I received an email from a reader today letting me know that Amazon now ships certain Lego sets to Australia!
As I spend half my life on Amazon this took me by surprise. Needless to say I had to find out for myself and promptly went to the Amazon.com website, placed a large Lego set in my cart and checked out.
The order went through without a hitch, dispatched within 24 hours and saved me $70 off a $250 set!
I am not sure when the change took place but I am very happy that it did. This change might be in effect for other countries that had previously been blocked but I can only speak for Australia – If in doubt try it out!
I took a little browse around and found that not all sets can ship, some larger sets like The Death Star and the Modular Pet Store are amongst those I still can’t add to my Aussie-bound cart.
However there are many that can be shipped – Diagon Alley, Tantive IV, Ninjago Fire Temple, Modular Emporium and heaps more.
One of the best savings is on the Lego Mindstorms set which retails for $450 in Australia but can be bought for $300 through the Amazon store.
Like most overseas purchases the larger the set the better the deal, as postage is $20 for the first item and $10 for each additional item. So a small set just wouldn’t make sense.
Curious, I also tried other things like the Kitchenaid Stand Mixer, a victim of huge mark-up prices in Australia; retailing for $695 over here but available for $315 shipped via Amazon – a saving of $380! There were many other things I could order as well – take a look for yourself if you are unsure.
If you are an Australian in the market for just about anything it would pay to check out the site before you shop locally this Christmas – Amazon is no longer just a Book/DVD/CD retailer for Aussies!
Given this change I will be letting you know if sets ship to Australia in my set guides and reviews. I will also be paying more attention to sales and deals other Amazon sites like Amazon.fr, Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk as I see there are a growing number of international visitors to the site.
Inger, so how did your order went? Did you receive it yet? I have been sending over people to your site who don’t know about this. One questions that came up though; in Australia you have to pay some kinds of duty-tax when you buy something from overseas, isn’t it?
And I also read somewhere that for Aussies this was pretty pricey. So, do you have to pay duties for your Amazon orders? Wouldn’t that negate all the savings? It may be a good idea to clarify this. In the USA we don’t have such a thing, so I’m totally ignorant about duties and how the whole thing works. 😳
Hope all goes well with your order! 😉
Hey Anna
My order was a joyful experience 🙂
The Ninjago Fire Temple arrived within 5 working days via Aust Air Express and was in perfect condition. I paid $85 AUS which was probably a saving of over $100 now that I think about it.
In regards to import Tax you only pay the GST fee if the total value of the order (including postage) comes in at over $1000 AUS!
I think in New Zealand that threshold is lower ($250?).
Thanks for bringing it up, it is an important issue but probably not a factor for those importing the occasional set.
Cheers
Wow! You got the set in 5 days??? It would take them longer to ship it to me just a couple of states away! Thanks for clarifying the import tax thresholds! Poor NZlanders! 😐
Enjoy your Fire Temple! 😀
It’s cheap too.
About $15 to ship a large set at that speed from France to Australia.
As Darth Vader would say – “Most Impressive”
The NZ threshold is NZ$ 400, just ordered a Grand Emporium myself. 😉
Thanks Snowie for the clarification.
The Grand Emporium is calling me too 🙂
I might wait for the Pet Shop though as I really like that set
Cheers
Inger
Unfortunately the Pet Shop gives me a “We are not able to ship this item to your default shipping address. ” There doesn’t really seem to be any rhyme or reason as to what can be shipped to NZ.
Grand Emporium, Diagon Alley, Maersk Train and Fire Brigade seem to work.
Hope that helps..
I tried to buy Tantive IV today and I live in A us no luck won’t ship. Diagonal Alley did though.
Hey
Yes not all sets ship. If you are after something specific also try Amazon.fr as they have some great deals and cheap shipping.
cheers
Inger