ordering a HID from China

Hi All, I will be ordering a HID torch from China and would like to know if there would be any customs/duty fee coming into Canada due to the weight/size of the package.

Anyone out there have any idea?

Thx

NOPE!

Thanks Gimpy!

A word of advice, though, from someone who tried to buy one recently (i.e., me)

1. Buy it from a seller who’s used to shipping to canada
2. Request a tracking number right away

I ordered mine and it got rejected by customs due to inadequate seller info. Fortunately, paypal had my back and refunded my purchase. I spoke with customs, though, and they said they weren’t interested in the flashlight, they just weren’t happy with the labelling for some reason.

Out of curiosity, which one are you getting? I’m going to re-order eventually. If you’ve got a link, I’d be interested.

Here you go…

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/290634744774?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&\_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2648#ht_3855wt_1397

Thanks for the tip regarding tracking. I’ll make certain to ensure the labeling is adequate for customs purposes.

Cool beans! What were you looking for from your purchase? I was trying to get my hands on a xeccon ssk-20s (aka 75w/55w/35w HID), but I’m guessing you’re looking for something more flashlight-sized :slight_smile:

That is right. Something small/decent sized but powerful enough to satisfy the flashaholic in me.
I don’t need anything that will throw further than 500 meters or so anyway but I do want to add a torch in my collection of an HID make.
I have too many LED flashlights :bigsmile:

Well you’ll have to let me know how your purchase goes. A review would be cool! I got my sky ray king and a tr-1200. I wouldn’t mind getting something flashlight-sized that was a decent 500 m thrower.

That 24W looks pretty nice. It’s a nice portable size as well. Kind of makes me regret getting my 85W eBay HID and wish i got a magic fire one instead which uses 18650s.

By the way, the beamshot used in the description is nowhere close to what you’ll see in real life. It will definitely destroy all your other lights in terms of brightness but the picture shown was probably exposed for around 5 or 6 seconds. For a 24W HID to have that kind of laser beam effect is just wildly inaccurate.

I have a pretty comprehensive beamshot comparison and description of my eBay 85W here.
Later when I receive my STL V2, I’ll go down to the reserve and take some proper shots comparing throw.

I looked into this a few years ago and i don’t know if things have changed, but the import limit for no duty was $20, and anything with a declared value above that is supposed to be charged taxes, and a duty fee. Often the customs people don’t care so they don’t send you a bill, but i found it to be a crapshoot, maybe 25% of the time over $20 i would get a bill that i had to pay at the post office before they would give me the package.

Customs is definitely a craphsoot. The rules are so wildly complicated that it’s hard to get consistent application. For the most part, customs won’t give a hoot; they have much bigger fish to fry. But the lady after explaining exactly what I had ordered, the lady at customs said, “it doesn’t sound like anything we’d be interested in.”

I think the limit is $60, I’ll have to do some research…

The number isn’t the easiest to find, but probably best to call.

Did some research. The 20 dollar limit still applies for gst/hst. A lot of places will simply write gift or fib about the value, which probably isn’t a problem so long as:

  1. There isn’t a receipt inside
  2. The value isn’t obviously false
    or
  3. The customs agent doesn’t care.

edit

As for specific tariffs, flashlights are covered by section 16, 85.13.10.10 of the Customs Tariff. All of the applicable tariffs are listed as free, so there shouldn’t be anything other than HST.

It was quite the learning experience figuring out how to read this stuff. I think basically everything is treated under the MFN tariff, unless there’s some specific tariff that applies. There’s a section where it lists all the possible countries of origin and all the tariffs that apply to each country. China is treated under either the MFN (most favoured nations) Tariff or the GPT (General Preferential Tariff). I guess you’d have to read the Customs Tariff Act to figure out which one applies to your case. When you look up the item in the big Customs Tariff guide that lists each item and category, it’ll list the rate you’d pay for that item under the MFN, then it lists any preferential tariffs that apply, and gives the rate for that item under those tariffs.

Regardless, for flashlights, they’re all listed as “free”; i.e., no special tariff—just hst.

edit
Actually, it appears that the MFN column applies, unless the preferential applicable tariff applies to the country of origin for that item; e.g., There’s an MFN rate, but there’s also a GPT rate; China is treated under MFN and GPT, so you use the GPT rate for that item.

Check out CPF searchlights and HID forum. The magicfire one might not be performing that well.

HID less than 35W is much less efficient. I’d suggest look into 35W HID on ebay instead,
they have 35W in same body as the 24W, only cost a little bid more

Here are lux measurements of 24W HIDs:
Low Power HIDs: 25W or less
…24W Tactical HID- 40,000 cp (measured by jirik_cz)
…24W Oracle HID, OP reflector- 45,000 cp (measured by ma_sha1)

more HID lux refernces here:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?311939-Consolidated-Short-Arc-amp-HID-spotlight-Lux-readings

What do you mean it might not be performing that well? I saw a thread which included the Fire Fox 40W which I assume to be similar to the magic fire one. From the pictures the Fire Fox seems to be performing better than my eBay 85W, and there’s a comparison somewhere on CPF which shows it being on par with throw and spill with an eBay 75W 6000K. Mine’s supposedly 6000K, but it looks closer to 5000K in pictures

I will soon report on that, if it ever gets out of NYC customs…. Hopefully it’s disappointing to hardcore hid spotlight fans but not compared to led throwers.

I have quite a few of those Ebay/Ali HIDs but at 65W, i purchased them for a plantation use in Indonesia for my in-laws. Personally I have 2 of them here in Singapore.
Mine is closer to 5000K. What i am getting is about 220k cd and about 4000 lumens OTF when properly warmed up. It is supposed to be 65W input. (it’s extremely difficult to measure input power/current for these buggers).

It seems that the 85W HIDs (and even 75W) are hitting a limit. Until i get one 85W ballast, i suspect that they might not put out that much more lumens or lux than even the 65W. I don’t know, with the Chinese it could be anything. If the bulbs are even 7000K then there could be a huge range in the readings. Anything goes over there man….
I have over 30 HID bulbs for my various HIDs and yeah i got some duds (not so bright etc)

I think some of them measured the Magicfire to be slightly under 40W? That’s input…IIRC it was 32W or 34W.

The real Firefox 40W does put out 225k cd beam intensity, so yes i’d say that it matches my Ebay 65W.

Anyway, on Ebay you can get the 4300k bulb/ballast combo i think. But slightly more ex than on Aliexpress. (think it’s about 150 bucks on Ebay and cheapest on Ali is 135)