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Buying US Pinballs

A

Aladeran

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Since my decision to move back to Canada next year, I gained an interest in US pinball prices. The savings will be substantial enough to justify a trip down south.

While looking at the potential discounts in comparison to UK prices, I was wondering if they would be high enough to cover the costs of importing one or more pinball to the UK.

As an example, I found a Mandalorian Premium that was advertised for £6500. I saw the same model in the UK going for around £9500. This is a saving of £2K to £3K, and that is just for one pinball!

I read that one of the UK businesses offer a spot in their US to UK container for £150ish. Has someone done the maths, to see if it is worth the red tape and additional costs?
 
It's been discussed here before, if I remember correctly the consensus was it's not really worth it unless the machine is rare/unobtanium. Don't forget there is 20% VAT to add to the price at a minimum.

Then the Stern machines have a region lock which measures the AC frequency and the machine won't work unless you hack that.
 

Importing USA pins into the UK

Hello Folks, with @Neil McRae finding his X-Men Magneto in the USA it has got me wondering what is involved in converting a USA pin to a UK pin. Is it expensive ? Does it vary between Manufacturers ? Would you go to these measures ? Please let me know your thoughts
www.pinballinfo.com www.pinballinfo.com

Importing a machine from the USA

Hi folks has anyone imported a single machine from the usa? I’m guessing yes , I have no real knowledge on the subject but would like to hear any stories of how you go about it and costs thank
www.pinballinfo.com www.pinballinfo.com
 
Fubar said:
It's been discussed here before, if I remember correctly the consensus was it's not really worth it unless the machine is rare/unobtanium. Don't forget there is 20% VAT to add to the price at a minimum.
Click to expand...

And that 20% VAT doesn't just apply to the machine - it applies to the shipping costs too!
 
Usually its something like 10% duty on the cab and postage cost and then 20% VAT on the cab and shipping and duty.

It works out to multiplying the price including shipping by 1.32

So for a £5000 cab including shipping as an example would be looking at the following

Cab Shipped £5000
10% Duty £500
-------------
Total £5500
20% VAT £1100
-------------
Total £6600

And then youve got to convert it to 240v or try and run it through a stepdown.
 
Fubar said:
It's been discussed here before, if I remember correctly the consensus was it's not really worth it unless the machine is rare/unobtanium. Don't forget there is 20% VAT to add to the price at a minimum.

Then the Stern machines have a region lock which measures the AC frequency and the machine won't work unless you hack that.
Click to expand...
I believe the 50Hz games will work in either 50 or 60Hz countries.

David
 
Better selling the machines here for a higher price then buying the same over there cheaper with money left over for another one. A lot less hassle than trying to ship them over there.
 
by the time youve shipped it imported it paid the vat and 3 lots of shipping fees and maybe storage fees then converted to 230v and fixed the 60-50hz issue, you will probably be out of pocket. resale value in uk will be less than a pukker uk version.
 
USA new stern like Mando won't work here anyway as it's region locked.
Ages ago I flew in an AC/DC And Met and back then there was a little board hack to change it ; if it was possible to import new USA stern games I for one would have been doing it all the time :)
Also depends how big your kahoonas are as far as the VAT goes and if your up for the gamble.
Must admit it was a bit of a rush all those years ago
 
Tombyrne said:
Yes, but they are 110 volts
Click to expand...
It is easy to change the game to accept a different voltage. Stern brought in 50Hz check to stop US games being shipped to Europe but they didn't care about the other way.

David
 
Will said:
USA new stern like Mando won't work here anyway as it's region locked.
Ages ago I flew in an AC/DC And Met and back then there was a little board hack to change it ; if it was possible to import new USA stern games I for one would have been doing it all the time :)
Also depends how big your kahoonas are as far as the VAT goes and if your up for the gamble.
Must admit it was a bit of a rush all those years ago
Click to expand...
If I legitimately buy a new pinball in the EU and move to Canada with it, would Stern help me with this region lock?
 
Aladeran said:
If I legitimately buy a new pinball in the EU and move to Canada with it, would Stern help me with this region lock?
Click to expand...
Is this a rhetorical question? It would seem like madness buying a new Pin in the EU and taking it with you to Canada, unless it is ultra rare or you bought it ultra cheap.
 
One assumes you are moving to Canada permanently and won’t have to pay Canadian duty when you import the pin.
It might depend on how long you owned the pin before import, but looks like Canadian duty and taxes are 12-15% otherwise.
With VAT at 20-22% in Europe wouldn’t it be cheaper to buy new in Canada?
There is a fairly steady trade of 90’s Bally Williams games going from Europe to the USA, Australia etc so the economics for that must stack up, but I have not heard of people doing this for new Stern games. And if it was feasible Stern would region lock to protect their North American distributors.
 
7oxford said:
One assumes you are moving to Canada permanently and won’t have to pay Canadian duty when you import the pin.
It might depend on how long you owned the pin before import, but looks like Canadian duty and taxes are 12-15% otherwise.
With VAT at 20-22% in Europe wouldn’t it be cheaper to buy new in Canada?
There is a fairly steady trade of 90’s Bally Williams games going from Europe to the USA, Australia etc so the economics for that must stack up, but I have not heard of people doing this for new Stern games. And if it was feasible Stern would region lock to protect their North American distributors.
Click to expand...
I am a bit confused. I read in a few posts that there is a shortage of pinballs in Europe. It's often the reason I am given to justify higher prices in the UK.

I heard of US pinballs being imported to the UK by resellers, but not the other way around. Why would US resellers buy our expensive pinballs, when they have access to cheaper machines within the US?

Does that mean that US pinballs are actually more expensive then ours? I wish that we had the UK equivalent of Pinside to monitor real life prices, instead of hearsay or personal opinions about pricing.
 
the confusion is because it depends on the game. I could get $10K for my Nine Ball in the US but here maybe £4K in Europe maybe EU3K

There is a shortage of games globally. Stern haven't helped by lifting the price ceiling which means there is a new market opened up at the 5-6K space globally.

I imported my Xmen LE in 2020 it worked out a little bit less than what it would have cost here new. Had the same game came up for same a year later I would probably have had to spend 2-3K more for the game. I got it airfreighted would have been 300 quid less to stick it on a container.

I bought a new SAM CPU board and got the 220 conversion done - easy. I then sent my existing sam board to the distributor who sent it to stern to make 220V compatible and I have it as a spare (as I have 6 SAM games having spare seems reasonable).

on new Stern games with the the cost to swap the CPU board it is still cheaper to buy in the UK.

so in short:

"It depends" -

Neil.
 
Neil is correct. It depends… on the the era and often down to the game.
All new stern games have the same ex-manufacturer price. Difference between countries on retail price is largely driven by VAT. 22% in Europe vs 0-6% in the US. NIB games cost more in the UK and EU than the US.
Older games, say pre 2010, are usually sold by private sellers. No VAT. Price is dependent on appreciation/depreciation. Williams sold shiploads of games to Europe in the 90’s but circa around 2000 the market died. Demand is higher in the US and second hand games are often worth more there.
Pre-Covid I would say the UK had some of the cheapest 90’s Williams games world wide.
To import a game into the US, you will pay no duty/tax. This makes importing older second hand games from Europe attractive. Importing into Canada is about 12-15% tax so you need to factor that in.
Search the sold listings in this forum if you want to get some idea of UK prices.
 
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