EU source of GEC and other good American-made folders?

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sonofthesouth

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You guys are killing me with the incredible pics of GEC knives 🤣 Can any of the EU members recommend some good shops inside the EU that carry GEC or other American-made folders? I'm also open to ebay shops that use the global shipping program. Otherwise, totally not worth it to pay 2X for the knife.

Lamnia and knivesandtools carry a halfway decent selection of Case but almost nothing else I'm looking for. I have more than a dozen orders with the former and 3 with the latter so if anybody has questions about those shops lemme know.

Guys, please don't post comments that you live in the EU and you have no problems importing things from America. That doesn't help. I realize some countries have it better than others. The EU is not one country as much as the EU would like it to be 😫
 
sonofthesouth said:
You guys are killing me with the incredible pics of GEC knives 🤣 Can any of the EU members recommend some good shops inside the EU that carry GEC or other American-made folders? I'm also open to ebay shops that use the global shipping program. Otherwise, totally not worth it to pay 2X for the knife.

Lamnia and knivesandtools carry a halfway decent selection of Case but almost nothing else I'm looking for. I have more than a dozen orders with the former and 3 with the latter so if anybody has questions about those shops lemme know.

Guys, please don't post comments that you live in the EU and you have no problems importing things from America. That doesn't help. I realize some countries have it better than others. The EU is not one country as much as the EU would like it to be 😫
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We cant even use ebay in the UK,the ones I have had recently have all been from trades.

If you look in trades I have a few I am trading from the UK at the moment.

which country are you in?
 
Johnnythefox said:
We cant even use ebay in the UK,the ones I have had recently have all been from trades.

If you look in trades I have a few I am trading from the UK at the moment.

which country are you in?
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Oh man, that's terrible. I found that Heine Hays shop (may not be spelling it right) in the UK and they have a pulldown for euros so I sent an email and asked if they have a euro shop. Waiting to hear back. knivesandtools in UK is also a decent shop if they have what you want but you have to watch the prices. Sometimes they're ok, sometimes sky high.

I had a bunch of goto shops in the UK for various hobbies and this latest double blow (Brexit and EU July 2021 Proclamation) screwed that all up. I have a package worth 25 GBP (not knives) from the UK held in customs here for 3 weeks, just dying on the vine.

I live in the Czech Republic. I'm not from here though. It is a good country for knife guys. We have no knife laws at all as far as I know. Just don't cause problems and you can carry whatever you want.
 
Things aint what they used to be, that's for sure. Two aspects: GB leaving the EU and the EU introducing this miserable import-tax law that has zero limit and can include postage costs too, plus the time factor in Customs. Here, Finland, the Post Office boasts about its digital prowess but delivery is chronically slow these days.

You'll have to cultivate relations with people on the Forum who may help you out by buying at source or trades. You should not name dealers etc who are not on the BF recommended list, part of the rules.

However you buy them, GEC knives are not going to be cheap I'm afraid due to import costs and the huge aftermarket inflation that's occurred, worth persevering though. Get in touch with me by private or visitor message if you have specific knife wants or trades.

Thanks, Will
 
Will Power said:
Things aint what they used to be, that's for sure. Two aspects: GB leaving the EU and the EU introducing this miserable import-tax law that has zero limit and can include postage costs too, plus the time factor in Customs. Here, Finland, the Post Office boasts about its digital prowess but delivery is chronically slow these days.

You'll have to cultivate relations with people on the Forum who may help you out by buying at source or trades. You should not name dealers etc who are not on the BF recommended list, part of the rules.

However you buy them, GEC knives are not going to be cheap I'm afraid due to import costs and the huge aftermarket inflation that's occurred, worth persevering though. Get in touch with me by private or visitor message if you have specific knife wants or trades.

Thanks, Will
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Ok, I didn't know about not mentioning vendors. Thanks for the heads-up.

As far as trades, I'm not sure it could help. Here they make us prove the cost of whatever we import. We have to show a bank record or paypal transaction that matches the bill of lading on the package. When it comes to putting their hands in our pockets they didn't miss anything.

I guess if somebody wrote gift, 0 value, I could get away with it for a short time but I don't know how many times that would work.
 
Can't mention names but that first one, I understood they had a presence in the UK and in Netherlands. A few years ago I bought a Leatherman OHT and Gerber somethingorother and I could swear they shipped it from the UK.

Thanks for the info on that customer service aspect on the other shop. I'll see what they say about how easy or hard it might be to buy from them.
 
The knife and tool store is actually in the Netherlands. They carry Böker in addition to Case, plus some Laguioles and others.

There are EU and UK distributors for GEC (see the list of distributors on their site). I have never had any luck with the guy in the UK, but I have managed to score a couple from the Continental distributor. They sell out really quickly, though, like the US distributors.
 
sonofthesouth said:
Can't mention names but that first one, I understood they had a presence in the UK and in Netherlands. A few years ago I bought a Leatherman OHT and Gerber somethingorother and I could swear they shipped it from the UK.

Thanks for the info on that customer service aspect on the other shop. I'll see what they say about how easy or hard it might be to buy from them.
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They are in Holland i won’t use them again.

the other one in UK is brilliant service But no GEC.
 
aji1 said:
There are EU and UK distributors for GEC (see the list of distributors on their site). I have never had any luck with the guy in the UK, but I have managed to score a couple from the Continental distributor. They sell out really quickly, though, like the US distributors.
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Thank you, don't know how I missed that. I'll take another look.
 
I'm just North of the USA and we don't have a dealer here with knifes on the shelf.

I would say your best bet is to become a regular contributing member of the porch and get a gold membership so you can PM easily. Then at some point if you're genuine there will a person in the US who will step in as a proxy buyer for you. They just don't make enough of them for reliable export.
 
Danke42 said:
I'm just North of the USA and we don't have a dealer here with knifes on the shelf.

I would say your best bet is to become a regular contributing member of the porch and get a gold membership so you can PM easily. Then at some point if you're genuine there will a person in the US who will step in as a proxy buyer for you. They just don't make enough of them for reliable export.
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Thanks, but that doesn't help. Shipping is not the main issue, importing anything is.
 
Danke42 said:
Do you mean you're changed duty on the knives?

Can you expand on what countries are not subject to duty?
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I'm sure they have enough lawyers to justify what they do but mere mortals are unable to figure out the magic formula for the taxes, fees, charges, etc. Only VAT is actually traceable to any law. The rest is policy and a lot of it is up to the shipping company like how much they charge for services like clearing customs and getting the package to the guy who bought it. Another nice piece of trivia is that the total taxes, fees, charges, etc. are based on the price of the item + shipping.

I know there is some legal distinction between duties, VAT, and all the misc. random fees-du-jour they charge but just from a high level, anything we buy from inside the EU, the price we see on the website we buy it from is the price we pay. ebay does an ok job with the global shipping program but it used to be better. In the past, the total was shown on the item page. They made a subtle change where you see the price of the shipping but not the bundled import costs. You have to add the item to your cart and then you can see a few numbers which you add together to get the bottom line price.

None of this is specific to knives, I think this country is the best country for knife guys. It is just about importing anything.
 
Well as noted folks who live in the US and don't have to deal with customs and border control can barely get one. The production runs are soaked up like water in the desert.

Even if a store in Europe started ordering them regularly they'd fact the same high demand/low supply combined with whatever shipping costs and duties they'd have to pay. That's a typical complaint about the EU; people look at US pricing; then they look at EU pricing and expect them to be the same. That will never happen.

And to be clear this is not just knives; it's everything. It's why a lot of companies geolocate their webpage so if you're in Canada you will see a different price that the US and in Europe they'll go a step further and remove all pricing info. Because of course with a proxy people can look at a price in the US and then the EU price and start complaining.

You haven't really clearly explained the specific issue. Looks like the Czech Republic people pay VAT, Customs fees and Duty. Just like all the EU; and just like about every country in the world.
 
Danke42 said:
Well as noted folks who live in the US and don't have to deal with customs and border control can barely get one. The production runs are soaked up like water in the desert.

Even if a store in Europe started ordering them regularly they'd fact the same high demand/low supply combined with whatever shipping costs and duties they'd have to pay. That's a typical complaint about the EU; people look at US pricing; then they look at EU pricing and expect them to be the same. That will never happen.

And to be clear this is not just knives; it's everything. It's why a lot of companies geolocate their webpage so if you're in Canada you will see a different price that the US and in Europe they'll go a step further and remove all pricing info. Because of course with a proxy people can look at a price in the US and then the EU price and start complaining.

You haven't really clearly explained the specific issue. Looks like the Czech Republic people pay VAT, Customs fees and Duty. Just like all the EU; and just like about every country in the world.
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Well, you haven't contributed anything to the discussion. This was a request to help me locate GEC knives in the EU. All your justifications and guesses about whatever don't help, they just derail the thread.
 
OK, is there a pound in the EU where you can go pickup GEC knives that people don't want anymore? No? Didn't think so. How about a store that has Rolex Submariner's for 1970s prices? No also? Well that's weird; I bet places like that would be popular with customers.

If there's some secret store in the EU that has GEC in stock no one is going to tell you about it here.

I'm not in the USA. When I want a GEC knife I have to pay a high price, pay for shipping pay currency exchange, pay tax and wait 2x3 times as long as someone in the US. Even though I can nearly see the US from where I live.

But your story has touched my heart so I will give you some actual advice. Spend all your time here. https://www.bladeforums.com/forums/traditional-folders-and-fixed-blades.773/

Make posts that contribute to the community. Don't put in 100 nice knife posts. For every post you make read 25 threads and don't act like you need to reply to every comment in those threads with a +1.

Otherwise you're just one of entitled folks who get noped outta here quick. If your sole complaint is that GEC knives are expensive and hard to get where you live you should have stayed in school.
 
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