This article was taken from the March 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
The grey market is the legal but roundabout way of buying overseas items that are difficult to get in the UK. If the exchange rate is blowing in the right direction, you could end up with a bargain. Here's how to shop smarter.
Choose your middleman
The obvious place is eBay. But if you want to shop on a US website, it may ship only to US addresses -- so unless you have benevolent American friends, you'll need a US address. A number of forwarding services have cropped up, including Borderlinx, comGateway, Bundlebox, Aramex Shop and Ship, BongoUS, Parcel2Go and Shipito.
Choose your payment
Even if you have an internationally accepted credit card and a shiny new US address, some retailers insist on a US billing address. comGateway gets around this with its BuyForMe service, where you pay them to buy it for you and they forward it. (Apple is wise to this and, when the iPad launched, the firm did not sell to comGateway.)
Consider all of the risks
Warranties are often valid only for the country in which the product is bought. And you need to be careful of compatibility with broadcasting regions, voltages, local car parts and so on.
Modifications may be needed to insure certain items (especially cars) or to match UK safety regulations. Plus, the middlemen services don't come for free.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
