US Dollar and Buying from Overseas Suppliers

[marlin813]

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Some of it is word of mouth or if you have actually been to the there shop in person while on holiday, others is just as simple as looking up dealers the manufacture list. It is assumed that if the manufacture is listing them as a dealer then they would a reputable shop.

Some of the shops I have used in the past that I have had no issues with and would recommend and call trustworthy are:
The World of Rebreather & Technical Diving Products | Narked at 90 (They ship DHL or regular UK snail mail)
O'Three Custom Drysuits (super good to work with shipping to the US via DHL, even put a nice note in your box, stickers, a hat, and candies)
Deepstop - Diveshop for scuba divers - Deepstop GmbH (They ship DHL, sometime have really good deals on MK25's or DST's & DS4's)
SF-1 ScubaFreaks (ship regular mail)
Shop for Scuba Diving, Tech Diving, Underwater Photo, Swimming, Freedive - Gidive Store (Ship via UPS)
Diveinn | Online Shop für Tauch- und Schnorchelausrüstung (Ship regular mail)
The ONLY Specialist Apeks Site in the UK. In stock for fast despatch. (keep an eye on this site sometime they have killer sales on Apeks regs)
The biggest diveshop in Europe (Ship regular mail or DHL)
Fourth Element - Equipment for Adventure - Technical Diving (actually just placed an order with them today and they only charged £11.50 for DHL international shipping for top and bottom undergarments)
Potápěčské centrum Divers Direct (They ship FedEx)

And lastly Martin from Tecme Rebreather, Parts, Service, unique solutions he will ship regular post for really cheep or send things DHL for really reasonable prices.

How is 4thelement ?

 

[marlin813]

Just received my new Apeks VX1 UV frameless mask from Jonas Dive Store in less than a week for $73 delivered compared to $190 retail in the states. That's impressive considering it came from Spain in less than a week. Amazing.

I was just eyeing something on their website didn't know if it was legit or not

 

[GiraffeMarineSalvage]

Depending on anything additional you might want along with your order (for example, upgrading a Triton head to be standard molex connectors and two 4pin AK connectors in my own personal experience), a Petrel 3 with 4pin AK connections is also available from Narked at 90 for £1,120.83 with similar shipping.
Side note, I literally got the Petrel 2 earlier this year just before V3 came out so my Triton's mod was limited to replacing the Monox with a Nerd2 and keeping the original Petrel 2, but both now have 4pin AK connectors so future upgrade is a piece of cake...
(I'm desperately trying to forget the "virtually identical" prices of Petrel V2 vs V3 that Marie13 mentioned...)

 

[GF99/99]

H
How is 4thelement ?

Great! I ordered some undergarments from them little bit ago. Much cheaper to buy direct from them.

 

[RobPNW]

Word of advice if you buy internationally and plan to use Paypal for the transaction. My purchase was in Euros and when I went to checkout, PayPal claimed they "found" a great exchange rate for me. I looked up the exact value of the Euro in dollars and PayPal was off by about 5%!!! That's not even close. Then they were going to add a 2% foreign exchange "fee" on top of that, so the total was going to be about 7% more.

I saw an option in the PayPal checkout to allow the credit card company do the conversion instead. So I went to the Visa website and they have a mock currency exchange tool based on today's rate which was significantly better than PayPal. I also have my Costco Visa linked to PayPal and that card doesn't charge a foreign exchange fee. So I used PayPal which shields your CC information, but specifying that the currency exchange be processed by my Costco Visa saved me about 7%. Not to mention the 1% Costco Visa cash back I will eventually get.

 

[bossthanapol]

Just pulled the trigger on a Scubapro MK19 EVO / G260 + FREE Octopus R195 - First Stage: Yoke for $396.69 euro or $381.84 USD at today's exchange rate! Even with the $64 over sea's shipping it is still a great deal!

May I ask which website did you purchase this from? Such a good deal!

 

[RicMares]

May I ask which website did you purchase this from? Such a good deal!

May I ask which website did you purchase this from? Such a good deal!

GIDivestore in Spain.

 

[bossthanapol]

GIDivestore in Spain.

It seems that the price is not on discount now, thanks btw!

 

[brsnow]

I bought 2 sets of mk11 with 2 c370 2nds for less than $500 each set. Some solid deals on new equipment out there.

 

[RobPNW]

We got hit by a double whammy in 2 months' time. Scubapro raised all their prices and the dollar tanked 12%. Perfect time to buy would have been in October before those things happened and when they were running the free octo deals. Oh well.