AxelMusic vs. Amazon (Round 1)

The reason and the rhyme for introducing AxelMusic.

If you haven't read the page yet, I suggest you read the Importing and VAT page as well as this to clear a few things up as to why we have introduced a new player to our recommended suppliers.

Over the last month I set about researching everywhere and anywhere to find a place I thought impossible.

It required the following criteria.

1. Secure website

AxelMusic uses a SSL Server with a Thawte SSL certificate encypting ALL data and therefore all orders, and is therefore a very safe site to use.

2. Must have distribution centres in Europe to avoid Customs and VAT

I sent them an email about this and was answered with the following.

Thank you very much for your interest in our shop. Unlike Amazon we actually have three distribution centers in Europe(UK, Germany and France). When shopping with us, customers will never pay customs or VAT. Everything is prepaid and items are sent from within EU.

3. Because this will inevitably make titles dearer it must be the best priced company with the LOWEST postage.

With the exception of importing directly from Amazon USA (which is still regularly the best price delivered when there is no VAT / Import duties), AxelMusic has the best range of ALL region discs with the cheapest prices available within Europe and the UK, and amazingly still manages to have fantastic postage rates, usually around 99 pence per title.

4. Thay must accept Paypal as an option so that when Amazon becomes a more attractive option after the above timer hits zero, discs can still be bought via a Paypal accepting location as an option. (Amazon does not accept Paypal).

Check!

5. They must have prompt polite customer service.

Check! Very polite in their emails and shipping within the UK & EU from them is very fast.

AxelMusic vs. Amazon (Round 2)

So why are you still suggesting Amazon as an option then?

Amazon has very good prices, and if you read the Import / Vat page you will realize that for a purchase of less than £18 or a purchase of enough titles to warrant paying Import / VAT can still work out cheaper.

So... The easy way would be to...

Make all purchases from AxelMusic until December 1st when the import threshold increases from £18 to £118 and makes the Amazon list still very worthwhile.
(We will keep both lists updated anyway).

The harder way would be to...

I am a numbers man myself so what I would probably do, and I guess the reason for keeping both lists is decide each order on a per order basis.

This would be from how many titles I wanted and which ones, and then do the maths on each possible order taking VAT / Import duties into account.

For instance, if I was simply purchasing 1-2 titles totalling under £18 I would most likely just use Amazon.

Since we can't be sure if Royal Mail will ping us or not for an Amazon order, anything over this will have to be considered with duties taken into account.

I personally think at the moment AxelMusic has the edge for speed, locality, avoiding messy duties, and low shipping costs, so make your own mind up, but in my eyes we have a great new option that will allay a lot of fears and still cost less than ever for the newest worldwide titles.

I have put a link to a currency converter on the Amazon US page to help those who prefer to work out one purchases potential advantage from another.

The AxelMusic video tutorial will be up this week for those who would like some help with joining and operating the web page.

A nice feature of AxelMusic is that using the menu on the right you can view prices in Pounds or Euros.