Dear Core
Are there any official distributors of Spark Core in INDIA, Here your $39 core costs us $62 to buy , which is effecting TCO of the solution…let me know if you have any …
rgds
@steph will able to reply on this. The Spark HQ is probably asleep already. 
I’m not sure how did it become so expensive though? It costs US39 on Seeed studio no?
@spaksiva, Ultimately, it’s a problem with customs. I don’t think there are official distributors.
You see, there are local distributors who buy items in bulk (usually on order) and it takes a month to ship to India, typically. Further, the customs officials are notorious and the duty is pretty heavy. It’ll become cheaper once the demand picks up in India.
I’ve got 3 SCores from MG Super Labs for Rs. 4500 each. It’s really expensive and I don’t find anything super about this distributor. Fab to Lab was cheaper at Rs. 3500, but they didn’t have stocks at the time.
And remember, lead times are usually a couple of weeks more than promised.
Why wouldn’t you buy from www.seeedstudio.com or spark.io directly?
@LIGHThouse @spaksiva Neither of those distributors are actually official distributors directly with Spark. We’re slowly rolling out international distributors and are working on finding the right partners to make sure we can keep prices down for our international customers!
In the next week I expect that we’ll have some new direct shipping options from Spark to India - USPS and DHL will both be available - which will hopefully mean more reliable and timely direct shipments.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention @kennethlimcp!
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@all, I bought it all my 3 Cores from FabToLab, for the third one I had to wait for 2 weeks other two it was in-stock and got in couple of days. If Spark.io will directly shipping to India then that will be very good.
Previously when I imported another board it was USPS and they directly handed the package to Indian Postal Service and came to my town I went Customs Office directly and cleared all the papers, it took 1 week to get it released from Customs. Another occasion, it was DHL and the package went directly to Bangalore for centralized Customs clearance. since there was a huge backlog it took almost 5 weeks to get it cleared from Customs.
@kennethlimcp, Indian Customs officials are usually slow. Plus I don’t think they’ll correctly understand WiFi dev kit. But that’s just a hunch based on a bad experience.
@Steph Please let us know once you get through to India. Really waiting for this. Since the price gets doubled to cross over customs, it really isn’t that cheap anymore plus the time delay. 
I ordered directly from spark.io and i got the spark core + sensors within 2 weeks.
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I ordered the core from Spark’s official website.
It tool around 4 week to get delivered in Delhi area. (Worth the wait! )
And the best part is, I got it for a total of 2800 INR.
i.e. total : $39 +$6(Shipping Charges) @ around Rs 62/$ (including FX conversion rates applicable Rs 2/$)
I didn’t have to pay any extra amount for customs, probably because it was for personal use and in a quantity as low as 1 unit.
Companies like MG Superlabs are charging way too high.
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Hi @sanjukul
Could you please tell to which place in India was your core shipped to and was it through USPS or DHL??
Bangalore. I got the shipment from China. I am not sure if its DHL and it is definitely not UPS.