The small questions thread

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#3415800 18-Sep-2025 00:32

The $1000 exemption is a 'de minimis' exemption because it's not worth customs inspecting the goods and filling out the paperwork at the border. It now only applies to low volume senders from overseas.

Large senders like AliExpress, Amazon, and eBay (>NZ$1M/year to NZ IIRC) are required to collect GST on all sales with no exceptions, because the cost to them of building GST into their ordering systems is deemed minimal compared to the total amount of GST collected. I believe YouShop falls under this.

Duty is additional to GST and refers to specific taxes on certain types of goods (i.e. tariffs) - common examples are alcohol and tobacco. I haven't looked at whether brake levers (vehicle parts?) would attract a duty.

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#3415803 18-Sep-2025 06:47

Youshop will most likely charge GST. For me, at one point the documentation supplied with the package listed the shipping cost within the US to get it to Oregon in the first place, and Youshop charged me GST on that.

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#3415811 18-Sep-2025 07:42

MadEngineer: What’s the annoying bird that flies over our place in the middle of the night and sounds like a cross between a sick seagull, a goose and a crying child?

Sounds like some kind of plover

https://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/spur-winged-plover

The samples sound terrible on my phone. Headphones or decent speakers required.

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#3415887 18-Sep-2025 12:38

SomeoneSomewhere:

The $1000 exemption is a 'de minimis' exemption because it's not worth customs inspecting the goods and filling out the paperwork at the border. It now only applies to low volume senders from overseas.

Large senders like AliExpress, Amazon, and eBay (>NZ$1M/year to NZ IIRC) are required to collect GST on all sales with no exceptions, because the cost to them of building GST into their ordering systems is deemed minimal compared to the total amount of GST collected. I believe YouShop falls under this.

Duty is additional to GST and refers to specific taxes on certain types of goods (i.e. tariffs) - common examples are alcohol and tobacco. I haven't looked at whether brake levers (vehicle parts?) would attract a duty.

It’s probably cheaper to pay the higher shipping cost to the company that makes the levers and save the extra step in the journey of the parcel. I am fairly sure the lever makers wouldn’t sell above a handful (see what I did there?) to NZ in a year. They won’t charge GST or US sales tax so I’ll probably just do that.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3415890 18-Sep-2025 12:45

Yeah, unless they flat out will not ship them to you, or won't budge on a truly outrageous shipping price, going direct is usually easier and probably comparable price.

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#3416028 18-Sep-2025 21:59

SomeoneSomewhere:

Yeah, unless they flat out will not ship them to you, or won't budge on a truly outrageous shipping price, going direct is usually easier and probably comparable price.

Their shipping (UPS in 3-5 days) is about US90. I got 20% off the levers so it’s easier to just send them to me.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3416033 18-Sep-2025 22:18

That sounds pretty reasonable.

eracode

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#3416172 19-Sep-2025 10:18

Why doesn’t the French President live up to the promise and spell his name as Mācrōn?

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k1w1k1d

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#3416441 19-Sep-2025 18:22

Do you think that this sentence from the Bunnings website needs a bit of work.

"Aerating your lawn has not been more simple with the Saxon lawn aerator sandals"

MadEngineer

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#3416448 19-Sep-2025 18:59

gzt:
MadEngineer: What’s the annoying bird that flies over our place in the middle of the night and sounds like a cross between a sick seagull, a goose and a crying child?

Sounds like some kind of plover

https://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/spur-winged-plover

The samples sound terrible on my phone. Headphones or decent speakers required.

Yep definitely plover.

next question, why do they do this at night, flying over residential houses? Google suggests it’s to protect their nest but it doesn’t make sense when they do it from quite high up and seem to be flying across the neighbourhood rather than circling a spot.

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#3417420 22-Sep-2025 15:13

What’s the total kW of the 2025/2026 RAV4 PHEV anyone know? Are we getting thee same “306 DIN hp/225 kW” as the US?

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#3417573 23-Sep-2025 04:17

k1w1k1d:

Do you think that this sentence from the Bunnings website needs a bit of work.

"Aerating your lawn has not been more simple with the Saxon lawn aerator sandals"

How about:

“Aerating your lawn is more dimple with the Saxon lawn aerator sandals"

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bfginger

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#3417574 23-Sep-2025 06:04

Where do you buy white outdoor AC pipe insulation from?

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3417662 23-Sep-2025 09:25

bfginger:

Where do you buy white outdoor AC pipe insulation from?

It's normally supplied pre-fitted to the pipe. I've never seen it separate.

gzt

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#3417674 23-Sep-2025 09:53

MadEngineer: Yep definitely plover. next question, why do they do this at night, flying over residential houses? Google suggests it’s to protect their nest but it doesn’t make sense when they do it from quite high up and seem to be flying across the neighbourhood rather than circling a spot.

They are known to be nocturnal at times. I've seen them call in flight during the day. The calls are not so noticeable during the day with all the usual suburban noise. Probably just over-flying your house from one favorite spot to another.

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