Ordinarily, I'd be able to help via my in-laws who do the same for me, but with the UK being COVID-ridden I don't want them anywhere near a post office (or out of their house, basically). Unfortunately I still have numerous books stranded in the UK with no end in sight.

Stu, I totally understand.

Trotter, thanks for the help!

Can you not just randomly pick a UK address; a business address for example? I've got a US address on my Amazon.us account (for some purpose unclear to me now...) as "Miskatonic University, Providence"!

That is a good point, but I wanted an address I knew just in case the seller accidentally sent the book to the UK address by mistake. I could at least still get the book. That was my thinking...

Count me in as : [1] Very interested and would be a supporter.

I can help or relay from France

Not sure if this needs a separate topic (probably), but thought I would put these sorts of bits of news here for the time being.

The bookseller Waterstones has [...] suspended sales to customers in EU countries.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2 ... ts-over-brexit-smallprint

I don't have a subscription to The Bookseller (paywall) but the first few paragraphs are readable for free.

Border delays and Brexit red tape are hitting the industry, with Waterstones suspending European deliveries and Blackwell's facing issues with goods coming into the UK.

Waterstones has paused making deliveries to the continent and customers making orders through its website are unable to choose a delivery to European countries. The company has been affected by its European delivery partner Royal Mail suspending all deliveries to mainland Europe, Canada and Turkey on 21st December.

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/bor ... upply-chain-chaos-1232541

There are already non-UK located books being listed on eBay.co.uk quoting prices (or current price) "plus VAT". Books don't incur VAT in the UK, so it's unclear whether this is in error or just the sellers covering themselves because new shipping requirements for businessess aren't clear. Which isn't surprising if huge companies don't understand the regulations.

Just

Khamûl wrote:

There are already non-UK located book being listed on eBay.co.uk quoting prices (or current price) "plus VAT". Books don't incur VAT in the UK, so it's unclear whether this is in error or just the sellers covering themselves because new shipping requirements for businessess aren't clear. Which isn't surprising if huge companies don't understand the regulations.

Not sure about eBay but I ordered Unfinished Tales Deluxe from Blackwell for 73€ (included shipping to Italy) on December 26th. Unfortunately they shipped the book in the first days of January and I've been asked to pay 32,74€ of taxes which is really a lot.

That's terrible news for any collector not based on the UK, I think I will limit purchases from now on.

EDIT: IIRC VAT was like 16€ plus another 16€ of other taxes.

I suppose you can only really look at your own country & what the rules are about exporting in from a so-called third country. With VAT in the UK the issue is, I believe, that the UK thinks sellers will register to set up collecting the VAT at their (country of origin) end for the UK. Which is basically nonsense. Foreign sellers have never previously done this e.g. US sellers. And, with books, this is because the custom declaration should (honestly) state "books", and most printed matter incurs 0% VAT. So these sellers will be potentially charging (the buyer), collecting, and paying (to UK authorities) VAT on non-applicable items. Unless of course VAT on books has changed I have no clue what I'm talking about...