Exporting hassles small and large scale

[jago25_98]

In the UK I always know if I end up down and out I can probably find a way to sell things on ebay to all over the world, walk down to the post office and just send it.

AFAIK it doesn't work that way here.

So, how does it work? I'm not one to give up easily.

Anticipating the negativity that has become so commonplace here...

I've noticed lots of Argentine boutique stalls have websites so clearly they are managing to do it.

What are the costs, what is the beaurocracy, at what level of income and physical scale of expats does bureaucracy kick in?
Is it generally done en negro? If en blanco what is the scale of tax?

What are the stress levels of various scales of trade?

Does a farmer exporting tons of soya have more stress than the artist selling paintings that go for £100, or an electronics producer selling £15 phones in bulk or the same thing in single items.

In the UK I found it's generally not worth the effort with ebay unless the item is >£15 and you're making >30-40% profit. I'm looking for the equivalent here.

Obviously postage is an issue. AFAIK it's not economical to send small things and it's too unreliable. How do things change when we get to the scale of a shipping container?

 

[lamarque]

In the UK I always know if I end up down and out I can probably find a way to sell things on ebay to all over the world, walk down to the post office and just send it.

AFAIK it doesn't work that way here.

So, how does it work? I'm not one to give up easily.

Anticipating the negativity that has become so commonplace here...

I've noticed lots of Argentine boutique stalls have websites so clearly they are managing to do it.

What are the costs, what is the beaurocracy, at what level of income and physical scale of expats does bureaucracy kick in?
Is it generally done en negro? If en blanco what is the scale of tax?

What are the stress levels of various scales of trade?

Does a farmer exporting tons of soya have more stress than the artist selling paintings that go for £100, or an electronics producer selling £15 phones in bulk or the same thing in single items.

In the UK I found it's generally not worth the effort with ebay unless the item is >£15 and you're making >30-40% profit. I'm looking for the equivalent here.

Obviously postage is an issue. AFAIK it's not economical to send small things and it's too unreliable. How do things change when we get to the scale of a shipping container?

I knew a guy long time ago that was sending big boxes of products from here to USA and UK then he had a friend in UK that do the selling per unit on eBay, in Usa he had a guy that collect part of the profit and sell for him, this guy not only do this work for him he was doing the same for a lot of people so he had his own deposit and ship all over USA, i loose contact long time ago with that person i try to contact him lots of times as i was wanting to do something similar myself but i think he change phone and the only way i had to contact him was his phone, anyway he was doing very well in that time, not sure how much things has changed since that. Hope this put some light on your path, if you want to discuss furthermore i would like to know what exactly you are planning to sell outside I’m curious myself if it work and how profitable is.

 

[jago25_98]

I knew a guy long time ago that was sending big boxes of products from here to USA and UK then he had a friend in UK that do the selling per unit on eBay, in Usa he had a guy that collect part of the profit and sell for him, this guy not only do this work for him he was doing the same for a lot of people so he had his own deposit and ship all over USA, i loose contact long time ago with that person i try to contact him lots of times as i was wanting to do something similar myself but i think he change phone and the only way i had to contact him was his phone, anyway he was doing very well in that time, not sure how much things has changed since that. Hope this put some light on your path, if you want to discuss furthermore i would like to know what exactly you are planning to sell outside I’m curious myself if it work and how profitable is.

Great to hear from a likeminded individual, stay in touch.

I've looked at art & wine but really I'd like to exporting dried food of the kind that could be marked as fertiliser, though this could really need some funds to get it going properly. I have a method to store what is selling, receiving pallets in bulk and also a friend in the UK who has an ebay store who might be able to test the water with small scale selling too.

I am just dreaming at this stage. The first thing I want to do is try it out on as little funds as possible just to give myself some encouragement, rather than having to do months of paperwork with no guarentee of a goal at the end of it.

 

[citygirl]

I'm going to be negative.

Exporting costs are outrageously expensive. The paperwork involved is substantial.

You can't export art without a lot of permits and permissions from the gov't.

Wine is a no-go as well (there is actually a recent thread about it)as well unless you have some serious connections.

I can only tell you that first hand, when I looked into it a few years ago, there was no way to do it on a small scale in a cost-effective manner. I have an accquaintance who makes custom boots. The boots cost (maso) 400 USD. To ship ONE pair to the US costs about 200 USD last I heard. That should give you an idea. He no longer sells outside of Argentina.

It can be done but you would be best served talking to an export company. I don't think there is any feasible way in small scale as you said and with containers, you are talking sending huge amounts of things.

 

[lamarque]

i do once the opposite, bring notebooks from USA in boxes, 7 per box was a good little income and to sell them here was very easy in that time, but this notebook were imposible to get here so there was no competition.
Why dried food marked as fertilizer? i don't know so much about fertilizer, how you are planning to export it, what kind of price per packet have and how big is a packet?



Other big question you should have to ask your self is what is the advantage of the national product you want to sell again the same product in UK

 

[lamarque]

I'm going to be negative.

Exporting costs are outrageously expensive. The paperwork involved is substantial.

You can't export art without a lot of permits and permissions from the gov't.

Wine is a no-go as well (there is actually a recent thread about it)as well unless you have some serious connections.

I can only tell you that first hand, when I looked into it a few years ago, there was no way to do it on a small scale in a cost-effective manner. I have an accquaintance who makes custom boots. The boots cost (maso) 400 USD. To ship ONE pair to the US costs about 200 USD last I heard. That should give you an idea. He no longer sells outside of Argentina.

It can be done but you would be best served talking to an export company. I don't think there is any feasible way in small scale as you said and with containers, you are talking sending huge amounts of things.

How people that export in familiar bussines small quantities are doing? i would like to know more about if you can give us more info will be great

 

[walkingtwig]

i always thought that seeing as the malvinas is part of argentina and the falklands part of the uk, you could just get a pobox in the falklands, get a bunch stuf sent there, travel there as a british, pick up yor stuff and travel back as an argentine and not pay any import fees as you technicaly never left argentina.... dunno how to would work out in reality though lol

 

[lamarque]

lol try and let us know

 

[steveinbsas]

You can't export art without a lot of permits and permissions from the gov't.

Actually the procedure is very clear...and not at all expensive if you actually take the paintings with you.

Several steps are required, but it wasn't very complicated when I did it (with help from Patriciafromuruguay).

And there is no export tax on original artworks taken out of Argentina and no import tax in the USA.

Other conditions may apply in the EU or the UK.

 

[ctru]

It really depends what you will export. I guess some things are way more complicated than other. But I am doing it right now and its going well. My suggestion is to get in touch with a reliable shipping company here in Argentina as well as a "despachante de aduana". This way you can get an overview of the local taxes, paperwork, Incoterms etc and get a quote for container freight. Right now a 20ft is around USD 2200 and a 40ft 2400 to Europe region (does vary with final destination).