Can UK items be ordered here in the US?

[Daggons Road]

I noticed many items on the UK web site that are not on the US site. Can these be ordered or do you have to import them yourself? Thanks, Bob

[96RAF]

Probably a question you could ask Customer Care.

 

I can't see why you can't order from the UK site but you may be paying in GBP not $US. You would also be liable for the import duty and taxes.

 

Have you tried searching a particular 'missing'Catalogue number on the US site to see if the products are there but behind a Chinese Wall as it were.

[Daggons Road]

Thanks RAF96. I did not ask customer service as with the covid-19 replies are slow at best. Items show up in the UK but expect not too many people over here want a Margate K8 van. I am 67 and fondly remember steam trains running around the south of England. Just purchased the 5MT 1:1 after close to 60 years away from the hobby. As a side note, I lived many years in Margate and remember driving past the Margate factory many times in the 60's. Oh, my family was RAF WW2 but I joined the Royal Signals.

Bob

[96RAF]

Thank you for your service Bob and those of your family.

I had a fairly easy 24 years in the RAF with few conflicts of endangerment.

I often worked with REME Specialist Teams in my subsequent Civilian Career. Top guys - they took good care of me in Kuwait after the Gulf Wars.

[HornbyinNC]

I've ordered from Hornby USA web-site many times and they offer excellent service.  

That's the good news.  Bad news is, no, not the entire catalogue is available.  The worst part is things sell-out in the UK and the USA, might never receive all the items they do list.  Another negative is cost.

Ordering from model shops in the U.K., is by far the best option.  Many shops offer VAT deduction and international shipping; as well as shop discounts and sales items are surely a bonus!!!  An item shown on the USA website at $200.00, can often be had for half that amount, if you shop around.

Hattons, in particular, has excellent shipping services at very reasonable cost for DHL.  Usually a two day ship to deliver, but on one occasion, I ordered Monday morning and box was on my doorstep Tuesday afternoon!

incidently, you CAN order from the Hornby UK site and they also deduct VAT, which does not get passed on by the US web-site.  Their service is also excellent, but not as fast, or inexpensive as Hatton's and other model shops.

[Chrissaf]

Just be aware that if you order anything from the UK shop that is mains powered. It will typically be 220-240 volts AC [although it might possibly have a wide input range that includes 110 volts to suit USA]. However regardless of AC input operating range it will have a UK spec 3 pin plug. Hornby do not take note of the shipping location and change the plug spec to suit the destination country. This is actually stated in the small print on some [but not all] of the relevant Hornby product pages.