I have bought two alembic items from overseas. The first a guitar from a shop in Germany and the other was an Sf-2 from USA. Both used items. The guitar I was not charged tax on but the sf-2 from the USA, I had to pay VAT plus a parcelforce handling charge which added another ?65 to the cost of the pre-amp. So I would really prepare yourself for that cost on top of the ebay or other price you have to pay.
I have asked at the post office about this and they said that it doesn't matter if you declare the item as used or commercial samples for evaluation, gift etc, if they think the item warrants a charge, they will levy it and they will charge the courier who won't let you have the goods till you pay the charges.
Make sure you get the instrument shpped in a good quality case. The guitar I got from Germany was in one of the atx style guitar cases like this
http://www.flightcasewarehouse.co.uk/guitarcases/listproducts2.asp?id=5785 . It has quite hard padding and was also packed in an external cardboard box padded with bubblewrap and when it arrived, the guitar had bumped so much around in the case that the vol and tone knobs had jammed inside the body of the guitar and wouldn't operate.
I had to dismantle and disconnect everything to remove them and refit them. Now they are fine but it was a bit scary especially as the guitar wasn't cheap.
I travel a lot internationally with my band and I can't recommend enough the wisdom of getting a good quality full flight case. Saves tears. If your seller has one buy it off him and get it sent over in that. Saves tears later. I have seen first hand how baggage handlers throw stuff off the plane onto the floor. I have been directly in front of a baggage handler who dropped a bass players instrument which was in a soft unpadded carry on case, on the floor right in front of us even though he had told the attendant it was a delicate musical instrument. So you know when you are not there, it's gonna be worse.
I think if I was gonna get a real expensive alembic series I or II from the states, i'd probably get a cheap flight holiday there and pick it up myself. It can't be much difference between a bargain basement economy flight to most major destinations in the USA from the UK and the cost of insured shipping. Plus the peace of mind.
