Best place to buy a JPN PS2 in the UK?

[~Kid Icarus~]

Hi, well now Ibara is getting a PS2 port, it's clearly time for me to bite the bullet and buy a JPN PS2. Living in the UK, I'm not sure where the best place to buy one is. I could import from Play-Asia but won't I get hammered for import tax?

Would be grateful for any recomendations.

Cheers

Mike

[Super Laydock]

Hi, well now Ibara is getting a PS2 port, it's clearly time for me to bite the bullet and buy a JPN PS2. Living in the UK, I'm not sure where the best place to buy one is. I could import from Play-Asia but won't I get hammered for import tax?

Yes you'll be charged import taxes. But remember that shops selling new Japanese PS2's in the UK had to pay those taxes too and they'll pass the costs to you, the buyer*. Also they probably want to make some profit on it on top of the price (+ taxes).

So buying from PA or LS might be a good option after all
If you can't be bother with Japanese DVD playback you could also go for
an Asian PS2. It will play the JP games out of the box and is usually quite cheaper (10's of $).

Just my 2 cents though.



*they may get lower import tax levels, due to being a company and possibly buying in bulk though.

[Kiken]

Well, what's cheaper? Paying the inflated UK price for the console to order one domesticly or paying import taxes on a cheaper unit purchased from the US/Japan/Asia?

VGI currently have a new boxed midnight blue Japanese PS2 for 240 GBP (after VAT).

[freddiebamboo]

Definitely cheaper buying straight from playasia. £150 for the console and delivery, then at the most I would say £50-60 Tax (just a guess here, others know how to calculate it).

You can sometimes avoid the tax - just the luck of the draw really. I've been hit the last 3 playasia orders with varying types of delivery, but when I ordered my pstwo a while back I didn't get taxed anything.

[theevilfunkster]

Dont yesasia.com get round the import taxes by shipping their stuff to their UK base first and thn onto the customers, or something like that?

They currently have black and silver PS2s for £127.97.

Does anyone know which model PS2 wont play some games and which games they are?

[judesalmon]

Yesasia repackage their stuff in Germany so when it arrives in the UK it says shipped from Germany, and of course there is no import duty on items shipped from within the EU.

Their delivery is free, but a little slower, so if you're ordering online they'd be the best.

If you want an actual shop in the UK, try the Video Game Centre in Bournemouth, Tel: 01202 527314. I use them all the time and have been happy with the service.

[~Kid Icarus~]

Guys, many many thanks for the replies. I'll look into either buying from Play asia or Yes asia (never heard of it though!) Play Asia have always been great delivering my games, so I might go with them.


Cheers

Mike