Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

I purchased some new roof gutter clips from Pelican parts, the cost £34.00 for 10 clips. The delivery from the states was $40, but I needed them so paid it. I then got a bill for £32.50 from FedEx for tax which included £12 administration because they paid the tax. Is this normal?

Why would you do that, when the clips are available from your local Porsche dealer

999-591-732-02 @ £1.60 each inc vat

£16 for 10 and arrive in 3 days

I cocked up. Still learning

yep, always check your porsche dealer first.

the admin fee can be a killer, i've had £15 admin when the customs charge was just £2.50

Ouch! I can't believe the 10 clips cost me over £70.

Still love my poor old 944 which I know is a bit of a lemon, I will bring her back from the brink

Not a bad, 5 times the price lesson, I can guess you won’t do that again

Anything from the USA will cost a lot extra, and Europe will be the same after Oct 31st

I often use OPC - superb service and often surprisingly cheap.

But the USA is also blessed with 4 specialist 928 parts suppliers (I’ve no idea if there are similar specialist suppliers in the 944/968 world). Sometimes the US price for the same Porsche part available here has been 25% of the price, making for huge savings even with shipping/admin. Porsche has moved to equalise some of these prices, but the far larger US market still makes it worth checking prices there.

Porsche parts buying 101.
Always check the price at the OPC first. Some prices will make your nose bleed, but sometimes new genuine parts are even cheaper than used ones on Ebay.

only 25% cheaper,

surely by the time shipping and duty goes on that the price must be close to the same,

places like Sunset or Paragon only buy the parts from Porsche anyway, so the OPC's here should be able to compete if they were not so greedy,

I found out that for the OPC resto competition Porsche were selling 944/968 Rear hatches to the dealers for £500, thats a 4K discount......

Nope 25% of the Porsche price here, not 25% less.

That was case when I first used US suppliers 13 years ago. They have since moved some US and European prices closer together, but the difference on many still makes it a bargain to import many 928 parts from USA where 928 International, 928 Specialists, 928s R Us and 928 Motorsports all specialise in the model.

If it still works with the horrid exchange rates then you just have to get your parts from wherever is cheapest

Don’t really matter where from, as long as it keeps another 928 on the roads

As often it's a nuanced decision involving things like cost, speed of delivery, special deals, and even how efficient the interface is for ordering online (couple of the US suppliers stand out in that respect).

Frankly the most enjoyable experience is my local OPC, who provide superb personal service from their parts people at both ordering stage and when picking up order from them. When their price is broadly similar to others, that's first port of call.

I'm terrible for stockpiling too, so there are certain ebay parts sellers I like who consistently find decent 'new old stock' when it's worth comparing their price with list. Others on ebay demand lunatic prices many times the new list price, for knackered/damaged used parts.