Just about Eddie.
If I go to a US car speed shop here they normally just swap the $ sign for a £ sign.
It can be a little cheaper to buy parts yourself. But it can also be more expensive. Depending on postage costs.
Take a typlical order from Summit Racing.
First of all they charge a $24.00 surcharge because it is a foreign order.
They add that to the price of the part(s).
Then they add the postage to the UK.
When the part gets here the Customs people charge around £10 (it varies but I don't know why) for checking/inspecting the order so that is added to the costs and then they charge 17.5% to the total.
Lucky the dollar has dropped in value so much. I only paid $950.00 for my $600.00 headers. Only 37% more.
Usually the Dollar is stronger and the headers would have cost me $50-$60 more.
The cheapest option is to get Summit parts shipped to an address in the USA (that bit free) and get the person at the address to remove the paperwork to send seperatly, dump any packaging on the parts, and send them as "used parts" marked as a "gift".
We do not pay the taxes on gifts.
However if I was to get caught the Customs people would take a very stern view of it indeed as it is actually "Smuggling".