94 replies to this topic

[tham]

Is the ALA in Lipo-Carn in a "good" form? The price is right, but I
remember there was a big discussion on what kind of ALA to take.

It's just ordinary ALA and ALCAR, in round tablet forms.

Not the fancy R-ALA or KR-ALA, or ALCAR-arginate, taurinate,
GPLC, etc.

UK health food stores are not so state-of-the-art when it
comes to supplements.

[unbreakable]

If money is not very important, which European supplier would you highly recommend? I think I'll go with AOR Europe, pretty expensive but their quality is considered top notch, isn't it? What about http://www.newfoodinc.com, overpriced but I could buy some LEF products there. I read LEF failed some consumer lab tests, are all of their products good quality? Do you know reliable european suppliers for eg. Jarrows/Source Naturals/NOW...

Edited by unbreakable, 14 February 2009 - 06:01 PM.

[quarter]

If money is not very important, which European supplier would you highly recommend? I think I'll go with AOR Europe, pretty expensive but their quality is considered top notch, isn't it? What about http://www.newfoodinc.com, overpriced but I could buy some LEF products there. I read LEF failed some consumer lab tests, are all of their products good quality? Do you know reliable european suppliers for eg. Jarrows/Source Naturals/NOW...

If money is not very important just buy from the US (iherb, relentlessimprovement etc.)

[unbreakable]

Unluckily from iherb I can just buy 3lbs / order. :-( I'd love to order from them, they have everything I need, shall I split orders?

Edited by unbreakable, 14 February 2009 - 07:14 PM.

[quarter]

Unluckily from iherb I can just buy 3lbs / order. :-( I'd love to order from them, they have everything I need, shall I split orders?

I don't see why you can only order 3lbs from iherb.

I live in the UK and I order much larger orders. My most recent one was over twice that weight. I order big to save on delivery charges, maximise VIP discount percentage, take advantage of multiple item discounts and I just swallow the customs charge.

I only purchase items that I can't get from within the EU though.

Edited by quarter, 14 February 2009 - 07:41 PM.

[unbreakable]

I live in Austria, maximum is 3lbs / order :-(

[quarter]

I live in Austria, maximum is 3lbs / order :-(

Oh. That's a nuisance. Not sure what your best option is then.

[tham]

Note that Healthspan's sale is ending by today (15 February).


One good product from Nature's Best which I usually recommend
to friends is this :

http://www.naturesbe...ica-200mg-P780/

The silica content from bamboo is 70-80 %, compared to
just 8-10 % from horsetail. Bamboo also doesn't appear
to inhibit absorption of thiamine like horsetail.

Solaray is another source of bamboo silica. I believe Jarrow's
liquid Biosil is also from bamboo.

http://www.betterlif...p?prod_id=10133

[sdxl]

I believe Jarrow's
liquid Biosil is also from bamboo.

It's not. Jarrow does not carry BioSil anymore, it's now distributed by Natrol. Jarrow now have their own formula. Anyway, BioSil is available as original product in Belgium and probably other European countries.

[wolfeye]

Where can i buy pure resveratrol (99%) in Europe?

[jonas.j.oberg]

I would recommend www.vitacost.com

[tham]

Nature's Best is having a sale, ending on 2 April.

Silica is one of those on sale. Selenium also looks
cost-effective.

http://www.naturesbest.co.uk/

[zebramuffin]

Where do you get your bulk vitamin C powder from?

All the best,
ZM

[unbreakable]

Two years later and I am again / or still searching for the best EU suppliers of high quality supplements, reasonable prices wouldn't hurt.

[Stroudmears]

Just bought from Iherb for $110, was counting on added taxes.
Shipped with DHL to the netherlands, took 3 days and no added costs/tax. (I always pay tax on international orders)

Even if they decided to add tax, the grand total would be about 100 euros, If I decided to order the exact same supps right here it would cost me 280euros total.
So I basically got a discount of 203 euro.

Edited by Stroudmears, 16 July 2011 - 12:48 AM.

[pamojja]

I try to get a year supply at the frequent special sales of http://www.lefeurope.com (at the moment they have Mega EPA/DHA or LEF Mix vegetarian capsules at really affordable prices.

For amino acids I use http://www.myprotein.com/ or http://www.bulkpowders.co.uk/

For the remaining stuff not available or only at ridiculous high prices I import from vitacost or iherb. Where the generic handling fee of 13,- Euro, 10% import taxes for shipments below 150,- Euro, 20% above that, in combination for example with iherb's weight limit of 3 pounds and $ 80,- for shipments to Austria add up again. And due to long processing time at customs, this takes at least one month to arrive.

[albedo]

I recently started using http://www.supersmart.com/

Edited by albedo, 16 July 2011 - 12:43 PM.

[unbreakable]

Vitacost looks interesting (although they are not a european supplier), but I've read a lot of bad reviews about them (or just their customer service?).

http://www.naturesbest.co.uk/ has good quality supplements IMHO.
http://www.aoreurope.co.uk/ is great, but expensive.

Other EU suppliers to add?

[unbreakable]

No ideas? :-(

[kenj]

Unbreakable,

sry, haven't been following this topic for a while, but iHerb works for me. You wrote that you can only order small to Austria, - today they have a "Limited time offer: Free International Airmail for orders over $40.00" which is pretty sweet. Obviously you can't get everything you want with the International Airmail option, but still free shipping for a couple bottles of your favourites can't be ignored.
(Ordering within Europe shipping alone is usually at least $10, + the supplements are overpriced compared to the US)

[pamojja]

- today they have a "Limited time offer: Free International Airmail for orders over $40.00" which is pretty sweet.

Thought so too, and ordered 3 parcels with stuff which wouldn't allow much more in one order due to its weight - each for just above 40 bucks. If that really turns out that sweet still depends on Austrian customs, because $40 is just slightly above where taxes might kick in. Which would mean an negligible 10% tax and a not so negligible regular 13,- Euro handling fee for each parcel.

So this order of supplements worth 85,- Euro could at worst incur 44,- additional in fees - more than 50% more! :-(
Therefore in this case I had to speculate with the excessive demands on our custom officers, otherwise I better would have paid for the regular shipping of $4 each parcel, and stayed below the tax limit..

On the other hand, vitacost just recently changed its charges and ships now small parcels almost as cheap ($6) as iherb, and because the absence of a weight and price limit (instead the shipping charge just progressively increases) and thereby avoiding the 13 Euro handling fee for each additional parcel, this puts vitacost for some stuff and my situation slightly ahead of iherb.

There is an other European Swansons products provider (where ordering directly from the states has absolutely prohibitive shipping charges), which recently improved their high costs. Before they increased exponentially with each item, now that isn't the case anymore, but still are at about 10 GBP minimum. However, because it's from within Europe and doesn't incur any taxes and handling fees, this does already turn out more reasonable than iherb or vitacost. But I use this only for exceptions, because Swansons 'supplement facts' statements in many cases seem much more ambivalent to me.

Edited by pamojja, 18 August 2011 - 11:22 AM.

[unbreakable]

Thanks for your replies!

because $40 is just slightly above where taxes might kick in

It's 22 Euros IMHO =~ 32$

When ordering from great stores like iherb in the US there is also always the risk of losing the package to EU customs.

@vitacost: When I saw their shop first I thought "Great selection and prices", but after reading many reviews I don't know if they are reliable.

http://www.healthmonthly.co.uk looks good, personally I really trust Swansons (being in busines for over 40 years). The priced from the UK shop seem to be about twice as high as those from www.swansonvitamins.com... but no taxes, pretty much no risk of losing the order to customs and shipping with DHL sound good.

If anybody knows other good stores within the EU please post them.

[pamojja]

It's 22 Euros IMHO =~ 32$

Thanks for the correction, but in my experience Austrian customs already turned a blind eye on shipments up to 50 Euros.

Ordered countless times from vitacost and iherb the last 2 years, and both proved to be equally reliable.

Only once last year a bottle TMG worth 10 bucks from iherb was confiscated by customs, because it allegedly would have required an medicine import-permit. However, received the remaining parcel. And never anything was lost.

[sdxl]

On the other hand, vitacost just recently changed its charges and ships now small parcels almost as cheap ($6) as iherb, and because the absence of a weight and price limit (instead the shipping charge just progressively increases) and thereby avoiding the 13 Euro handling fee for each additional parcel, this puts vitacost for some stuff and my situation slightly ahead of iherb.

No, it's $6.99 up to 3 lbs. I think Vitacost's shipping is finally improving. Last order took 15 days. Used to be much longer. Now they ship from Germany, like iHerb.

[kenj]

Another US store at the moment offering "free international shipping" over $40 (yay!) is healthdesigns.com, - they also carry many sports related supplement brands, and some exotic ones. Just keep the weight of the package below 3.2 lbs, and it's 'christmas-came-early' time!

Edited by kenj, 19 August 2011 - 06:05 PM.

[unbreakable]

No, it's $6.99 up to 3 lbs. I think Vitacost's shipping is finally improving. Last order took 15 days. Used to be much longer. Now they ship from Germany, like iHerb

If iherb would ship from Germany / within the EU there wouldn't be any taxes to pay (for people living in the EU like me) and the risk of losing the order to customs would be very small.

Edited by unbreakable, 19 August 2011 - 08:43 PM.

[sdxl]

No, it's $6.99 up to 3 lbs. I think Vitacost's shipping is finally improving. Last order took 15 days. Used to be much longer. Now they ship from Germany, like iHerb

If iherb would ship from Germany / within the EU there wouldn't be any taxes to pay (for people living in the EU like me) and the risk of losing the order to customs would be very small.

After they have shipped it from the US to the EU it's distributed from Germany. At least that's what my packages say. Vitacost used to distribute from Belgium, then Sweden both taking significantly longer.

[caveat]

Have any of you guys tried shipping piracetam(or other -racetams) to EU ? The problem with it being prescription.

@cerebralhealth piracetam is 10$ for 100g, the same price i pay for 24g at local pharmacy, although their flat shipping price is 20$ for international. Not to mention SNS piracetam at 25$ for 500g. Any other sources ?

[nupi]

After they have shipped it from the US to the EU it's distributed from Germany. At least that's what my packages say. Vitacost used to distribute from Belgium, then Sweden both taking significantly longer.

That is likely where the shipping company flew the packages to initially. In my experience, that can be fairly random (depending on plane load and scheduling, no doubt)

[weekend]

http://www.OnSaleSupplements.com good choice phramaceutical grade products at bulk prices for Europe

http://www.predatornutrition.co.uk for big uk and american brands for UK
http://www.gigasnutrition.de for Germany