Shavers in areas of difficult supply

Hi

A short description of my issue follows. I'm curious if others have similar issues, and if/how they got around it.

I live in Norway and live close to (and work in) the capital, which is also our largest. Normally I'd think the larger the city, the easier to find any given niche store.

Now, I have not been able to find one decent place that sells traditional shaving supplies here. There was a perfumerie some years ago that had an extremely limited selection, but they discontinued that. There is a couple of web sites that sell this stuff, but the selection is a bit limited, but they carry most of the major brands.

So, one turns to web stores in other parts of the world.

I recently ordered from Bullgoose shaving. The goods were shipped in no time, with no complaints on my part.

Now for the rub. My order was about 190$, shipping an additional 30 ish$. For any goods above 34$(aprox) I have to pay VAT (25%) when they clear customs. And they take a fee for that as well. So my 190$ purchase ended up costing me a total of 330$( again aprox). So even if I only order within the 34$ limit, shipping will cost me almost as much as the goods, in the worst scenario.

If I only stick with what I can order from domestic web sites I cannot get hold of most blade types, a ton of soaps and creams, brushes etc. And it makes me feel robbed and cheated, half ye fun of shaving is the discovery of a magnificent soap, the proper blade or the extraordinary brush.

So, any fellow sufferers out there with some good ideas or suggestions?

Have you looked at http://www.shaving.ie/

Do you pay VAT for goods coming from the EU, since Norway is in the EEA? Otherwise, there are some excellent vendors in Ireland, the UK, The Netherlands, Germany, and Spain.

In the shopping section, I could find 2 shops (web) located in Norway. You probably already know them but since you didn't write the ones you know, here's a list

hope this helps: http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Norway_Shaving_supplies

Is there a customs inspection on incoming post? Perhaps someone outside Norway could simply mail what you need.

Wet shaving supplies supplies may be in short supply but this is also true.

Wow. Sorry to hear about your dilemma. That's a pain in the neck. Hope you get it working better.

Eeyore said:

Do you pay VAT for goods coming from the EU, since Norway is in the EEA? Otherwise, there are some excellent vendors in Ireland, the UK, The Netherlands, Germany, and Spain.

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@pebcak

You know, come to think of it I recall that there are some special rules to VAT from eea members. And that would apply to most any webshops in europe. I'll definitely have to study up on that.

@GlennConti
And yes, I'd not trade access to shaving supplies for living in Norway. We have it better here than many of us seem to realise.

@Luc
Yes, I've been through those Sadly Fitjar has been out of stock for a while, and I recently found out this is because they are closing shop. They are making money like nobodys business, but new EU regulations are making life hard for them. And I never even got to try their soaps.

@sub vet
Yep, they inspect next to all packages. The odd one might slip through, but they are thorough...

Thanks to all for replying. This is part of what makes this community so great.

Cheers

Value added of 25%. Is that considered a last step VAT or is someone trying to capture the whole supply chain? Sorry to divert, but I get upset at the notion of some fixed % Value being added just because a good is now considered finished or got advanced to some intermediate level of finish.

On a more constructive note does it matter if the item was used? Meaning what if your new fancy razor, brush, and soap was first sent to someone in the US for a series of photo ops or smell test, so that they were no longer brand new? Would that diminish their value or avoid VAT.

As a quick follow up, changing Font size in the settings panel did affect the Font size in the Gmail application. Now I see really large text. So as a cynic would expect, within Android things are not consistent. It is up to each individual application to use the common setting or not. Over time consistency has improved, but it is not nearly to the level as iOS.

StillShaving said:

On a more constructive note does it matter if the item was used? Meaning what if your new fancy razor, brush, and soap was first sent to someone in the US for a series of photo ops or smell test, so that they were no longer brand new? Would that diminish their value or avoid VAT.

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Good idea, but at least in the EU (and probably also in the EEA) tax authorities are too clever for that. You pay VAT on all imported goods, even if they're say 50 years old.

The system does not feel fair (also the tax regime on used cars), but the reality is that governments find it easier to collect money than to stop spending. So if the VAT system gets fairer, something else will have to give.

In general shipping from a country closer may be cheaper. Places like Connaught Shaving have good shipping rates, so you may be able to get what you want below your cap without a killer shipping rate.

Shipping to Norway is getting incresingly difficult oddly enough. Half the stuff i find on ebay dont ship to norway, and the cost is often inflated beyond reason. One must reckon that most goods will double in price before you have them in hand. When that is said, there are times when things slip throug without the added VAT and toll.

Oh, I forgot. Fellow Norwegian shaver here. Barbershop.no has quite a good selection, and if you visit the store at grunerløkka there should be something to be found.

I've sometimes found soaps and cremes in the oddest places. Home and cottage had some soap and a brush at least.

StAndre

StillShaving said:

Value added of 25%. Is that considered a last step VAT or is someone trying to capture the whole supply chain? Sorry to divert, but I get upset at the notion of some fixed % Value being added just because a good is now considered finished or got advanced to some intermediate level of finish.

On a more constructive note does it matter if the item was used? Meaning what if your new fancy razor, brush, and soap was first sent to someone in the US for a series of photo ops or smell test, so that they were no longer brand new? Would that diminish their value or avoid VAT.

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25% is just what the VAT is here. Once it crosses the border for the first time, you have to pony up the cash.

I'll probably try to limit myself to european webshops when possible, to cut down on shipping as suggested, but the whole thing really is ridiculous.

I've ordered from barbershop a few times, but there's a lot of things they don't have.

Do you travel? If so you could get products abroad and bring them back as personal luggage. You could also send money to members in other countries via western union or similar service, they could buy the products have them shipped to them, rebox them and send them to you as a gift.

Aqua Velva man said:

Do you travel? If so you could get products abroad and bring them back as personal luggage. You could also send money to members in other countries via western union or similar service, they could buy the products have them shipped to them, rebox them and send them to you as a gift.

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As long as the gift isn't worth more than ca 34usd

Back in the day I used to play football with some of the marines stationed at the embassy. Back then at least those guys could ship in pretty much what they wanted without it beeing anybody elses business. That could've worked, so if anybody has that kind of connections...

I've used Amazon and Ebay in the past. I have also been extremely fortunate to win some PIFs in the past as well.

It can be discouraging to be in a country where wet shaving isn't the norm.

xserror said:

As long as the gift isn't worth more than ca 34usd

Back in the day I used to play football with some of the marines stationed at the embassy. Back then at least those guys could ship in pretty much what they wanted without it beeing anybody elses business. That could've worked, so if anybody has that kind of connections...

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When I was on MSG duty we could get anything sent to us that was legal to be sent through the mail and we didn't have to pay any kind of tax or import fees because the embassy is considered sovereign US soil the same as if it was in Texas.

Who determines the value, if it is just what you declare it to be worth then you are good. I would have lots of next to worthless stuff packed into my bag, all of it together is worth exactly $33.

Aqua Velva man said:

When I was on MSG duty we could get anything sent to us that was legal to be sent through the mail and we didn't have to pay any kind of tax or import fees because the embassy is considered sovereign US soil the same as if it was in Texas.

Who determines the value, if it is just what you declare it to be worth then you are good. I would have lots of next to worthless stuff packed into my bag, all of it together is worth exactly $33.

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Yeah, that's what I was thinking about, embassy mail. I'm not sure how much attention the customs officers gives to packages between individuals, they are thorough, and if they deem the value at something more than declared, VAT is slapped on. But it might be worth a shot having my u.s. friends ship some stuff if I can whittle down shipping cost as well.

xserror said:

Yeah, that's what I was thinking about, embassy mail. I'm not sure how much attention the customs officers gives to packages between individuals, they are thorough, and if they deem the value at something more than declared, VAT is slapped on. But it might be worth a shot having my u.s. friends ship some stuff if I can whittle down shipping cost as well.

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You could always have them put a generic garage sale price tag on it for 99 cents $1.99 or something like that. For razors ask them to use them a few times and/or ship it missing a part that they can ship separately. If it looks new and shiny it must be more valuable, if it looks worthless, they will probably think you got ripped off. You want everything to look used like you got it at a thrift shop, price tag and all. You want them to not even have to think about it, and unless they are wet shavers (which is apparently not very common there) they won't know the difference. The general rule of thumb is if it looks good it is good.