German" point of view it is no problem, here in Germany it is normal procedure. I as an American had to get used to that myself. Do whatever you feel is correct of course.

Ran

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A bit more about bank transfers. I don't think there is a safety problem with receiving a wire transfer. My bank tells me that the information that allows your customer to transfer money into your account is not enough to all allow a withdrawl from your account.

Now, having said that, there is a problem with bank wire transfers that I cannot figure out how to handle. That is the receiving bank fees on the transfer. My bank charges me $15.00 to receive a wire transfer. Seems no problem there, but it can bite you big time depending on how the foreign bank actually processes the transfer. If they go thorugh a second bank when doing the transfer, there may be a fee from that bank also. One of my transfers used a second bank and that bank charged $25.00 for its part in the transfer. I ended up paying $40.00 for that transfer. I talked to my bank for probably an hour about that transaction and was told that there was absolutely no way from this end to tell whether this might happen or not. Just depends on how the foreign bank decides to handle the transfer. It took my bank quite awhile to even figure out why my transfer was $25.00 short. Details of the transaction that my bank received some days after the funds transfer showed that the second bank had "skimmed off" $25.00 of the amount for a "routing fee"

So, what do I charge my customer for the transfer? Should I charge $15.00 which is the lowest it could be or $40.00 which seems to be the highest it could be. I really hate to accept bank transfers because of this problem.

Lately, some of my customers in Germany have used a new way to tranfer money that seems to work good. Some German banks have Paypal accounts that they use to send their customers money to my Paypal account. That works good.

Bob Crites

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Lately, some of my customers in Germany have used a new way to tranfer money that seems to work good. Some German banks have Paypal accounts that they use to send their customers money to my Paypal account. That works good.

Bob Crites

Mr. BEC hit this one on the nose, pay pal is on the up and coming since E-Bay over here!!!! This would probably be the best solution.

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something about giving out my bank account number is making me feel light headed.


If you're selling stuff frequently, why not open another account just for receiving money? That way, no-one gets the number of your main account. Transfer out any deposits the day they arrive and leave only $5-10 in the account the rest of the time.
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  • 3 weeks later...

Just curious.....how much did you get for them? I'm in the market and wondering what the current value is. It seems that eBay pricing depends on earth's rotation, sea tide patterns and moon phase.

I'm not speaking for Fritz but I just had a 2102 on ebay and the bidding got to $3701. My reserve was $4,000 so they missed it by $299.

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I started at 3750 . This is the price most dealers sell used MC-2102's at.

I also had a price with out tubes. 3350 with out the tubes. some folks have their own. The tubes were new with less than 100 hrs. New cost for the tubes was 640 for the entire set from Mcintosh. So 2 sets are worth 1280.

So to answer your question I sold the amps at the with out tube price of 3350 each.

I have 2 sets of new tubes with less than 100 hrs which are worth 1280 remaining, which I'll probally keep since they are new. I'll use them in the 2 MC-2000's I have. The MC-2102 and MC-2000 uses the same tubes. There is an extra 12ax7 tube on the MC-2102 not used on the MC-2000.

Coytee, if you can get 3700 for your MC-2102, go for it. Most dealers have extra MC-2102's and MC-275's as a result of the amp trading program of last fall so the prices have dropped a few hundered.

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