Hi friends,

I wanted to buy some RC stuff here in India, I learned everything about RC from internet mainly from www.rcgroups.com. While having discussions on this website I have seen there is huge difference between price of same parts available there and here in Indian stores. Sometimes it goes as high as two folds!! I just wanted to know, is there some kind of import duty which our stores are paying or they just keep their margins so high?? There are some stores offering very low prices too but all of them sell Chinese items which are useless if we want to pursue the hobby for long term.

My next doubt is about buying stuff directly from USA, one of my friend is in USA and he will be returning back to India soon. If I ask him to buy stuff from there and bring them here, will there be any violation of import or custom rules? I will be ordering Radio set, FPVs, Video transmitters and receivers, OSD with GPS receiver.

i would say this is the best way to buy rc stuff  , if some body is coming from usa , donot look any other means , but i am still confused that if the custom persons allow the whole stuff , if your friend has us green card or may be he is living in us for 2 or 3 years then they will not ask any question  , somebody from rc group told me about that , .. i am also waiting for a guy who is coming from us with my rc stuff.

Apparently you are not using the "Search" box at all   All this was answered multiple times before.

http://www.rcindia.org/rc-outlets-and-resellers/hobbycity-quality-stuff-is-cheap/msg4774/#msg4774

http://www.rcindia.org/rc-general-topics/airport-customs-issues/

http://www.rcindia.org/chatter-zone/help-with-customs/

And forgot to mention. The Chinese make everything these days. From the iPhone to paper clips, so there is not point in saying that Chinese stuff is cheap.  They make all types, depending on what you are willing to pay for.

Thanks mod,
oops I didn't even bother to search it  will take care.
And about Chinese you are right but a general feeling about their products is that they aren't reliable! Even if some of them are making robust products, its very difficult to find them 

Nope... you are wrong on the "general feeling" part.  That was a long time ago, when there was a lot of manufacturing in Japan, USA, Germany etc and products manufactured in these places generally had higher quality compared to stuff manufactured in China.  Now everything is manufactured in China, regardless of where the items are designed.  These days, Chinese will manufacture to your quality requirements, so that "general feeling of cheapness" does not apply at all  

Of course there is cheap stuff (a lot of it!) coming from China, but the best quality stuff is also coming from China.

Yes.. correct, they are making quality products too. But all those quality products are under brand name of big shots! Eg Nokia has put a plant in China and manufacturing mobiles there. Design and its development is done in some other part of globe, for manufacturing alone people are coming to China. So when you buy a Nokia's hot model you won't dare to call it a Chinese mobile but the fact remains that it was manufactured in China! When we say 'Chinese products' this means the products which are designed, developed, manufactured and marketed by Chinese people. And when we say they are 'cheap' it doesn't indicate the price tag alone, it indicates less reliability too!

If you are talking about "Chinese brands" this is generally true.  But I will give you one another example.

In the telecom field, there is a company named Huawei.  It is 100% Chinese, and competes with everything in the telecom arena (routers, telephony equipment, mobile/cellular service equipment etc), and they compete with the likes of Cisco, HP, Alcatel/Lucent, Ericsson etc.  They are capturing the world market like anything. I have heard from multiple friends in India their stuff cost like 30% of the cost of other brands, and are 95% as good as they are.

The same is true for many RC items coming from China too.  Take the case of the 450 clone helis from China. They are like 1/6th the cost of the originals (which are from Taiwan, not too far from China), and except for some screws and assembly issues, they are like 80 to 90% like the originals.

What I am trying to say is that just being a Chinese brand itself is not a problem any more *in many cases*.

I read that Align-taiwan delegates the manufacturing to China. Chinese Products have improved, Take an example of a mosquito swatting bat for 100 bucks. I haven't charged it or used it like since 1 year and It has still retained the charge. Think of all the components it may have like charger-battery-capacitors etc etc. + margin of china and Indian sellers. Its not crap anyway for 100 bucks. Gone are the days where Chinese products were "ALL" bad. Now a days I am seeing that their product QC is going higher for the same price.

TT is a chinese/Taiwan brand which is the 5th largest RC company in the world today and its a listed company. They own Team Associated a pioneer of RCs in the USA. Do not base your ideas on the Rs10 chinese stuff that we see on the road.

buy and bring to india, there was big restrictions b for, its liberalised. you can bring one model  there is no problem. if its more they ask you the bill have to pay 35 percent doty but spares and transmitter and stuffs like that u put in the luggagew they wont care at all.once my 7 nitro engine at cochin airport they detained, finally after a big influence i took it back to doha, last month i mreleased one of my big packet one scale mig 15 and hirobo 90 heli after a big fight i got it back. by paying35 percent plus penality.altogather damarage abt 4000 rs 19000 rs i paid but got the stuff out.the person in the customs that day was very jealous and he took my 4 litre hydraulic fluid too. first when they took my 7 engine i red the report. the cost they coated was 6 lakhs and the report, this engine can travel 19 kilmetre put the bomb and come back, and there was 5 minutes glue, they were talking that this is the glue used for making bomb.

I myself use two Huawei products ie tata indicom cdma mobile and tata photon! Both are working fine, as I have also told the same thing there are few good brands from China but how will you judge them without any practical experience? The mosquito bat is one the best innovation of this century indeed. On the basis of experience which I had with Chinese RC stuff from one of Indian store I have stated that Chinese products aren't good. I have not come across any TT product on any of the Indian store.

Apparently you have not looked wide enough   Thunder Tiger products are one of the better brands that is also widely available in India.  Rotor.co.in carries them, so does Model Art in Bangalore.  It is available in Delhi, although I am not sure of the shop name (rcskyhobby.com ?).

Quote from: prakkat on June 30, 2010, 05:58:22 PM
You can bring one model  there is no problem. if its more they ask you the bill have to pay 35 percent doty but spares and transmitter and stuffs like that u put in the luggagew they wont care at all.

Like it was said before, it is a problem only if YOU OVER DO IT.  Carry one plane, or one radio, or even one plane/heli and one radio, not a problem (unless that is the time of your worst luck in many years!).

Quote from: anwar on June 30, 2010, 08:15:28 PM
It is available in Delhi, although I am not sure of the shop name (rcskyhobby.com ?).

Yep.

http://www.rcskyhobby.com/products.php?main_page=productDisplay&manu_list=RCM00005

When it comes to radios etc, for branded ones, getting them from the US *by hand (for people who have that option)* is probably the cheapest option now (except for Airtronics, which had pretty competitive prices locally too).