PlanetAxel were similar to other North American retailers, save for the small matter of their ingenious and sorely-missed VAT loophole.

I think my current import plan is to use a combination of amazon.com and UP1.
Depending on which one works out cheaper.

Ive been able to buy Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works Blu-ray from amazon.com for £17.88. £6.62 was for AmazonGlobal Expedited Shipping with a expected delivery of the 27th.
Thats a saving of just over a fiver compared to UP1.

The good thing about amazon.com these days is they will take a guess of the custom charge, and if it turns out less refund the difference. So no unexpected extras at least.

I'll be going back to using UP1 & amazon for my imports as well (I used UP1 for most of my purchases before I started using Planetaxel anyway).

Okay so where do we import GAMES from now?

Do Gameseek.co.uk still get US stock?

how many of use are waiting for refunds and dvds here anyways

im waiting for refunds and 3 dvds.............................. the dvds are taking ages

I'm still waiting on my Maria Watches Over Us season 1 boxset from Planetaxel. It was sent out on the 31st of May and still nothing! I fear it has probably got lost in the post.

Lame.

I'll just carry on using United Publications I suppose. I use them a lot anyway but it was just nice to have an alternative.

I'm only waiting for one more item, thankfully, which I hope arrives. It's Towa No Quon (BD). The refunds are all pending :s

R

That's funny same here I ordered some near that date and im still waiting. And I hope we can get our refund back too.

Woah! It's not just me. I too ordered some things from them on the 31st of May and have yet to receive them. Odd stuff indeed.

Out of interest you two, when you placed the order did you have any trouble during checkout? I did and ended up with another two orders for the same goods.

ummmmmmmmm not to my knowledge

does anyone here use otakucastle

Only sells mostly bootleg products as far as I know, so I would avoid (all their listings are region 0 if I'm thinling of the same place)

No, everything was fine - it was just the usual process! I hope they haven't just taken our money without sending the products...

I tried to report it as 'not received' on my account but apparently I have to wait another 4 days. Perhaps I'll need to go into a Paypal dispute with them to get the money back.

Bugger. I went on this morning to to put my usual monthly order through and got the message about them going out of business. I usually put through about 6-8 or so box sets / DVDs or Blu-Ray for something like £150-£200. I have now put an order through UP1 which with most things costing £5 - £10 more plus about £2 postage each is costing a fare bit more than I wanted. Unless I can find anywhere cheaper I am going to have to accept I am going to be getting less for my money and possibly I will need to get even more selective with what I order.

Planetaxel were the one stop shop for many because of the price and a reasonable customer service. The exchange rate calculations were not always the best but they were nearly always still cheaper than elsewhere. The VAT prepayment was good for us, not really the tricky work around some people think just cheaper for them to pay in bulk without the extra cost we would get from the postal service.

With the reduction of when duty/VAT is due (I don't mind the VAT it is the charges from the postal service that hurt), exchange rates and ridiculous postage costs it really is not a good time to be a DVD/Blu-Ray importer.

I used to directly use several US companies deepdiscount and CDuniverse but not now it is just not economical in time or money trying to workout the cheapest or most likely to attract duty/VAT.

There are still some UK based/servicing companies like moviethyme but they don't have the best selection when it come to anime.

When It comes older or cheaper releases (under £15) amazon and play traders can be useful two I have had decent dealings with are movie mars and all your music.