New TGA 75 PLUS coming (2 Viewers)

[tenex]

I stumbled upon this today. It seems to be nitrogen-filled, which is interesting. And sold without an eyepiece, so might new one(s) be coming? Listed at a couple of sites like optics-trade.eu.

 

[William Lewis]

Well found.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for any more information on that one, the meopta site doesn't seem to have anything on it.

 

[William Lewis]

Did a little digging on this scope today, unfortunately it doesn't seem like it will be available in the UK as meopta currently don't have a UK distributor. Maybe you can get one on the US though tenex?

The other strange thing with this is that meopta have recently been taken over by an investment company. I wonder why they're just releasing a new, very left field scope, that must have taken a little time and effort to develop (nitrogen purged draw tube!). Maybe one last hurrah from the meopta skunk works before the bean counters start their work?

 

[tenex]

The optics-trade website (Poland?) lists it as available, so you could inquire or order from them. Bushcraft Canada has it listed as "coming soon". Neither has any specs to compare with the old model, and nothing yet on Meopta sites.

I do wonder what the fate of Meopta sport optics may be. Recent pricing can't be helping them. I have the S2 scope but have never seen another Meopta optic in the field, though I gather they're better known among hunters. Cabelas stopped selling their store-branded versions several years ago, I don't know why. Nightforce still seems to sell rebranded Meopta scopes, and they're not even a store. The marketing was always strange.

 

[Jos Stratford]

The optics-trade website (Poland?) lists it as available, so you could inquire or order from them.

Slovenia, a very reliable and user-friendly company. However, it is worth remembering for UK folk that there are considerable additional costs (and hassle) for ordering items from the EU.

 

[William Lewis]

It's no fun, time consuming and expensive ordering stuff from inside the EU.

To give a recent example I bought some bins from Holland, they were held up at customs for the best part of a month and I had to pay a 21% sales tax on the dutch side, then an additional 20% vat on the UK side as well as the import duty. It's just not worth it unless your in the EU and bring something back.

I look forward to hearing any further news though as it looks very interesting.

 

[tenex]

I've heard Slovenia is very pretty.

Why would you pay VAT on both sides? Ordering from EU to US there's none at all.

 

[Jos Stratford]

I've heard Slovenia is very pretty.

Why would you pay VAT on both sides? Ordering from EU to US there's none at all.

There should be no VAT on both sides, I think that is an error (see end of this post) ...but there will be VAT and import duties, and quite probably an administration fee of some sort. Together these make it prohibitively expensive. Same for EU residents buying from the UK.

Slowly, a few dealers are beginning to join a new EU-UK agreement that should remove the need to declare on arrival and will see VAT paid at time of purchase, I believe also remove import duty if below a certain level. But most companies either don't belong to it yet or don't follow the rules properly (they need to declare a registration number in a system at time of purchase, but they often don't or instead send to the customer and tell them to show to post office ... which is not permitted). This is probably why the poster above paid VAT twice - the retailer has probably joined the scheme, so paid VAT in advance, but didn't declare properly, so it was not recognised and then the customer needed to pay it again. I had this with a item from the UK to here in Lithuania - you have three choices, pay the taxes again, reject delivery and it is sent back, or argue with the retailer and get them to refund the tax.

 

[William Lewis]

I don't think it's been done correctly at all as when I imported the bins customs asked for an invoice of purchase which included the dutch 21% tax on it but i was still charged the UK vat as well......

Tenex- yes your quite correct I've exported optics to the US and there is no import tax from the UK to US either.

I spoke to one of the last remaining meopta dealers who were clearing old stock recently - they said they could have a word with optics trade regarding the scope but I think it would be much more prudent to wait till I'm not be EU again and see if i can get a look through one.

 

[yarrellii]

It turns out just yesterday I dealt with this matter. I had to pay some import taxes for a pair of new binos imported from China.

I paid 195 € for the binoculars, in its "final cost estimate", the merchant estimated another 40 €, so the "expected" final price would be around 235 €... but lo and behold, you can always expect surprises from the customs (I've bought binoculars from US, UK, Japan, China, Australia, Russia and other foreign non-EU countries, and I've experienced similar stories over the years).

Value of the binoculars: 194,78 €.
Custom "rights": 8,91 €
Import VAT at 21 % (for some reason they calculate it for 220,96, and not the original value), so 46,40 €
Pre-Total 55,31

Services provided by Correos (Spanish Postal Service)
Custom management fee: 20,35 €
Handling expenses: 4,96
VAT for the above: 5,29 €
GRAND TOTAL: 85,81 €

So, in the end, a good deal at 195 € ends up costing 280 €, which is a price I don't think I would have considered in the first place (rolling eyes).

Regarding importing binoculars from overseas I'm always very jealous of the US. First, they seem to have very good deals on many brands, and then they don't pay import taxes.

As for Brexit, it was a bit of a disaster for EU birdwatchers, because the UK market for all-things birdwatching is so large, there has always been an enormous 2nd hand market of books, guides... and optics. My binoculars, my scope, my field guide and many other books (like the BWP I got for peanuts) were great 2nd hand deals from the UK, but now most of the things I check online on the 2nd hand market in the UK end up not being a great deal anymore due to import fees. Such a pity, really.

 

[seawatcher]

It turns out just yesterday I dealt with this matter. I had to pay some import taxes for a pair of new binos imported from China.

I paid 195 € for the binoculars, in its "final cost estimate", the merchant estimated another 40 €, so the "expected" final price would be around 235 €... but lo and behold, you can always expect surprises from the customs (I've bought binoculars from US, UK, Japan, China, Australia, Russia and other foreign non-EU countries, and I've experienced similar stories over the years).

Value of the binoculars: 194,78 €.
Custom "rights": 8,91 €
Import VAT at 21 % (for some reason they calculate it for 220,96, and not the original value), so 46,40 €
Pre-Total 55,31

Services provided by Correos (Spanish Postal Service)
Custom management fee: 20,35 €
Handling expenses: 4,96
VAT for the above: 5,29 €
GRAND TOTAL: 85,81 €

So, in the end, a good deal at 195 € ends up costing 280 €, which is a price I don't think I would have considered in the first place (rolling eyes).

Regarding importing binoculars from overseas I'm always very jealous of the US. First, they seem to have very good deals on many brands, and then they don't pay import taxes.

As for Brexit, it was a bit of a disaster for EU birdwatchers, because the UK market for all-things birdwatching is so large, there has always been an enormous 2nd hand market of books, guides... and optics. My binoculars, my scope, my field guide and many other books (like the BWP I got for peanuts) were great 2nd hand deals from the UK, but now most of the things I check online on the 2nd hand market in the UK end up not being a great deal anymore due to import fees. Such a pity, really.

BREXIT - Binoculars at Really EXtorionate Prices Including Taxes.

 

[Tringa45]

I think the alleged nitrogen filling must be another blunder by the marketing people.
A draw-tube scope pumps air in and out, so if it were sealed it would either take great force to open it, or to close it.

John

 

[William Lewis]

I did suspect that when I read the specs for the standard tga - they also claimed nitrogen.

 

[William Lewis]

Little more information on the scope if you scroll down to the questions, they've answered which eye pieces it takes - exactly the same ones as the standard tga! Meopta TGA 75 Plus - Body

 

[fazalmajid]

My parents live in France so I no longer bother having EU stuff shipped to me in London any more. Oddly it’s easier to have goods shipped from the US, something I do 4-6 times a year.

Pity if the private equity firm cans the sports optics side. I guess the military contracts are vastly more lucrative. I’ll still enjoy my S2 scope.

 

[forent]

I think the alleged nitrogen filling must be another blunder by the marketing people.
A draw-tube scope pumps air in and out, so if it were sealed it would either take great force to open it, or to close it.

Exactly. The specification "Body: Dual hinge" is also rubbish. I guess they have copied some technical data unchecked from one of their binos to fill the specs list.