Importing from US - help!

Expect to double what you are paying for the sporting goods, when you take into account delivery & duty.

Thats an incredibly general statement and off the mark going on my own probable costs:

goods 10,000 shipping 500 customs fees 300 duty 700 vat 2,000 total 13,500

thats about 35% mark up versus the 100% you've stated. Am I missing something here?!

I believe import duty has been increased recently for a number of products from the US. I don't know if sports equipment is one of them.

6% on these still don't know where the doubling item cost came from! Importing would cease to happen rather quickly if so.

Bitstring , from the wonderful person JP Jones said

Only the quantity involved. Most people read 'import some sporting goods' and think of bringing in a half set of golf clubs .. the fixed costs are pretty high, so for that it could work out nearer 100%. Once you get into the £10k range (or higher) economies of scale start to work for you.

My company used to be able to move stuff anywhere on the planet for < £2 a Kg (by air) .. however I still get charged $10 for a 250g book shipped from the USA.

You gave no indication of the scale of the transaction.

Storage, Airline storage can be very expensive if you don't get the goods cleared straight away.

Foreign exchange costs and risk. Bank charges. Insurance.

DG