Guide to Purchasing Foreign Instruments

Deciding whether to purchase directly from an overseas maker or to purchase the same horn in stock at home? Calculating the final cost of your horn is not as straight forward as you might think. Here’s why:

If I want to purchase a horn that costs €6499,00 I immediately check out the current market exchange rate and I see that the dollar is trading at .90 Dollars to 1.00 Euro. I pull out my calculator and figure that makes my price $7155.00 right? Wrong.

Unless you have an account in a European bank from which you can draw Euro currency, you never get the market exchange rate. Figure at least 3% less from your bank, so while the world rate is .90, your rate is .87, making your new amount $7328.00. Now add your bank’s wire transfer fee. This is anywhere from $0 to $50.00 and it should be included in your cost. Let’s say it’s $50.00. Now you are at $7378.00.

Wait there’s more. Now that your horn is paid for, there is shipping which from most of Europe is usually between €100 and €200. Let’s say it is €150.00. At the .87 exchange rate that’s about $169.00. Total now is $7547.00

Make sure you have a couple of good gigs lined up in the week after horn arrives, because you will now need to pay a US customs tax. This is usually around 5.63% of your invoiced cost. Add $403.00 for a new total of $7950.00

Wait there’s more! In addition to the tax itself, there will also be a brokerage fee of around $35.00 plus some unspecified “other” fees of around $10.00. Final cost for your horn is $7995.00, give or take $30.00 or so, and you may have had to wait for several months to receive it. That’s 11% more than the sticker price conversion and, in my experience, that’s average. The market is never stable for long, so plan your budget to accommodate 10%-13% over cost.

Yes, you can order directly and wait for six months and hope the currency market stays stable or moves in your favor, and for a horn with extreme customizations this might be your only option. But if a US store has the instrument you want in stock and available for between $8000.00-$8300.00, you can rest assured that you are not getting a bad deal.