Mercian website
 

Just ordered a few things from the Mercian cycles website in England. Was surprised to see the eclectic array of NOS vintage parts in their store! Where else can you find new Milremo and Normandy high flange hubs, cool old head badges, silca pump heads, campy derailleur parts galore, etc etc for reasonable prices and not bad shipping? Now to see how long it takes to cross the pond!

Thanks for the tip! I had not seen their parts selection (only looked for a paint job). When I order from England, the item is usually at Port Authority in 4-5 days. It usually spends another 3-4 days there, waiting to get sorted.

I ordered some tires from England back during pandemic, darn things got here faster than any ups/usps stuff I was ordering (just before Christmas)!

I order most of my tires from Chainreaction Cycles and it always arrives pretty quickly.

Mercian Shop
 

In the early 90’s I stopped in the Mercian retail store in Derby, IIRC. It was a typical very
British establishment. When you order parts overseas, or even from Canada, do you
have to pay a customs charge? If so, does someone contact you and you just give them
a charge card? Thanks, Bill

[QUOTE=BillRS22;22787932]In the early 90’s I stopped in the Mercian retail store in Derby, IIRC. It was a typical very
British establishment. When you order parts overseas, or even from Canada, do you
have to pay a customs charge? If so, does someone contact you and you just give them
a charge card? Thanks, Bill[/QUOTE

never been charged for anything coming from England, France, Poland, China, or Japan. Not sure why or why not,,,

I ordered a wood-rim steering wheel for a Jaguar from Britain. US Customs did want an import tariff collected. UPS paid it and billed me. Had I not paid promptly, perhaps they would have delayed delivery? It all ended well enough, as I recall the tariff was 10 or 11 percent of he product value before shipping.

Import duties and customs requirements are a complicated subject that I claim no expertise in. A web search gave me a few useful FYIs:


1) https://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-impo...rnet-purchases


2) Per #1 above, which I've seen repeated elsewhere, permitted items under $800 are usually exempt from import duties. Also per #1 above, permitted items between $800 to $2000 in value are subject to informal entry. Customs & Border Patrol will assess the duties and apply a processing fee. You can pay the fees thru the shipping service (i.e., USPS, UPS, DHL).


3) Also per #1 above, for anything higher than $2000 in value, a formal entry is required. This requires specific paperwork. CBP suggests a customs broker, or you can file the paperwork yourself.


All of my internet bike shop purchases have been well below the $800 threshold, and my items were delivered promptly. Purchases from the UK were shipped by British post, then handed off to USPS for final delivery. Other international purchases were shipped by DHL, and then handed off to USPS. No duties were collected.

This makes sense to me for stuff coming into the US from abroad.