I have not got around to writing a post in a few weeks as there has been a lot of stuff going on at home with work and family and sometimes life gets in the way of routine. One thing I did want to write about with a while was brexit as I know it is causing some issues for some using this site.

I have noticed that since the start of this year many of the items that I recommended in product reviews are no longer offering delivery to Ireland. There is also the issue of added tax. Looking at google analytic I can see that probably half the readers on this website are from the UK so there should be no issue for anyone from the UK.

There are talks of a distribution centre from Ireland setting up in Ireland but for the moment amazon.ie is linked to Amazon in the UK. However, that is not the only option for Irish customers one you are registered with Amazon you can log on to any Amazon store worldwide with your same password that you use for amazon,ie

The reason I am suggesting that is if a product you are looking for is not available in the UK store the other Amazon stores in Europe will often deliver to Ireland and as they are in the euro zone they use the same currency and will not charge any tax or duty. I have often noticed a price difference in the same products in Amazon stores in different countries so as the old saying goes it pays to shop around.

There are amazon stores in France Spain Italy or Germany and if I was to suggest one for Irish customers I would have to say Germany at Amazon.de. As there is a population of 83 million living in Germany is has on of the best range of products and offer delivery to Ireland on a lot of them.

Once you log in click on the German Flag at the top of the page and select translate to English then just search for the item that you are looking for.

eBay

Not as many people use eBay but they have a huge rang of products and in my view they often have products that Amazon might not cover. For instance, I have brought car and tractor parts from EBay in the past and even many breaker yards sell secondhand parts on eBay that might be hard to find of very expensive from local garages or stores.

I think most Amazon products are likely to be for sale on EBay too and there are not as many Issues with shipping to different countries. EBay also have a lot of second hand items and can be a good marketplace to pick up a bargin

Chinese Market Places

Other than Amazon or EBay there are a number of large Chinese sites such as gearbest.com bangood.com or Aliexpress.com which offer very good value but I don’t think they are as reliable as Amazon or EBay. I am not suggesting that you will get scammed but due to the way items are shipped you could be waiting a long time for delivery.

I have also found on occasion that the items failed to turn up. I always got a refund from Ali express but it can be a hassle waiting over a month for something only to receive a refund. Still, they have a very large range of products at a price unmatched anywhere else. That being said you can also get stung for custom and import fees when buying items from outside the EU.