Re: has anyone bought lights or anything overseas?
Because of my other hobby, airsoft, I do a lot of purchasing from overseas -- Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc.
Shipping costs typically depend on the type of service requested. "Express" shipping by expedited air shipments (typically less than 24 hours from the time it exits their store to the time it checks into its US Port-of-Entry) are the most expensive, followed by "Air Mail," followed by "surface." Air Mail can take upwards of one to two weeks in terms of transfer time, and surface shipment methods can take month(s).
Independent carriers most popularly chosen include United Postal Service (UPS), TNT (changes to, I believe, Airborne Express when it gets here into the US, but recently I've been seeing TNT trucks here...I'm no longer 100% certain of this), Federal Express (FedEx), or the native national postal service (i.e. EMS for Japan, HKSpeedPost for HongKong -- in any case, these change over into USPS as end-carrier).
Costs are also affected by any Customs brokerage fees or taxes/duties on the products that you import. How the product is declared as well as its declared value will of course impact such charges, but honestly, whether if the product is taxed or other such fees assessed is a chance toss-up.
Similarly, so is the amount of time your item can spend being "inspected." While many items may pass right through without any inspection (it's a numbers game -- only so many Agents have to check so much cargo), or it may be delayed a day or two, or even two or more weeks, depending on how detailed an inspection can be. There's again no hard-set rules here, it's mostly chance, but it's affected again by the goods that you purchase.
As such, although it may only take 24 hours for your goods to depart their shores and get into the US at its Port-of-Entry through various "express" methods, it may be delayed there at Customs for two weeks!
Choose a method of shipment which allows product "tracking" via the 'Net. EMS and most of the independent companies offer this type of service for nominal cost. This way, you can always track where your item may be.
=)
Allen
aka DumboRAT