Shipping advice?

[RichC]

Looking for some advice regarding selling and shipping overseas. I have some experience with shipping within the US, but I’ve been asked to send from the US to Europe. It’s been suggested to use USPS and aside from cost, are there any pitfalls to watch out for? Talking about only mouthpieces, so not a huge financial risk, but don’t want to be caught off guard. Thanks for any input!

[sungfw]

Customs duties and taxes! Make sure it's clear that the buyer is resposible for any and all duties and taxes over and above the purchase price, which can be quite substantial: see Shipping Internationally.

Also, international buyers may ask for you to declare a value less than the purchase price for customs and tax purposes. That's technically illegal, and if your package happens to be one that the postal service in the destination country pulls aside for inspection, can land you in serious trouble and may result in seizure of the goods.

Finally, even with tracking, be prepared for delivery to take MUCH, MUCH longer than expected, even if the package isn't mis-routed.

[Elow]

Also, international buyers may ask for you to declare a value less than the purchase price for customs and tax purposes. That's technically illegal, and if your package happens to be one that the postal service in the destination country pulls aside for inspection, can land you in serious trouble and may result in seizure of the goods.

How often does this happen? How would the inspection people know how to value a trombone? Just curious, ive only shipped a leadpipe internationally

[BGuttman]

Just because it doesn't happen often, it can happen. Rest assured, the Customs people have nice tabulations of the value of various goods and can put a pretty accurate estimate of the value if they need to.

Note that imports can be subject to a minimum on which duty is charged. At one time you could import $200 duty free into the US (I haven't done this in a LONG time) and the Customs folks will probably try to make the payments minimal.

DJ Kennedy used to have a lot of friends in foreign countries getting "gifts", but I don't know if he still does this.

[RichC]

thank you for the replies!

[vetsurginc]

Might want to check ParcelForce as well.

[hyperbolica]

Be careful, though. I've done a few transatlantic trades, and mostly they work out, but I bought something from Wessex UK once because Wessex US did not have it, and a year later US Customs (or was it state of Virginia) comes after me for tax on a $30,000 purchase. A zero had clearly been added somewhere, because I've never spent more than $3k at a time with Wessex. So mistakes do happen. I don't think this was Wessex mistake, it was a governmental screw up either US or UK. Once they saw the mistake, they called the dogs off, and weren't interested in the tax on the smaller number. I think if they see you're not a business they are less eager to harass you.

And off of the main topic but still talking about government intervention in private sales, and taxes, be aware that PayPal may report all of your transactions to the gov't on a 1099. I had to justify a lot of trombone purchases from individuals and sales as "not business income" on my taxes this year.

[RoscoTrombone]

You could try parcelmonkey.com

I suggested that to a fellow member after buying pipes from him and it was cheaper than USPS.

Ross

[mrdeacon]

It used to be that USPS was cheapest but these days it's all equally terrible. I've had good experience with UPS though stupid expensive. The fastest I've ever gotten something international was via DHL. Someone sent me a trombone from the U.K and it got to me door in a week. It was insane!

[Doug Elliott]

USPS price is actually not too bad if you use standard Airmail with no tracking. It gets there the same speed. But you really don't know how long anything is going to take, it varies widely.

[RobL]

Any experience/advice on shipping a cased instrument US to Europe, including preferred carriers and roughly what it cost? Am looking at FedEx's golf bag box to pack it in.

[MrHCinDE]

There’s some good advice in another thread about packaging in another thread.

I’m based in Europe and have purchased a few horns and other items from the US. So far USPS worked out cheapest. The downside is that they only insure up to $200 which is somewhat risky for most horns. Someone recommended to me that you can buy additional insurance for USPS from stamps.com. If insurance is important to you, whichever carrier, make sure you have evidence to prove the value of the goods and that it was well packaged, just in case. I’ve heard insurance horror stories that even though items had been sold and paid for by the buyer at a certain price, the sellers were asked to prove how much it was worth by other means such as the seller’s original purchase receipt from when they bought the horn or an insurance valuation.

[MrHCinDE]

About the cost, with standard USPS insurance, the postage worked out about $130 for tenor trombones I had shipped from the US to Germany.

[calcbone]

About the cost, with standard USPS insurance, the postage worked out about $130 for tenor trombones I had shipped from the US to Germany.

Wow. How recent was that? That’s about the same as it cost me to ship a horn from one side of the US to the other recently.

[DougHulme]

Thats about right and quite recent. If you think about it its not much further across the pond than from one end to the other of the States and therefore not much more logistical effort. I use USPS every time. If you buy through ebay never use their Global Shipping programme its a complete rip off... Doug

[MrHCinDE]

About the cost, with standard USPS insurance, the postage worked out about $130 for tenor trombones I had shipped from the US to Germany.

Wow. How recent was that? That’s about the same as it cost me to ship a horn from one side of the US to the other recently.

That was in the past few Months, depends on the weight and measurements of course but especially without a case it should be possible for tenor and probably bass bones.

[RobL]

Thank you for these responses. Based on what I read on another thread, I switched to the UHaul lamp box, and doubled it.

[RichC]

Anyone have any experience with Parcel Monkey? Especially for US domestic shipping. Looks to be a lot of mixed reviews on the web.

[biggiesmalls]

FedEx has a service called Great Rates that is available to any FedEx account holder: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/great-rates.html

FedEx uses this service to fill last-minute "dust space" on their planes flying parcels and freight internationally. The discounts vary daily, so getting the best rate often requires calling daily for 3-5 days to get the lowest possible rate. Example: for the last package I shipped using Great Rates, I was offered a 35% discount the first time I called; the next day, the discount was 65%; the third day: 91% discount!

Even with the steep discount, and the cost was still about 50% more than USPS, but the box was on the buyer's doorstep in Austria in three days. With USPS, the package might have been stuck on a cargo ship for months. The buyer was more than happy to pay the additional cost.

[DougHulme]

USPS (or anyone) no longer offers surface frieght, its all air, so it wouldnt be stuck in a cargo ship (but that doesent preclude a warehouse of course!). The other advanatge with using USPS to ship to the UK is that slightly more often than not (but only slightly) you dont get charged import duties - its a lottery but one that doesent cost you to enter!. I usually get my packages in 3-5 days too from the States (even at the moment!)... Doug

[biggiesmalls]

USPS (or anyone) no longer offers surface frieght, its all air, so it wouldnt be stuck in a cargo ship...

You're fortunate to be receiving USPS in the UK via air!

Unfortunately, that's not the case for ten European countries:

https://www.shippingschool.com/news/usp ... shipments/

"USPS has moved to boat travel for overseas deliveries for the following countries, as of April 29, 2020:

Austria
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
Hungary
Netherlands
Poland
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland"

And for those shipping from the US, don't even think about using USPS to ship to Australia or New Zealand (or any of the other countries listed below) right now:

https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service ... elcome.htm

"International Mail Service Suspensions
Updated: Dec. 10, 2021

The Postal Service™ is temporarily suspending international mail acceptance for certain destinations due to impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic and other unrelated service disruptions. Customers: please refrain from mailing items addressed to the countries listed here, until further notice:

Afghanistan
French Guiana
Mongolia
Solomon Islands
Australia
Guadeloupe
New Zealand
South Sudan
Bhutan
Laos
Papua New Guinea
Syria
Brunei
Liberia
Reunion (Bourbon)
Tajikistan
Central African Republic
Libya
Saint Pierre and Miquelon (Miquelon)
Timor-Leste
Chad
Martinique
Samoa
Turkmenistan
Cuba
Mayotte
Sierra Leone"

[DougHulme]

Must be that "Special relationship" everyone bangs on about even though Churchill once said we are the same nation divided by a common language... postmen can read each others addresses So maybe USPS should send it all to the UK and have their office (or our Royal Mail that they already have a contract with) ship it out to the rest of Europe, be a lot faster than putting it on a ship.

We do live in extraordinary times and this Omicron looks like (rightly or wrongly) extending the misery for sometime longer.

When USPS used to give you a choice of air or surface I always opted for surface because it was a fraction of the price, even if it did take 3 weeks to get here.

I apologise if I compounded anyones misery by sounding so up beat, I really didnt know the rest of Europe were not the same as us... Doug