Monetary moan

[ubervamp]

With the recent devaluation of the Norwegian Krone, the exchange rate is now 20% (!) less to the British pound, than just a year ago.
Also, in their infinite wisdom, the government has decided to raise the non-taxable value limit on imported items from £20 to £30, but have at the same time decided that postage is now to be included in the total sum to be considered taxable!

To illustrate:

A £60 badge a year ago would today cost me the equivalent of £72 (with the devaluation) + postage £10 (intl signed for), + taxes of 25% (£20 +), handling charge of £20 giving me a total of £122. Phew.

It is actually cheaper for me to drive to the airport, get a Ryanair flight to London, purchase the badge in question, and travel home the same day, than to get it sent via mail!

Are Greek badges any good?

Colin

[ubervamp]

Also, to add to my woes, I had a book for sale on EBay and had set the reserve to £1000, with a starting bid of £100. I was very surprised when it sold for £400! I rang ebay customer service who could find no record of a reserve price, and advised me to contact the buyer, and explain that there was a reserve, but ebay had messed up. Alternatively, I could just refuse to send the item, and the worst that would happen, they said, would be a negative feedback from the potential buyer. And also, they said, give us a call in the future when you set a reserve so we may verify that it's been registered! For their disservice they charged me £32. And then paypal took their bit.

Obviously, I'm going to respect the auction and the buyer, and let it go for the winning bid. But am thoroughly disillusioned with ebay and their handling of this matter.

Moan over.

[elgee45]

Colin, why don't you contact Angela Merkel and see if she can design some sort of austerity plan for you.

The Oz dollar is also at rock bottom these days . . . Tax threshold wise we're still OK, but a rapacious government has smaller overseas purchases in its sights.

Anyway, cheer up . . .

Lawrence

[ubervamp]

The upside, of course, is that I can now justify buying trips to England ☺

Cheers

Colin

[Mike]

How far are you from the border? can you not get a po box in Sweden?

[Mike]

Norway should join the EU proper. It would be nice to have two solvent countries in there instead of just Germany.

[ubervamp]

Originally Posted by Mike

How far are you from the border? can you not get a po box in Sweden?

Mike

I'm only a 90 minute drive away from the Swedish border, so that's actually worth considering! ☺
I could get my Volvo serviced at the same time ☺

Not touching their beer, though

Colin

[muskey]

Hi Colin
I completely understand your woes. right now our Canadian dollar is trading at $0.78 to 1 US dollar, and the exchange rate varies from place to place and even from bank to bank. My biggest problem is the people that live here in Canada and are flogging items on EBay in American dollars, and then adding tax at 13% on top of it. I am starting to think of contacting my ex son-in law. and getting hin to buy the stuff for me, and when my grand daughter goes to visit him, I will get the items then from him.

Len

[Pylon1357]

Originally Posted by muskey

Hi Colin
I completely understand your woes. right now our Canadian dollar is trading at $0.78 to 1 US dollar, and the exchange rate varies from place to place and even from bank to bank. My biggest problem is the people that live here in Canada and are flogging items on EBay in American dollars, and then adding tax at 13% on top of it. I am starting to think of contacting my ex son-in law. and getting hin to buy the stuff for me, and when my grand daughter goes to visit him, I will get the items then from him.

Len

Muskey, I feel your pain. Lucky for me I have backed off on my eBay purchases. What I have been doing lately is contacting some of the dealers I know in eBay and doing the deals off eBay. Not very nice for some others, but honestly, I am at the point where I don't really give a rats behind. Lets face it, things have gone just ridiculous and I do what I have to so I can add things to my collection.

Please note; I don't actively collect badges anymore. But back to my medal roots.

[ubervamp]

Originally Posted by muskey

Hi Colin
I completely understand your woes. right now our Canadian dollar is trading at $0.78 to 1 US dollar, and the exchange rate varies from place to place and even from bank to bank. My biggest problem is the people that live here in Canada and are flogging items on EBay in American dollars, and then adding tax at 13% on top of it. I am starting to think of contacting my ex son-in law. and getting hin to buy the stuff for me, and when my grand daughter goes to visit him, I will get the items then from him.

Len

Hi Len

Luckily there are some very kind members on here who have been very helpful when it came to obtaining certain items And also several sellers are in fact Forum members, and that helps keep costs down on some items!
You guys rock!

In the meantime, I think I'll just have to wait for particular bargains to show up, and hope the currency issue balances itself out soon. Though with oil prices plummeting, and a property market out of control, I can't see that happening anytime soon.

Cheers

Colin