TargetTalk

Hi. I live in New York USA and am planning a trip to Austria next month. I'm planning to buy a Steyr LP10 from the Steyr factory office and bringing it back to New York. Now I called both the US Customs and the ATF and they both say that I should not have any problems bringing back an air pistol to New York. Call me paranoid but I wanted to find out if anybody else has done this and what your experience was. I was thinking that this would be a good opportunity to both save some money and tour the Steyr Sportwaffen factory office. Is this a good idea or am I looking for trouble when I come back from vacation?

I would appreciate any feedback on this matter.

Regards,
Ariel

Are you sure you'll be saving money? I've noticed that not everything is cheaper just because you buy it in the manufacturer's native country.

You also might want to check and see how the warrantee works. I don't know how it is with air pistols, but with cameras, if you don't buy them from the local US distributor, you can't get work at the US service centers.

I second the comments about cost and support. A few years ago I was spending a lot of time in Germany and found a good deal on an air pistol. Since then, the dollar has dropped which would have erased most of my savings. I had it sent here via parcel post (or their equivalent), instead of trying to carry it on a plane. It was delivered to my door a couple of weeks later. I assume there is no warranty on the pistol, but fortunately I have not had to find out.

Steve T

Call the airline you will be flying on, for any packing requirements.
Call the counsulate for the countries you will be carrying it, cuz you have to fly out going thru their security.

As was mentioned, some countries in Europe have VAT which can eat up any savings you may be thinking of. As I recall, in Germany the VAT was 16%.

gud luk
Gary

How about this....

Call up Scott Pilkington and ask him for info on visiting Austria, how to get to the Steyr plant, who you should ask for when you get there, etc, and while you're on the phone, read him your credit card number and HE will send you a brand new STEYR in your choice of black or Gold (maybe even silver?) with a FULL USA Warranty, great support, etc.... for another $100 or so he'll put a sleeve of pellets and a messa targets in the box with it!

THEN, when you get to Austria... you can introduce yourself with the words... "I just BOUGHT this really great pistol and wanted to see where it was built!"

Poole
http://arizona.rifleshooting.com/

I believe you can file to get VAT refunded back to you.

Many comments are right about costs in Europe, the dollar is taking a hammering. Unless you already have Euros to spend, but anyway, costs for almost anything are higher in the EU than USA.

Thanks for all your responses. I think I'll just ship it to myself from Austria so I can get the VAT refund. However, I will talk to their salesperson about the service warranty arrangement. If I would have to send the gun back to Austria for any service then I might just as well avoid the hassle and buy it stateside.

Again thanks for all your responses.

Regards,
Ariel

I haven't bought anything in a European country and taken it over a border for quite some time. However, I belive that getting the VAT back is not a RIGHT that you can claim. It is usually a government arrangement to help the local tourist industry and its administration costs some money. In other words, in the cases where you can get the VAT back you may not get all of it. You will have to find out exactly how this is handled in Austria.

I agree with one of the posters above that it would be better to buy a properly imported gun. However, since you have the balls to use the importer's BB to ask questions about this topic, I assume that advice will be lost on you.

Back off oh rude one.
#1 it isn't all that obvious that the person/firm/computing dept running this board also deals in importing Steyr air pistols. The Steyr logo goes directly to Steyr's website, and pilkguns only appears in teeny tiny small print, with NO mention of what it really is.
#2 for whatever reason, this person wants to bring home a fine souvenir of their visit to a fine target shooting country. I can't blame them, I'd love a memento like that!

A friend bought his LP10 from Austria. He recommends http://www.froewis.co.at/

I gather a lot of the swiss shooter buy from Froewis in Austria, Froewis prices are a better than you will find in Switzerland. He is very good gunsmith too.

Well, I’ve got mixed feelings on this thread, I see a lot of insensitivity if you will in a several posts. Thanks to those that voiced support, directly or indirectly

But that aside, here’s some random thoughts
1) if I was going to Europe, and was going to be by one of the famous factories, then sure I would want to visit if I could and buy straight from the factory. That would be a neat experience to reminisce over. Costs be damned.*
2) On the other hand, the factories are not set up to have public tours, and really do not encourage this kind of visit, because they don’t have the manpower or time to do this. Unless you are a famous shooter, it’s not likely to happen if you call up out of the blue. A lot can depend on the time of year it is to, if everyone is on the road, then for sure it’s a no deal.
3) Also, as for the factories selling direct, they will not do that either, out of respect to their dealer customers, whether it is the dealer a few kilometers down the block or across the ocean blue like us at pilkguns.
4) Yes, I have on rare occasion, asked a factory if someone could visit when they were neighborhood, and have always been obliged. But again, it is not something that they want to do a lot of.
5) Yes, I consider it somewhat rude to come on Target Talk and ask, who has the best deal, recommending another dealer, etc. HOWEVER
6) I consider this a PUBLIC forum and try to treat it as such. So anybody can say what they want, as long as it is in reason and meets the rules and regs. And the older I get, the more I realize that a lot of people have no sense of common courtesy or decency, but some of them can be nice people regardless. Whatever. I DO NOT want Target Talk to be strictly a selling platform for pilkguns like some bulletin boards I could name and have no real viability because of it. We try to let it run of its own accord, and not answer every post. I try not to answer posts, unless asked a question directly or see something that I consider to be blatantly wrong.
7) But YES, if you don’t buy stuff from us, we can’t afford to do nice things like host this bulletin board, put all the great information and interviews that is on our webpage, etc. So please buy from us whenever you can.
*Costs, oh yes, is it cheaper to buy in Europe? yes …no… sometimes. It’s a gamble. We do it here, sometimes its cheaper, and sometimes its way more expensive than going our normal air freight or ocean freight/brokers/customs route. Customs fees and duties through the mail are lot more expensive than if you go through a commercial broker. Trying to get VAT back is gamble too, been there done that… It’s just really a crap shoot, no matter whether you are hand carrying the stuff or having it sent by post. On the whole, I would say we break even between the cheaper and more expensive. So if you are only doing it once you may pay a lot more than retail, or you may pay a lot less. But then again, since 9-11, they have been stopping a lot more stuff….That’s our experience anyway.

Now thats a response with CLASS! Hopefully, it will become infectious.


Regarding VAT - it certainly is a gamble. I can tell you that European bureaucrats do not stay awake at night wringing their hands over refunding an American his bucks. It takes forever.

I spend at least two weeks a year with family in Switzerland and I dont even bother with the paperwork anymore. One year, my international long distance bill trying to track down my refund cost me more than the freakin refund itself!!.

There is no question that buying an AP right from the Austrian factory is a very romantic idea. But it's also likely you wont be saving any money doing so. When you add that to the potential (probably unlikely) of having to send the gun back to Austria for warranty work, the idea becomes much less attractive.

I wouldnt miss the chance to visit the factory though. Just tell him you are a Republican from California and that you contributed in some way to Arnold's gubernatorial victory. Then just stand back and watch the doors open wide.


Have a good, safe and fun trip.

Paul

Thanks again for all your responses. I'd like to apologize first to everyone if I was insensitive to the nature of my inquiry. I have to admit it was a total lapse of judgement. FWIW, I do realize now that buying an air pistol abroad and bringing it back stateside seems to be more trouble that its worth. Especially in a post 9/11 environment and, more especially, if you live in Chicago, New York City and the whole state of New Jersey! Although my inquiry was very badly formed I did get the information I was seeking and for that I am grateful to this board and its members. I am off to Europe next week and although I no longer plan on making the purchase in Austria I do plan to stop by the factory office and say hi to the very friendly saleslady I have been dealing with.

Regards,
Ariel

Hello,

Economics of European Purchase - My experience

I completed the purchase of a muzzle loader from the UK last year which, like the air pistol, does not require an ATF Form 6 for import into the US. While I saved some money on the purchase price the fee for obtaining an export license from the UK and the air freight cost were higher than one might generally expect. There is no US Customs duty on this class item, you might check if air pistols are treated similarly, the Customs harmonized tariff schedule is on the internet. VAT was not applicable as this was conducted as an Export sale, but generally I have not had trouble with VAT refunds.

Oh yea, for the export license I had to complete a rather interesting declaration regarding WMD's.

KG