Avalon owners, what was the merchandise value on your package?

[FlorianW]

Hi,
I am interested in a group buy of Avalon chips and am trying to figure out what value they put on the packages. Does it corelate with the BTC price on the day of shipping?

I would really appreciate some input. If you could state the price in BTC you paid and what value was stated on the package, that would really help me approximate the amount of taxes I will have to calculate.

[bizwoo]

Hi FlorianW

I am glad you started this thread. I am also wondering exactly the same thing.

I am organizing a group buy for AVALON Chips and the cost for import taxes and customs would be considerable depending of the country where the chips are delivered.

Most group buys I have seen for the chips do not include this cost but in some cases it could be up to 20% more.

Cheers.

[kostagr33k]

So if you order today from Avalon, here is the price page:

http://store.avalon-asics.com/?product=avalon-asic-chips-10000


which is 780 BTC for 10,000 chips which comes out to about 0.078 BTC per chip. Most group buys add a small percentage as stated above (usually 10% or so) which will not include shipping.

I feel this fee is nominal as you are getting a Bulk purchase price but not having to spend 780BTC for a full order.


kosta

[shapemaker]

So if you order today from Avalon, here is the price page:

http://store.avalon-asics.com/?product=avalon-asic-chips-10000


which is 780 BTC for 10,000 chips which comes out to about 0.078 BTC per chip. Most group buys add a small percentage as stated above (usually 10% or so) which will not include shipping.

I feel this fee is nominal as you are getting a Bulk purchase price but not having to spend 780BTC for a full order.

You misunderstood. They were asking about the USD value reported to customs, I believe.

[kostagr33k]

You are correct. Then my 2 cents (whether shady or not) would be to give a value that you are comfortable with. Seeing that BTC price changes from day to day , whats it to say your BTC isn't only worth $10 USD/bitcoin (usd for example since im from USA). In theory your bitcoins could have been bought / mined when that truly was the case.

Since customs usually comes up with a value themselves, all you need to show them is a computer chip worth $X if they truly want to go that far to determine its value.


Again its not like your shipping a big device, all you are shipping are tiny ascis which are not even a finished product until assembled into a board.

If you want to be 100% to avoid any problems then for me BTC to USD (enter your own currency would be):

I will use todays mtgox value but you should use the value of BTC the day your order was purchased from Avalon:

# variables below

lastPrice=112 # last price USD on mtgox
purchase=780 # purchase price in BTC for the 10,000 chip order
orderVol=10000 # 10000 chips per purchase
chipsOrdered=500 # if you preordered 500 chips from the group buy. Enter your number here

# end variables
  (purchase / orderVol) * chipsOrdered * lastPrice = Total USD value

Sample shell script if you work on a Mac/linux:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

# variables below

lastPrice=112 # last price USD on mtgox
purchase=780 # purchase price in BTC for the 10,000 chip order
orderVol=10000 # 10000 chips per purchase
chipsOrdered=500 # if you preordered 500 chips from the group buy. Enter your number here

# end variables 
echo "${purchase} / ${orderVol} * ${chipsOrdered} * ${lastPrice}" 
echo "scale=8; ${purchase} / ${orderVol} * ${chipsOrdered} * ${lastPrice}" | bc

[julz]

At least some 1st batch Avalon's were shipped described as something like 'industrial controller sample' (I've forgotten exact wording) - with a reported USD value about 1/5 of the price paid in Bitcoin.
I don't know if they'll continue that policy - as the more they ship, the more likely it is the various customs agencies are going to scrutinize it. Even discussing it here probably raises the risk that customs agents will discover a more realistic value and apply that for tax/duty purposes. 

I suspect they've been doing it this way as a favour to customers as its doubtful Avalon can get in trouble for it, and I guess the worst that can happen is that customs assign a higher value and ask the receiver for the tax to be paid.

[Phil21]

I'm pretty sure CBP is not hanging out on bitcointalk looking to nab people not paying import duty.

Having worked with large corporations that deal with China commonly, "engineering sample" and other such tricks are pretty much par for the course.  It's exceptional when something is shipped with the price the actual ordering party paid for it - it's usually many fractions less.

This usually is fine as long as you don't need to put in any insurance claims, or do stupid shit with it like ship 10 pallets of cisco gear with a declared value of $100

[julz]

I'm pretty sure CBP is not hanging out on bitcointalk looking to nab people not paying import duty.

Yeah.. I would have thought that too - well..yeah, they're not 'hanging out' here..  but I recall a thread somewhere here where somebody reported their customs service googling around to work out the value of some Bitcoin thingummy they were importing.

[rograz]

I get a lot of gifts from Hong Kong, how nice of them to send me all of these cables and various items I just happened to need.

[FlorianW]

Thanks for the answers, guys.
The most informative ones I got through pm, though. Seems this topic is better discussed privately... 

Thread closed.