"ag73" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

I've just ordered a Meade LX90 from a UK company (arrives tomorrow -
can't wait!) but I noticed that I'm paying almost twice the price of
the same scope bought in a US store. Obviously I would have needed to
pay expensive shipping costs if buying from the US but for a more
expensive scope this might be worth doing.

Does anyone have any experience of ordering scopes directly from the
US?

Thanks,

a href="http://www.andygrove.ws"Andy Grove/a
There have been thousands of threads about this in the past.
Your costs will be higher than you think. US price, + shipping (remember
you will want an insured service, and good packing as well), + duty (on
both the price and shipping), + VAT (again on everything so far) +
'customs clearance' fees etc..
Even with all this, there is a significant saving, especially on Meade
stuff, _but_ you will then find that the US dealers won't ship to the UK
(this is part of their 'agreement' with Meade), and you also have to
remember that your warranty on a US purchase will be to Meade in the US.
This makes any problems very expensive...
Most of the better scope manufacturers (AP, RC etc.), have no problems
supplying to the UK, but also will often have UK agents, whose 'mark-up'
is less exorbitant...

Best Wishes