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Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go?
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I'm moving to Switzerland (Geneva/Lausanne region) in about 6 months. I'm using it as good excuse to buy some new gear.

I've read enough of DC Rainmaker's stuff to understand there are oftentimes price differences between US and Europe when it comes to sports equipment, but I don't know where the best (and worst) deals are.

I'm considering new bikes (road, gravel and/or mountain) and probably some winter gear as well (snowboard, boots, etc.). Does anyone have any recommendations/warnings about what I should make to sure to purchase before I go, vs wait until I'm on the other side of the pond to buy?
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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For ski boots. The best fitter in the northern alps is in the ski shop under the W in verbier

If you are in Lausanne, you should probably decide on where you want to ski predominantly, portes de soleil, leysin, verbier etc

I live in france / uk and am probably going to be moving to the valais in next 6 months

Other than consumables from wiggle, unless I was getting all sales tax off as I was when I lived in Qatar the US is almost universally cheaper, especially compared to CH
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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Being from Norway and now living in the USA I am used to compare prices.
Here you have my advice:
Look out for fx/currency. The Swiss francs have been strong lately, the same with the Euro. This will make it look more expensive from a USA point of view.
In many European countries the sale tax is included in the price, no so here in the USA (of course depending on what state you are living in).
What is expensive depends on the product. Lots of skiing equipment is cheaper in Norway even with the Norwegian 25% sales tax. Running shoes and equipment is cheaper in the USA.
When it comes to bike products it can be a hit an miss. But since these are expensive products the currency issue is playing a bigger role.

Enjoy Europe.
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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Are you bringing stuff over in a shipping container or just luggage? If you can spare the space, I'd ask your new neighbors for friends what they'd like from the U.S.
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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Don’t know how the customs react when you come with a trailer full of new stuff....if you have to pay the additional sales tax and fees you might can buy it here. It’s even a big difference between getting it shipped to Germany or Switzerland. Lots of shops in Germany near the border offering storage room for Swiss customers to pick up boxes instead of having it send to Switzerland directly cause it’s way cheaper.

-shoki
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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Peanut butter.

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [CCF] [ In reply to ]
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CCF wrote:
Peanut butter.

But surely he will be eating Nutella?
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [CCF] [ In reply to ]
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CCF wrote:
Peanut butter.

Wut? Peanut butter is not only easy to come by out here, but it's generally either 100% peanuts or doesn't have all the crap E numbers in it.
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [Grill] [ In reply to ]
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And you can get really good ‘healthy’ varieties now with no added sugar, added seeds, cashews, etc.... it is like the world is having a little nut butter renaissance!!!
Last edited by: Misery: Jun 17, 18 12:46
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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Also interested in this, but for Ireland. Are there any products that are far more expensive in Ireland than in the US? Particularly triathlon products?
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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I'm based in switzerland but travel to the us often...any apparel is really cheap in the us. Bikes/gear/electronics really depends. I was looking into buying an Argon e119 in the us but decided it was not worth it....oficially you have to own stuff you bring for more than 6 month otherwise they could charge sales tax. Not sure anyone would be able to find out though.
Good luck in ch....you will like cycling over here
Uli
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [uw234] [ In reply to ]
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I wonder how it would work going the other way. For a US citizen buying a bike in Europe and bringing it back to the US. I bought my wife a high end purse, which was about the same price in London vs the US. Then I got the VAT back at the airport and it came out quite a bit cheaper.
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [Grill] [ In reply to ]
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Grill wrote:
CCF wrote:
Peanut butter.


Wut? Peanut butter is not only easy to come by out here, but it's generally either 100% peanuts or doesn't have all the crap E numbers in it.


Yeah? Good to hear. When I studied abroad (god, almost 20 years ago now--yikes) finding PB in Budapest was pretty tough.

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.
Last edited by: CCF: Jun 17, 18 22:34
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [CCF] [ In reply to ]
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CCF wrote:
Grill wrote:
CCF wrote:
Peanut butter.

Wut? Peanut butter is not only easy to come by out here, but it's generally either 100% peanuts or doesn't have all the crap E numbers in it.

Yeah? Good to hear. When I studied abroad (good, almost 20 years ago now--yikes) finding PB in Budapest was pretty tough.

Yeah, I'd say even 10 years ago you had to look around a bit, but these days it ain't no thing.
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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Crest toothpaste.
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [Grill] [ In reply to ]
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Whole Earth.

Mmmmmm.
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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I'm from UK living in Switzerland and have also lived in US. As has been said by others, Switzerland is shit expensive - I expect that you'll be able to save money by doing any big shopping in France as you're near that border - we do big supermarket shopping in Germany and its at least 30-40% cheaper (Although there are limits as to how much you can bring over the border).

Clothes are so much cheaper in the US (both sports gear and normal wear) so I'd definitely stock up on those.

Bikes I found weren't that different US to Europe - of course that depends on the prevailing x-rates.

Amazon don't deliver to Switzerland, so you might want to set up a receiving post box in France if you do a lot of shopping through them.

You'll love the cycling here - so much safer than the US.
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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You will likely be surprised by the cost of things here. Switzerland kind of operates as a standalone state and therefore e-commerce retailers here have somewhat of a monopoly on the market, at least at the moment. If you order gear from outside of the country you will pay import and inspection fees (for anything over CHF 62 including postage fees), usually if the VAT from the source country has been deducted it does still work out cheaper than buying in Switzerland but sometimes the post service can give some nasty surprise fees! Always worth planning trips abroad, work trips where you can stock up on much needed items.

As others have said there are ways and means around it by shopping over the border in France, Germany, Italy etc, but there are still some good retailers in country (bikester.ch do have some competitive prices for some stuff). I'd advise also checking out snowleader.ch - they are much cheaper than Swiss retailers and include all of the import fees in their prices when you order.

Some great places to train, and amazing cycling roads here too. Good luck.
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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Really all sports gear, electronics and apparel. Including but not limited to stuff like Adidas running shoes. All of that is typically much cheaper in the USA even if it originates in Europe.
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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I've been living in that exact region since 2007. I actually disagree with some of the comments above. In Switzerland, the main costs which are significantly more than US/rest of Europe are food, accommodation (although the latter not so much if you're e.g. coming from the Bay area...), and likely clothing and shoes. However, after the Swiss Franc became very strong against the Euro some years ago, and especially during the period that it was fixed to the Euro, there was a substantial price re-alignment for hard manufactured goods and list prices for these are now often very competitive against list prices elsewhere; in part also due to the very low sales tax of 7.8%. This e.g. applies to Apple products, cars, various brands of bicycles. As an example, I recently bought a Cervelo R5 Dura Ace DI2 here. At 8500 CHF list price for this is actually less than in the USA (9000 USD), and that 8500 includes the sales tax. As another example, Castelli clothing is cheaper here than in France or Italy, and brand name clothes can be cheaper than in London. What you do not find here, however, are many b+m or online stores blowing out parts or clothes cheap, so items such as tyres can seem expensive. Arguably however the bigger challenge is simply that Switzerland is a small, closed market and consequently choices are much smaller than elsewhere. Nowadays not being able to source something here is typically the only reason for me to mail order something from another country. Germany and UK are preferred places for doing this; Germany especially has good import/export agreements with Switzerland and, since their sales tax is 20%, if you order large enough to cover surprise processing charges with the sales tax difference you can pay less than someone in Germany for an order from Germany!

Other things worth noting. As a general rule, the Swiss do not do any bike maintenance at home. E.g. I rebuilt my R5 as I wanted; after I made some Facebook posts showing build steps Swiss friends asked me "you did the build yourself?!?" Because of this there is effectively no second hand market for bike components. Second hand sales are primarily whole bikes and maybe wheels. If you have components you need to sell, best try assembling them into a complete bike! Seriously, a friend and I recently pooled components to do this and split the proceeds from selling the complete because on their own the components had no value. On a more positive side, there are a number of great bike shops in this region. If you become a good customer you are likely to receive a loyalty discount and flexibility (e.g. swapping out/removing components from buying a complete bike for very correct prices). They also collaborate together; my LBS sources me parts that they do not officially stock through others which are official dealers, something I could never imagine happening in the US or UK. The R5 case in point :-) It can be worth building up a good relationship just for helping out with unforeseen emergencies.

Hope you enjoy the move! Road cycling (and I guess running but I don't run) is awesome here 8–9 months per year. The remaining months can be a bit brutal, unless you take up XC skiing...
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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Excellent advice all (esp the peanut butter tip)!

One follow-up question: if I could only bring one bike: road, gravel, mountain (my tri bike is going to take a sabbatical). What would you suggest?
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [LynchDeez] [ In reply to ]
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Also interested in this for the Netherlands, particularly with respect to bike and run equipment as compared to the US. Appreciate any advice
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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For sure the road bike, you will so near many epic TDF climbs and tons of amazing roads.



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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [eisforurgent] [ In reply to ]
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eisforurgent wrote:
Excellent advice all (esp the peanut butter tip)!

One follow-up question: if I could only bring one bike: road, gravel, mountain (my tri bike is going to take a sabbatical). What would you suggest?
Gravel bike, you can put road tires on it and just ride on the road as well. In some countries like Belgium and the Netherlands it would also allow you to do most MTB routes as well.
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Re: Moving to Europe from the States - what should I buy before I go? [jsmith] [ In reply to ]
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jsmith wrote:
Also interested in this for the Netherlands, particularly with respect to bike and run equipment as compared to the US. Appreciate any advice
Running shoes always cheaper in the US. Bike parts is mostly mixed but the places to go in the Netherlands are Rose Versand and Hopmans Fietsgigant.
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