The bargain website list for continental europeans

R

Royvedas

CAGiversary!
Yeah, you know what i'm talking 'bout - you think we live in an international world where everyones money is good and wanted by all retailers - but nooo - It's a strange world, and this list will help you get the overview.

The list contains of websites I've used or tried to use. And I will try to comment on the following. Lots of this could be wrong, and PLEEEASE correct me if I'm wrong - I really would like to know all about these sites - ESPECIALLY whether or not they are shipping out of Guersey/Jersey or the EU. I will comment on the sites on the following subjects:

- Will the site ship out of UK
- Will the site ship Hardware out of UK
- Is it Guernsey/Jersey based
- will it annoyingly Eurofy (=jag up) the prices for non-uk customers
- Shipping rates - included? flat? Strange? Low? High?
- Does the site have one, a few or a shitload of annoying mirrors?

------------------
www.amazon.co.uk

- Site has almost everything in the world
- Site is EU based (no duty)
- Site makes you pay your natiaonal VAT rate
- Will ship all over Europe (I think)
- Won't Eurofy, but will try to Eurofy, Danify or whatever - usually the exchange rate is in Amazon's favor and not the customer, so just pay in £ - you have the option to do that.
- Generally expensive shipping
------------------
www.thehut.com

- Site is Guernsey Jersey based (duty risk)
- Flat rate shipping £0.99 on everything - even hardware
- WILL ship to Europe
- Probably has mirrors
- Even though it can show prices in Euro it doesn't force Eurofication
------------------
www.play.com

- Site is Guernsey/Jersey based (duty risk)
- Has lots of stuff
- Will Eurofy prices, making it somewhat more expensive
- Will not ship hardware to non-UK Europe
- Shipping prices are included
- Annoyingly Europrices are shown for non-buyably to non-UK Europeans products
- Impossible to get in contact with customer support
------------------
www.blahdvd.com

- Site is Guernsey/Jersey based (duty risk)
- Will not Eurofy prices
- Normally has £0.99 shipping on games, though recently it was £2.99 on Halo Wars???
- Rarely restocks when sold out.
- Has lots of lame "mirrors" (or is this a mirror?)
- Does not ship hardware to EU (non-UK)
------------------
www.zavvi.co.uk

- Site is Guernsey/Jersey based (duty risk)
- Will not Eurofy prices
- Shipping is included in prices
- Don't know if they ship hardware to EU (haven't tried, but probably not)
------------------
www.gameplay.co.uk

- Site is UK Mainland based (NO duty risk)
- Shipping is flat £2.95 for one game, two games, three games... etc. Cheap shipping if you for instance order 5 games at once.
- Will not ship hardware to EU (non-UK)
- Will not Eurofy prices
-------------------
www.game.co.uk

- Site is ? based (probably Guernsey/Jersey)
- Will not Eurofy
- Will not ship hardware (probably your DS, but I said HARDWARE)
- Don't remember shipping rates
- mirror: www.gamestation.co.uk
- beware they sell preowned stuff (I'm a "pre-owned" h8er)
------------------
www.simplygames.com
- Site is ? based (probably Guernsey/Jersey)
- Will not Eurofy
- WILL ship hardware to non-UK EU (at insanely high courier prices)
- Interestng hardware is rarely in stock
- Have no idea about game shipping rates
------------------
www.mymemory.co.uk

- Site is Guerney/Jersey based (duty risk)
- Will not Eurofy
- Shipping is included in prices
- Will ship everything to non-UK EU (I think)
------------------
www.shopto.net

- Site is ? based (probably Guersey/Jersey)
- WILL Eurofy
- WILL add evil shipping rates
- Will ship hardware to non-UK EU??
------------------
www.choicesuk.com

- Jersey/Guernsey?? Probably
- Will not Eurofy
- has a minimum £10 shipping rate to non-UK EU nowadays!!
- Most good offers are crapped by the above
------------------
www.hmv.com

- Site IS Guernsey/Jersey based (duty risk)
- Adds £2.49 per item (No matter what kind, I think)
- I believe they WILL ship almost everything to non-UK EU
------------------

I personally prefer to shop at
www.thehut.com
www.hmv.com
www.gameplay.co.uk
www.zavvi.co.uk (cause of recent GREAT offers, not much experience with this shop)

Comments are welcome!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Well I do know that MyMemory has free worldwide delivery on everything, says so right there on the site in the top-right. Only good deal I've seen from 'em is L4D though, which is never in stock.
 
great collection indeed
tnx fellow

i myself known/have direct exprerience with most of those sites
i could very well vote for thehut.com , gameplay.co.uk and the whole game* chain indeed

some clarification:

- is zavvi.co.uk shipping TO mainland EU with NO additional costs of sort?!?! (you say shipping is included in prices but i *assume* this is true only for standard UK delivery... m'right?)

- the memory* site could turn out interesting (stock picking of course, if i'm not going totally blind trying to decipher those MINUSCULE game covers over there....)

- what's up with "duty risk?" from Guernsey/Jersey/Channel islands?!?! i was sure there were no problems at all for customs (after all those are "fiscal paradises" for a motive, right?) - in my experience shipping from channel islands to Italy HAD NEVER incurred in any customs/duty check
 
Hi.

Thanks for the replies.

Bargain sites is probably the wrong term, but lets say "potential" bargain sites, based in the UK or pseudo-UK.

There IS a duty risk from the "fiscal paradises" (I love that term, thanks). Duty is probably the wrong term, I think it has something to do with VAT or something. In Denmark, for instance, if you order something with a value of over 80kr (app. £10] you will have to pay VAT (25%) (and administration fee of app. £20 (+25%)) if you get "selected". I guess this should apply to all countries in EU (except UK) versus Guernsey/Jersey, but I am not sure and I don't know whether or not it is enforced in other countries.

My experience is that one in 15-20 or so are "inspected". I did refuse to receive a package once, and the package was shipped back to www.play.com, who refunded me after receiving it. I then ordered the game again and it came nice and "unselected" to me.
 
Game.co.uk has a flat £2.99 shipping rate to Europe, no matter how many games you buy from them. Not sure where they're based, but I've always assumed they were right in the UK as I've never had to pay duty on an order from them, however this could just be due to luck on my part. All in all, I've been very satisfied with them because their prices are much lower than regular prices here in Denmark which are just plain jacked.
 
some corrections:
game.co.uk / gameplay.co.uk / gamestation.co.uk (all the same company) apply a flat shipping rate to europe of £2.95 (ok i'm anal)

about duty concerns: i'm from italy, i monitor daily an italian forum which focuses on "import gaming" from UK and play.com all the sites you have listed. NEVER (i mean really never) there was such a thing as customs inspection inbetween Gueernsay/Channel and Italy. So this could really be a specific thing with denmark (i can guess maybe the particular geographical position play a role here...).

as far as i know intra-EU trading is CUSTOMS FREE (it's a free market zone after all...)

so i ask again: is zavvi.co.uk sending to EU with NO ADDITIONAL COSTS? would be awesome
 
BUT Guernsey/Jersey is NOT a part of EU even though they are part of Great Britain. It seems kinda ridiculous but I believe this is how it is.

I believe zavvi is shipping to EU without additional cost. I just ordered a game and no extra shipping charge was applied.

I will probably edit the list soon with corrections received in this thread.
 
Regarding zavvi/thehut - I kind of figured actually. I did see some of the website activity on zavvi was calling "thehut". I don't regard it as a true mirror. Different prices, different shipping etc.
 
some mates in italy DO CONFIRM that zavvi.co.uk is actually shipping to continental EU without any additionla cost!!! This makes a prime time for continental caggers: SAME price as UK fellows!

HURRA FOR ZAVVI (let's hope this aint no glitch....)
 
Did your friends say how long it took to receive their orders from zavvi.co.uk? Was it in the 3-5 day range or was it like the website says: "For deliveries outside the UK remember to add postage time (15 working days) to obtain a complete estimate of when you can expect your item to be delivered."?

If the shipping is quick, I'll definitely be willing to give them a try.
 
I have one correction myself. I ordered Bioshock for ps3 for £8.95 a week ago or something and no additional postage charge were added. Yesterday I ordered Robocop trilogy on dvd (Yes I'm THAT old) and a www.thehut.com-style £0.99 was added. The no additional postage was probably a mistake, which sadly has been corrected.
 
[quote name='Royvedas']I have one correction myself. I ordered Bioshock for ps3 for £8.95 a week ago or something and no additional postage charge were added. Yesterday I ordered Robocop trilogy on dvd (Yes I'm THAT old) and a www.thehut.com-style £0.99 was added. The no additional postage was probably a mistake, which sadly has been corrected.[/QUOTE]

well, i feared it was a mistake. They always advertised "Free UK shipping" and nothing else. Would have made sense to tell everybody a EU free shipping practice, wont you think?

well, so we have zavvi/thehut combo, as much as gameplay/gamestation/game does.
Just keep track of it all, a monitor a map to follow our DEALS
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top