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I'm getting ready to place a decent sized FW order and was wondering if there are any hidden costs buying from / shipping to the USA? The only one I'm aware of is the currency conversion fee my credit card company will charge me. I think it's only like $2.00 though.

The $2 currency conversion was only hidden fee I had when I placed my order for Tyranid Warrior wings. Check with your bank first, though. Some of them have it based on 2-4% of the total converted which may add up quick depending on the size of your order. Shipping wasn't very expensive and it showed up in about two weeks. I'm sure that's mostly because they have more than a few pre-made sets of them sitting around, though. Bigger, more custom stuff I've heard can sometimes take longer.

Thanks. I will give them a call to double check.

This all stemmed from the multiple paragraphs of warnings pertaining to out of country orders on the FW's FAQ page. I imagine it's all to eliminate any liability on there part, but it spooked me to say the least.

Edit: Called the credit card company and the foreign purchase fee is 3% of the total charge.

I am not sure how the rules for buying out of country work for the you down in the US, but in bringing the FW into Canada I get nailed for 10%-15% duty charges most of the time.

Big Tim wrote:I am not sure how the rules for buying out of country work for the you down in the US, but in bringing the FW into Canada I get nailed for 10%-15% duty charges most of the time.

That one's just a matter of whether or not customs decides to check your stuff I believe. It's pretty random, but as with most such things, most people seem to almost always get nailed, or never get nailed on it.

hungryp wrote:

Big Tim wrote:I am not sure how the rules for buying out of country work for the you down in the US, but in bringing the FW into Canada I get nailed for 10%-15% duty charges most of the time.

That one's just a matter of whether or not customs decides to check your stuff I believe. It's pretty random, but as with most such things, most people seem to almost always get nailed, or never get nailed on it.

Well that's just lovely. Perhaps I won't order FW after all.

Or order Forge World through a third party. I think the Warstore has Forge World stuff in stock.

Nurglitch wrote:Or order Forge World through a third party. I think the Warstore has Forge World stuff in stock.

I have never heard of them selling FW items, but I'll email them and see.

The customs fees may just be Canada. Im in the USA and Ive ordered from FW around 5 times, and from other UK companies a couple times and never had any customs issues.

Have ordered from them for years, and never paid a customs anything. and i always order direct.
go for it.

I tend to get nailed when ordering from FW more than any other foreign site (the ratio is something like 4/5 times). eBay may have what you need, and can sometimes cost less than ordering from FW. I almost never get hit with the fees when ordering from an eBay user.

I did not pay customes on my recent FW Mark 3 armor order, nor when I order from Vini, Vedi, Vici.

However, my orders were never over $150. Not sure if there is a $$$ trigger or not, but I doubt it.

Currency conversion rates fluctuate every day.

The credit card company gets an extra slice on top of that as a service fee, it varies by the day (the exchange rate) and by company (CC slice).

..but the real surprise you may get from Forgeworld is....

When they list your stuff out of stock and you get back ordered.

or,

When it show ups and is poor quality, with distorted pieces, curved strait components and paper thin pieces.

Good luck.

Be sure to clarify what is meant by that fee the card company referred to. I have found that there is a "foreign transaction fee", which is a fee for a transaction occurring outside of the US regardless of currency, and is a percent of the total. Then there can sometimes be a completely separate "currency exchange fee", which is the fee charged for changing the foreign currency to US dollars., also a percent. Finally, the conversion rate will never be exactly the rate on xe.com or whatever; the company will usually tweak it a bit in their favor, so when they sell the foreign currency they make a little more. When I've talked to credit card companies they will never say the exact exchange rate, even at that exact moment, only that it changes constantly. However, this last one is more of an issue when dealing with non-banks than banks and credit cards.

Having done a crap ton of foreign travel and purchased a lot of stuff with credit cards, I've never found these fees and conversion issues to be overly troubling. Maybe 5-6% total? Personally I'd be annoyed if I didn't know about it, but knowing about it means no biggy.

That being said, the conversion right now is still quite good so FW is relatively cheap compared to what it was a couple of years ago. I'm gonna place an order shortly myself.

Nothing I've ever bought from FW has ever required any duty to be paid. They've been labeled as "scale models" or something along those lines, so don't really raise red flags I guess.

Edit: Ninja'd by Augustus! Sounds like you may have $2 to start, then potentially additional % of total fees (fgn tx and currency exchange). Edit 2: grammar error

Augustus wrote:
When they list your stuff out of stock and you get back ordered.

or,

When it show ups and is poor quality, with distorted pieces, curved strait components and paper thin pieces.

Good luck.

Ive had these problems. Ive made 5 orders from FW. The Baneblade, Eldar Phoenix, and Chaos Dred came fairly quickly and were well cast. The chaos renegades were of sketchy quality but shipped in a reasonable time. The Grey Knight cruisers were a disaster. After waiting a month I emailed FW, found out there were mold problems and there was a delay. After a couple more weeks I got them...1 was in fine condition, the other was a melted looking mess.


It seems FW quality and shipping speed depends greatly on the amount of money spent. Small $$ orders of small items are likely to be slow and sketchy quality, while larger $$ orders of larger items are likely to ship quickly and be great quality. For instance...the most expensive item Ive gotten from them, the Baneblade, was at my door in a week or less and was cast very nicely, even the tracks. The GK cruisers were the smallest item and lowest $$ order, and it was slow and terrible quality.

Im looking at ordering a Reaver titan sometime around Feb...Im hoping they do a good job with the titans, as it will be an order costing over $900.

I guess if it comes to it, order what you want and see how it comes out. If your really unsatisfied then you can always ebay the item, after complaining to FW, but expect to get little help from them and to lose a good bit of $$ on ebay.

Okay, I'm concerned to hear that the smallest and cheapest bits would be the worst quality, although it makes sense from a bottom line approach: I'd bet Titans carry a larger markup than Boltguns.

Speaking of which, what're people's experiences with buying Boltguns? I'm contemplating buying some of the Umbra Ferrox pattern bolters, but the risk of low quality is holding me back. If I wanted low quality I would scratch-build my own...

Ironically I have some good ones, but I didn't order them I was given them as a gift.

When we meet next I will show you.

If you are buying from the UK and are expecting to pay import duty then I would suggest that you would then not have to pay VAT (17.5% - the UK sales tale if you like). That being the case then you should be able to procure FW stuff @ a 17.5% discount but pay 15% on it arriving in the US.

The fact that some of you are paying VAT and not receiving US import duties would suggest that one cancels out the other (and/or it has been shipped from GWs US holdings).

Re FW quality, flash aside I have never had a problem. I have heard of bent items but this is easily fixed with some hot water and a bit of pressure.

If you did have a miscast then like its parent company I hear that they send complete replacement of the kit not the item.

Finally if you were sold damaged goods from FW and they didn't resolve the issue then you will be protected by UK consumer laws (which I would suggest are second to none). This applies to all purchases in the UK, evn from abroad. As such I would suggest that you can buy from FW with complete confidence.

I've never had to pay import on FW, and do about a dozen orders a year. I do have to pay VAT. Was nice for a bit when that tax was suspended.

mikhaila wrote:I've never had to pay import on FW, and do about a dozen orders a year. I do have to pay VAT. Was nice for a bit when that tax was suspended.

If anyone on this board has authority on this subject, surely it would be you Mike.

Looks like I'll pull the trigger and place my order.

Curious if it's still possible to order FW items through the GW hobby centers?

alarmingrick wrote:Have ordered from them for years, and never paid a customs anything. and I always order direct.
go for it.

This.

Oni wrote:Curious if it's still possible to order FW items through the GW hobby centers?

I'd assume so, but I don't know. I've only ever done it once(in NC, we've only ever had one GW owned shop, and that was hours away and is gone now) and that was when I was spending a summer in NY and ordered "The Taros Campaign".