Hi All!
First time poster, long time lurker. I was wondering if anyone has any experience ordering copies of the hard cover books from South East Asia, specifically the Philippines. I've made a similar post on reddit, hoping to find more information.
To start off, I've been enjoying eclipse phase immensely. I've read through the books from Rob Boyle's site and Eclipse Phase has been instrumental in jump-starting my interest in science fiction once again after a long reading hiatus. The thought of purchasing the hard covers has been nagging me constantly recently as I feel the authors have created a product that I would be happy to put my money into. Unfortunately, I have been warned by close family and associates to be prepared to pay at least double a single book's price, possibly even more, if I order copies through Amazon, not due to shipping, but because of customs taxes here in the Philippines.
I'm really interested in getting the Core Rulebook, Transhuman, and The Morph Recognition Guide first.
The alternative way of giving back to Post-human studios that I could think of is to purchase the pdfs then have them printed and hardbound locally. While it could be potentially cheaper than ordering the hard cover books as it circumvents the need to pay an almost arbitrary customs tax (They don't have specific tariffs for books that I know of), it's not as personally satisfying as actually owning the product.
Hope someone here can help me out or give advice.
Edit: Grammar and Spelling
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Experience Purchasing Eclipse Phase Hard Covers from SEA
Mon, 2014-11-17 23:45
#1
theanorak
Experience Purchasing Eclipse Phase Hard Covers from SEA
Fri, 2015-01-23 23:26
#2
Justin In Oz
Australia
I have bought my books into Australia through www.bookfinder.com I have found it pretty useful and it includes the postage costs in all the book prices and ranks them in two lists, used and new, from least expensive to most expensive.
I have found it very helpful in getting a hold of the hardbacks at good prices.
Tue, 2015-01-27 03:38
#3
Lorsa
Would it be possible to
Would it be possible to circumvent these taxes by having someone else buy the product in another country and then send to you personally as a package?
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Tue, 2015-01-27 05:27
#4
Justin In Oz
Tax Advice
Tax advice is very specific to each country. It sounds pretty strange to me that book imports would attract such a high tax.
Have you bought overseas books before? Or are you going only on the advice of the relative?
The book finder site I mentioned, rarely has Amazon as the least expensive. So maybe that is a better option.
If I were you, I would start out by buying the main book. If you get stung, then try buying the pdfs and get them bound locally.
Wed, 2015-02-04 20:24
#5
theanorak
Wow, it's been a while and I
Wow, it's been a while and I've actually purchased the core book and transhuman as of now and highly enjoying the feel of dead trees beneath my fingertips. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a copy of the Morph Recognition Guide as it was sold out on Amazon at that time.
To give an update, I ended up going with a third party carrier that sends orders from multiple individuals in consolidated packages which helps drive down the customs tax since the packages don't get appraised individually. I paid a little extra to get the books, have had them for at least a month and a half now (Just in time for the holidays), but I still think it was worth it. The price I had to pay didn't end up more expensive than the products I bought and was actually pretty close to the price a LGS would be selling the books if they had them in stock. I remember purchasing the core book for d20 modern back in 2005 or 2006 and had to pay the equivalent of $50 for it at that time. This time around I ended up paying around $40-45 dollars per book including tax and shipping & handling expense. Good thing the books were on sale on Amazon and there was an option for free shipping. I only ended up having to pay shipping and handling directly for the third party courier. I ran Continuity with a couple of friends a couple of weeks back and having the book there for players without access to a laptop or tablet was a great help as everyone still had access to what they need.
@Lorsa
That's how I used to get my books before but my friends and family would bring them in as hand-carry luggage. I also usually went on a book shopping spree whenever I found myself outside the country. Having a package sent that has to go through a non-private courier service has always had a reputation for being...unreliable.
@Justin in Oz
Someone at the post office or at the port could easily reclassify the package as a different type of good (luxury), could ask for something extra to release the package, etc... It's not really fair that it could happen and technically you could complain about it both formally and informally but in the end everyone I talked to agreed that it's more trouble (both time and financially) than it's worth.
I was thinking about buying the pdfs then having a physical copy made as an alternate option but I'm glad it didn't have to come to that. I plan to buy the splatbooks as pdfs soon though. The next physical book I might buy would be the MRG and if an argonaut splatbook ever comes out I'm totally getting that as soon as I can.