doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Cost of importing one gun from Holts

There are posters who are very experienced in importing guns from UK. However, for those less experienced contemplating doing so here are the charges for a gun bought from Holts in August 2025 which has just arrived.

Holts:
Hammer:. . . . . . .£400.00
Premium: . . . . . . £120.00
Total. . . . . . . . . .£520.00 = . . . . . . . . . $ . 680.41

Holts associated exporter:
1st Item Non-Licensed 260 GBP x 1.34 = . .$ . 348.40
Cased Gun 45 GBP x 1.34 = . . . . . . . . . . $. . .60.30
Import Duty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$. . . .9.06
Import Tariffs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$. . .76.65
UPS Shipping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$. . .75.00
Optional insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $. . .45.00
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $. . 614.41

Totally costs: $1,294.81

So it appears exporting a UK pre 1898 gun which cost 400 pounds costs 70% of the cost of the gun for shipping (1.34 is the exchange rate used by the shipper) plus duty, tariffs, shipping, insurance. (if the cost of the gun includes buyer's premium that would be 50%).

I do not know if this applies to every gun as a fixed charge - i.e. charge of shipping is related at 70% to the cost of the gun - or whether there is a discount for multiple guns being shipped. If the charge is automatically pro-rated to the gun cost rather than weight or some such, well, that doesn't seem quite cricket.

I understand other importers on our board also use the Holt's associated exporter. However, perhaps some competition could be found. Welcome comparative rates others have found.

Are British pounds really trading 1:1 with US dollars?

Never mind. I read through that a bit too quickly.

From Google 2 minutes ago: 520 Pound sterling equals. 680.30 United States Dollar. (it changed 1 cent in 3 minutes).

And Brent, you can resize the photo of your pooch yourself on jpg.box.

(and what's going to happed to the 1¢ ($.01) in the future? Will it automatically jump to 5¢ ($.05)? I was in Rome when the Lira changed to the Euro and in every case it was rounded up.

Similar to my pricing. I charge 550$ for an antique, add 2% for insurance and shipping to you at 75$, total I would charge would be 640$.

There is immense overhead in shipping internationally, profits are not huge. I commend those can offer the service for less, I can't. I do offer discounts on volume.

When I was stationed in England, Scotland and Germany on post they did away with the penny. Rounded down or up according to the posted price.

It's early and I need more coffee so this is probably a stupid question. Is the $614.41 mostly a fixed rate or is it going to be about 70% of the final sale price?

buy meracan...

I am old enough to remember decimalisation in the UK.

Rounding up seemed to be the rule, and things that were 2 Shillings (10 new pence) very soon seemed to be 20p (4 shillings).

When I was importing from both Spain and Italy I would never import a inexpensive gun. The costs are just about the same as an expensive gun. Some of the costs are fixed and some are variable. I would tell them just wait until you had five guns ready. I once in a while do 4 but tried for 5. Now if you are importing a 10k gun that its not so bad but a 400 has to absorb all the costs. Just not worth it. Unless its something that you really want.

John
Arrieta
Quality Arms

John, It is historical, an 1857 pin-fire discussed above. Only a few are known to still exist. I'll never make money with it but, because of the history (which I wrote) It's worth it. I'll pick it up Tuesday and will break out what the charges are for. Gene

Argo44, do you pick the gun up at Dulles and go through whatever, or do you have an agent that is handling it for you? Thanks

I got a call from out of the blue from Peter Johanson of "E.P. International" in Arlington, Virginia (near Old Town) who said the gun had arrived (no warning from the exporter). I could pay the invoice by checking or card. He also said he could ship it directly to the house because it was pre 1898. I will assume that this company is a correspondent with the UK company that Holt's uses "Chordline".

I have opted to pick it up on the sly to avoid a divorce. I'll provide additional information on the system once I talk to Peter. He had a table at the Dulles gun show this last weekend.

I can give the address of both firms if you'd like it. Gene

Yes, it is a bit confusing, but Chordline and E. P. International are connected.

The last large group of guns I imported were from two auction groups. 18 in total. Everything came to $5,700 plus my local dealer charged me 20 per gun on top of that. Call it 6,1000 or $340.00 per gun. Not cheap and with today tariffs it would cost me even more today. I figure best case would be $400.00 each in a group of 10-20 guns.

But I did score several good deals even with those cost. I figure I have got four 11/87 Sporting Clays in 12 and 20 for under $475.00. They all were 95% or better. Couple left handed remington autos for grand kids also. You can’t bottom feed doubles and come out ahead. But you can buy guns with little local value in the UK that are steals at anything much below a grand. But to get the cost per gun down you must deal in lots of ten or more. I did buy mostly doubles but went where the value was to me. AYA are cheap, British double a steal sometimes. Non ejector side plate doubles are a small fraction of ejector guns and I don’t like ejectors that much anyways.

I don’t really need anymore guns and like lower end stuff to make them all affordable for a field shooting habit. All shotguns and mostly guns I hunt with or shoot clays. I can import one or two real nice guns that will never get used much or 10 that I can shoot and enjoy for the shooting pleasure they are. Don’t forget o hunt with two high grade Winchester model 42’s. My guns get shot not kept as safe queens.

Small lots are expensive on a per gun basis to buy and import. Ten to twenty is better but the numbers between winning bid prices, auction fees, import fees, taxes, shipping and FFL fees just make the total number very large. Would be better if I ever decided to flip a few guns but somehow I never want to sell a gun once I get it home.

I bought my Purdey shotgun from Peter. He is fantastic to deal with. He is bidding on a shotgun for me at Holt’s on Tuesday. He can import and handle everything. I wait to see what happens.

I am also talking with “battle” on this site and he has connections that can assist with import. I have talked extensively with both Peter and Travis and they are excellent to deal with!

I've used EPInternational/Chordline for two guns. It's very simple. Buy the gun, notify EP and Chordline, wait about four months and pay when it's ready to ship. I'm very happy with the service.

Picked up the pin-fire today. It was excellently wrapped. Here are the charges as explained by Peter:

-- unlicensed gun (pre 1898):
. . . . .- £260.00 for the first;
. . . . .- £160.00 for each additional gun bought from the same auction house.
-- case - £45.00 per case.
-- licensed gun (post 1898):
. . . . .- £350.00 for the first,
. . . . .- £260.00 for the second;
. . . . .- £160.00 for each additional gun bought from the same auction house.
-- In addition for each gun requiring a license there is a $35.00 US FFL fee.

Import duty TBD
Import tariffs TBD
UPS shipping - $75.00 per gun
Insurance TBD

Compared with the low costs from Gernany, this is truly obscene.

Can you provide a break down of cost from Germany?

Avoids having to look at stuff like this, however:



Best,
Ted

_____________________________________________________________________
Now, if you could find a German gun engraved with pigs AND pterodactyls, that would be something.

I guess I'm still not clear on everything. If the cost of sending it to the US is $75 freight. . .where do all these other charges come from? Packing and handling? Paperwork? There should be none for a pre 1898 gun - you could put it in your suitcase. Are the charges mostly on the UK side?

I'm particularly stumped by the cost for the case. I bought a case on a UK eBay site and the UPS shipping charge was $20 or thereabouts.

There is a reason why when San Francisco wanted to put in one public toilet and a company said they'd do it for free, the cost for the taxpayer was still going to be $1.5 million - license fees, environmental studies, engineering feasibility, traffic use analysis, cost-benefit, permits for public buildings, side walk obstruction analysis,. . . . We built the Hoover Dam in 1931-36 in 5 years. Try doing that today.

The 75$ is domestic shipping, shipping the crates usually costs me quite a few thousand dollars, I have paid in excess of 10K on just shipping and collection from the UK to Denver. Then the crates are trucked to me, another grand or so. Broker fees on both sides, somebody has to do the paperwork, even antiques require documentation and Customs clearance which require a broker on commercial shipments.

With all your time in the military, can you believe the costs are related to red tape?

Nothing is easier these days. Last year I had months and months of delays, paperwork, funds being held up due to new anti terrorist and money laundering laws, shipments stopped by US Customs for extensive deep in inspections which they charge me for.

We all want a simpler way of doing business, everybody except the Governments.

Ted, something like this?

75 dollars is the shipping from EP Intl in Arlington to you. My charges for one gun this week were about $460 on the UK side for collection, export paperwork and air freight. About $300 on the US side for import duty, import tariffs, required importer engraving, shipping in the US and insurance.

So since I picked up....it should have been $75 cheaper? Ah...I'll talk to Peter about that. That's a couple of visits to McDonald's these days.

Admittedly I was trying to sneak a gun into the house and Peter was trying to be complicit.

Muchos chancho’s:




Best,
Ted

Importing guns is a business. They charge what they want and hope the market bears the fees. If not they won’t last long. But you also have to make money, a profit and have an extra reserve because I am certain there are unexpected, difficult to pass along cost. Some importers have a flat fee schedule, some are cost plus a service fee and some have sliding scales where the more you import the lower the average cost per gun. I use a sliding fee importer because I have imported lots of 5-20 guns at a time when the cost per gun drops as the group size increases.

Can we hand carry an antique gun from the auction house to the London airport and carry it to the USA without any licensing or fees beyond import duty?

That was my question too. I did it once from Pakistan.

ATF Regulation:
If the firearm you intend to import is an antique firearm and was manufactured in or before 1898, you or an FFL do not have to submit an ATF Form 6 to ATF; however, you must be able to prove to CBP that it was manufactured during that period. If you ship the antique firearm, be sure the package includes the required documentation. CBP will accept a certificate of authenticity or bill of sale with the year the antique firearm was manufactured as proof of age. If the firearm was manufactured after 1898, an FFL must submit the ATF Form 6 to ATF for authorization to import the firearm. If the antique firearm is at least 100 years old or more and you can provide proof of age, the firearm will be eligible for duty-free treatment under the antique provision in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule.

However, getting out of UK seems to be the problem:

As far as the process of shipping from the United Kingdom, there is no legal way to ship a weapon out of the United Kingdom without using a licensed shipping agent.

United Kingdom rules and regulation for firearms require a number of documents and require that the shipping agent to complete prior to the weapon being shipped to the United States.

Seems there are some really low prices on English and continental SxS right now!

The end of lead shot in just a few years will spell the end of use for a lot of doubles. A rich mans game is getting even more expensive. Plus demand had already cratered for the most part on doubles. Sad times for many and great times for others.

I will offer a modern German gun (a Keppeler) engraved with a herd of mammoths impersonating Colonel Hathi's jungle patrol. Both taste and wit. This (female) engraver, namely Carmen Kugler, was really good.

Carcano

That's a lot of whining about the various costs of engaging in the firearms import business Princess SKB...

... the cost of domestic shipping, the cost of shipping crates from the UK to Denver, the cost of trucking crates to your shop, the costs of Broker fees and doing paperwork, costs of Customs clearance, costs of inspections and delays incurred due to government regulations, etc., etc. Wah-waah boo-hoo...

The only thing missing from all of that crying is any mention of paying Dave Weber the customary $12.00 fee for any and all sales resulting from the continual Free Tagline Advertising of the For-Profit Business Ventures you do on his DoubleGunShop Forum. You've been reminded about this dozens of times, so any oversight or past due payments and arrears would appear to be intentional, in my humble opinion.

So what say you? You'll need to answer here in the open forum, since you filled my PM box with vulgar Spam PM's. No hiding behind lame excuses now Princess!

I would dearly love to see that. The best I can do are wooly rhinos, arochs, and European lion.