Maybe we ought to start a little import/export business for you guys (and gals) down there. You're right - why pay the big bucks for stuff there that you can get for near nothing here when there's UPS? Find what you want on eBay, Paypal the $$ to someone up here and let them send it to you down there. Now I know that great ideas seldom come out of the clear blue quite like that, so what is it that I am I missing here?
You're probably not factoring in tha fact that UPS is somewhat unreliable and Fed Ex is expensive. And even if you did choose to go with UPS, it is not exactly cheap either. And you can't forget about the duty that has to be paid on the item at delivery. It really seems like it should be such a good idea but by the time you add in the shipping costs and the duty it can cost as much or close to what it would have cost to just by it there in the first place.
And it takes all the fun out of poking through other people's "stuff", that's what a yard sale is all about. :wink:
I haven't looked at shipping anything of my own to Mexico, but I know people that do, so the shipping problem can't be entirely unassailable (pricewise, although I can't really say anything about dependability) - and wasn't NAFTA supposed to beat the tariff thing? Plus, what we're shipping has a retail value of something near zero anyway. Something tells me that there's probably more than one way around this problem. That - is a different problem. Unless we pack and ship entire yard sales, you may have to be physically here for that. (....thinking.... how many complete yard sales might one pack into a standard size shipping container? ...Hmmmm Got to be at least a ten, twelve, probably more if it were all clothing and kitchen and no automotive. And we'll have to leave the sellers out of it too - OK to ship but too expensive to store) Seriously though - if there are things that you guys find ridiculously expensive there when they shouldn't be, maybe we ought to put together a couple of test cases just to see what happens.
If you think of something you don't need let me know. I'll go to a few yard sales see if I can find it and either find a mule or mule it myself to you next time I'm there (Aug or Sept). You are too much of an asset to Cancun, I'd hate to see you leave. The neighbor had a yard sale the other day, I almost bought a stuffed alligator for 2 bucks....l
I was just kidding guys. But I do miss yard sales. I miss finding treasures for such a small amount of money. In Mexico if I can find something funky they want a lot of money. Nothing here goes to waste, which makes yard sales kind of useless. A stuffed Alligator would be $200 usd here...
MartinV, $200! You better go back and get that stuffed alligator for $2 while you still can. (Take it to Cancun with you on the next trip and let it pay for one side of your flight!) ;-)
And many, many eBay sellers will not ship to Mexico at all. Curiously, people selling on ebay sites in Europe have fewer reservations about shipping to Mexico and in some cases charge less to do so than American vendors.
Think of it - a world without eBay - Clearly an underserved market. All you need in or near the States is a consolidator, preferably located in a state that borders Mexico, or an expat that lives on the Mexican side - so that the cargo drives across rather than flies, and then ships internally. For example, someone located San Diego and/or TJ - or any of the border maquiladoras (even better). Anybody thus located and interested should probably apply here, eh?
It's not that easy or simple. Here's an example. I just purchased a wheel for my car (another pothole victim). BMW in Cancun wanted 590 USD for the wheel. I found it in the States for 300 USD. The vendor would not ship to Mexico. I had it shipped to one of my sons who has a business in Florida. It cost 18 USD for UPS to ship it from Mass. to Fl. My son stripped the original paperwork and redeclared the value. It still cost 60 USD to ship to Mexico and bringing the wheel in over land instead of air did not obviate the impuestos. I'm still ahead, plus I got it quicker than the dealer could from Germany, but I'm not ahead by much. If there was a workable system for large packages it would already be in place. The local mail consolidator on Av Xpuhil that I use for all my mail hit me for 80 USD when I mistakenly ordered 4 paperback books and a couple of CDs from Amazon delivered through that address. I haven't made that mistake again. She had me dead to rights because it was in the terms of service that I signed. I was able to bargain the fee down a bit, but it was still unreasonable. And to hearken to another point Noautorizada raised; In spite of the complaining and costs, to me this is the best place in the world to live. I'm not even sure I want to change all of the things that are so "different" from what we gringos used to consider normal. It's better to adjust and just take notice and balance. Cancun always wins. I watch the sun rise over the ocean in the morning, swim in that ocean before breakfast and watch the sun set over the lagoon while sitting next to the pool in the evening. In between I mix with some of the most pleasant people I've ever met. I'm never in a hurry and my deadlines are my own. If there are some extra costs to live this way, it's fine by me.
