Collecting in the Caribbean, advice please.

So I need some help, all actual advice is welcome. I'm a collector of consoles and games, I have been for some time now, the view is create a large collection with the end goal begin to open a retro home console arcade on my island, the only one of it's kind in Martinique and the neighbouring islands, but I've hit a bit of a wall. I moved to the Caribbean 2 years ago and the only systems I can buy here are, firstly the most popular consoles and secondly the oldest it seems I can buy is the Nintendo Gamecube, which I'm yet to buy as even they are rare here! My natural thoughts were to import, but this is problematic! I'm by no means a rich man and it seems to ship any kind of console, game and/or associated bits and bobs is aways at least 100% of the cost meaning everything I look at is twice the price of what I'd look at pay if I were back in the UK. So my question is: Does anyone have any idea where I can purchase console gaming hardware at a decent price and with decent shipping?
On a related note, other than here, does anyone know of any sites where I could pick up give aways or freebees where only postage is required? Thanks for reading and happy gaming folks...

 

Well, as martinique is part of France, there is not taxes when you import, and the shipping price will be lower than if you order in UK

 

Shipping to Martinique will be very costly, so this will always be your bottleneck. It would be wise to look into bulk shipping options (e.g. shared container freight) and buy a lot of items at once and then ship it to yourself, instead of buying item per item.

 

I was hoping that would be my very last option. It would appear cheaper to bulk buy in France, fly over with a couple empty suitcases collect and then fly back the next day. Clearly though that is not ideal. It is becoming more and more evident that everything is just going to cost me a lot either way. Cheers for the reply Wombat

 

Using the French postal service, it will cost you 28 euros for a 3 kg package. There is no taxes and custom as it is part of France.

 

As long as you're fine with waiting 2 to 3 months, surface mail shipping (as in seamail) is pretty cheap from Japan. Going by kenny's standard, it would cost you 2900 yen (23.51 euros) for a 3kg package.

The pricing is a bit strange, but in a good way. For a 10kg package you would expect it to be 3 x 2900 yen, but it's actually only 6750 yen.

 

I originally thought that, it seems that is not the case unfortunately. When it comes to postage to the DOM-TOM France treats us like we're a foreign country. I've no idea why as they subsidise the island a lot. To make matters worse some of the French just flat out won't post here.

 

Well, I have no customs when I send to Martinique. Have you checked it recently ?

 

DeChief, I guess there is still custom, right ? As when you send something to my place, I always have customs to pay.

 

Unfortunately from what I can find France treats us like a separate country and prices shipping accordingly, though ideally I would prefer to buy from the UK in my first language, I fear I'm asking the impossible...

 

Really? How much do you pay?

 

Up until recently there has been no customs but there is talk of that changing in the near future

 

I never thought of buying from Japan due to things being in NTSC and France now operating in PAL. I wouldn't mind the wait, you get use to that living here but surely nothing would work?

 

Oh right. Well, you could always buy a power transformer and a compatible TV.

 

Unfortunately it's not a realistic solution as I aim to have 1 TV for every console so I dare say I would end up paying more than if I just had goods shipped from the UK/EU, but I will keep this in mind for my personal collection, thank you!

 

I don't remember exactly. Something like 20 euros for the NPDP cart and 50 for the IS-Nitro-Capture.

 

DHL do ship here but they charge an arm and a leg, it really does seem I will be making a few trips back and forth for bulk collections from a PO Box or similar. Urg. Cheers ASSEMbler

 

There is a "Cash Converters" here that I use a lot, I may just be their best customer. Xbox's seem to be the most popular console they have with the 360 being in abundance. But that will still set you back 110€/$125/£87. Good advice though, I may look into that more but in St. Lucia where they speak English and import greatly for the US tourism market.