Importing bikes - smart or stupid?

[Grasshopperus]

Go and look on ebay/craigslist, find a bike and then offer to pay the seller using paypal (you should use a stolen creditcard for that part). Overpay them a bit and then get them to refund the overpayment via western union.

By the time they figure out what's happened you'll have the bike plus some cash. Win/win.

[skinny]

Copart or Bidrider was another option. They bring in Bikes from the USA all the time.

There is risk with everything you do.

Shipping out of Long Beach port to port is 21 days add 3-4 days either side for loading etc.

Things i did:
*made sure the seller cleaned the bike REALLY well then MAF only wants to look at it once to pass it. NZD40 for one inspection at the airport
*made sure the seller would drop the bike off to the container depot himself to save on cartage and so he could hand the ownership papers to someone i pre-arranged at the freight company.
*make sure there is not to much after market things on it like lights as they will not have the EU stamp on it.
*Pay via PAYPAL
*get a quote from a Freight Forwarder first by estimating the Volume and Weight once crated.

With this there should be no surprises unless the bike is a lemon which is the one thing you cant gaurantee.

[Metastable]

Got a question - what if you are living in North America and you move down... do you still have to pay the duties etc if you bring your vehicle with you? Also, what happens if your bike is in parts. As in... it is track prepped so you have all the lights and so on, but they aren't physically on the bike?

[skinny]

Got a question - what if you are living in North America and you move down... do you still have to pay the duties etc if you bring your vehicle with you? Also, what happens if your bike is in parts. As in... it is track prepped so you have all the lights and so on, but they aren't physically on the bike?

First off there is no duties on motorcycles.

If you have owned it for more then 12 months in the USA you can claim it as being Personal Effects if you are moving to nz and have authority to do so visa or NZ citizen etc. What this means is you dont have to pay GST to NZ Customs on the import.

It can be in parts or whole but doesnt need to be spotless to aviod MAF directed cleaning. Little bit of grease is fine any Mud, Leaves etc is not. If it doesnt have EU Stamped Lights etc then you can just add them if you want to road register is you dont have the Ownership papers you cannot register it.

Hope that helps

[Metastable]

Nice answer thanks.... one more for you. How about if one has a "home built i.e. no VIN" trailer with ownership.... do you have any idea how that one will be treated? It was made for the road, but you buy everything in pieces and self assemble it.

[skinny]

Nice answer thanks.... one more for you. How about if one has a "home built i.e. no VIN" trailer with ownership.... do you have any idea how that one will be treated? It was made for the road, but you buy everything in pieces and self assemble it.

Im not a LTSA expert or anything but I registered by boat trailer that was never registered before easy as. It basically went through a thorough Warrent of Fitness checking that its not rusty, tyres are good and the lights all work. They then gave me a number plate and i was off so easy as for getting it on the road.

I havent imported a trailer mainly as they would be quite expensive to ship for their value. Most of the ones imported are kitset ones that come semi flat packed as with the wheels off you can drop 1m3 off the over volume. The big point would be to ensure that its clean, very clean to reduce MAF charges. Ownership papers would be good but i dont believe they are essintial as this is not a motor vehicle.

Hope that helps. More then happy to answer any questions if you do go ahead with it.

[Metastable]

Cool thanks!
It is a foldable trailer, so if I end up renting part of a cargo container.... it might fit nicely in one and not take up too much space. Anyhoo... maybe all a little premature, but we'll see.