Buying Film Abroad

[timparkin]

I hate to do this to UK retailers but...

I just bought the following from Badger Graphic in the US

1 Portra 400 8x10 sheet film
3 Portra 400 4x5 sheet film
1 Provia 100 4x5 sheet film
1 Portra 160 4x5 sheet film

The total cost was $302 which is equivalent to £181.02 - I paid £44.51 duties etc to make a total of £225.53

I just put the same in my basket in a couple of other places in the UK and the average total price was £370 !!!

Just a comparison between the 8x10 sheet film which is £73 in the US (I've added import to get that figure) but in the UK it's £160 for the same box of film!!

That's a increase of 120% over the US price....

For Fuji Velvia, the US price including import duty is £35.88 whereas the equivalent price from the UK is between £50 and £60 - not as much difference as the 10x8 but enough to make it a serious option.

I knew buying abroad was cheaper but not by that much!!

Tim

[IanG]

I started a similar thread on APUG regarding Ilfords pricing, Simon Galley replied stating it was market forces but I had no further reply when I suggested that Ilford's Directors should discuss the poor treatment of UK/EU customers who seem to subsidise the US customers.

It's a very unfair uncompetitive playing field and stinks, it's all companies though not just Ilford.

Ian

[timparkin]

I started a similar thread on APUG regarding Ilfords pricing, Simon Galley replied stating it was market forces

"Market Forces" == "We charge what we can get away for our shareholders"

In the wonderful capitalist system we live in, the directors can be sacked for making decisions are seen as harming the bottom line. Choosing to charge less for a product is just that sort of harmful decision and so they have a legal obligation to charge as much as they can unless they can prove that charging less will make them more money (either now or in the short term future). However the market will be mostly inelastic and probably not heavily price sensitive (people generally won't buy more film because it's cheaper) and so ....

It's not quite as bad as I make out here but how close I don't know...

Tim

[AbsolutelyN]

I recently imported 300 sheets of 5x4 Portra 400NC. It worked out at approximately £1.70 per sheet after taxes which is about half the UK price. It's a no brainer, assuming you are buying a reasonable amount of film. Tristan

[Trail Images]

Tim, good to see your recent post with regard to film purchases through Badger here in the states. It was not too long ago I was struggling to find any outlets with Velvia 50 in 4x5 size here locally beyond some older 10 sheet boxes off eBay USA. However, although many vendors here are still not up to date with the later boxes and current expiration dates, Badger does have the newer 20 sheet boxes being sold with current dating. Since that time I've bought several boxes of the V-50 from them.

[Paul Morton]

Hi Tim, I don't have a problem with buying film from abroad. Last month I ordered 100 sheets of Astia from the US, and some 120 film from Thailand the delivery times was within a week and the cost was a no brainer. It could be worth every six months a group of us placing 1 bulk order of film rather than lost of individuals paying separate shipping costs. Put the order in a few weeks prior to a LF get-together and split the order then - just an idea.

Cheers Paul