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Please always mark international trades as a gift!

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Please always mark international trades as a gift!

Jazzy B Bunny

Hakuna Matata
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Sooo, I purchased a very much wanted pin and I've been so excited about getting it. Been waiting for weeks. I get home to find this card on my door mat. I think 'ooo it's been left with a neighbour' NOPE a big fat customs charge £8 of which is Royal Mail slapping that on top the actual customs fee. For what, who knows. Probably just to make more money. This customs fee is almost as much as what I paid for the pin. I'm super skint right now and it's the last thing I needed. I'm not even excited much about going down to get it.
So this a big but simple request, please mark items as gifts and below $20 of sending to the UK, Thanks!

 
Isn't it illegal to lie on a document like that? =/ I mean it sucks having to pay fees, but I wouldn't want anyone to get in trouble or anything either....
 
Hi,
Its getting so expensive I always say to peeps before I trade will you please send as gift (I always send as gift) after all it is a trade hehe...
I do it for the odd pin I sold as well as I could not expect the buyer to pay for delivery and customs on top of that...so yeah I agree with you.
 
Well if the fees weren't so stupid, I wouldn't mind paying. I mean £8 charge for what? Putting this through my letter box. I won't be trading or purchasing from anyone abroad who doesn't mark as a gift. It's far too expensive not to.
 
I'd quite happily pay up to £5 but over £11 for a $20 pin. That's really not on and I feel cheated. (Not by the seller but by Royal Mail)
 
I wouldnt mind if the retail was put on the pin but the problem is that anything above £30 triggers a customs charge but they dont seem to convert anymore and we are getting charged for $30 and its really bank breaking if youve made a few trades and someone has put what they are selling for on the bay on them.
 
I got one of these the other day, so I went to the post office and got the customs via postage paid for delivery. Next day I got the card back :facepalm: I knew I should have just picked it up myself before
 
Sure, it may be illegal, but I really don't blame international traders for requesting it. Here in the US it doesn't seem like we get slammed with customs fees AS regularly as our friends across the pond. If we had to pay $10 or more every time we had to go pick up a pin, I think we would all be buying/trading less for sure!

I collect Asian Ball Jointed Dolls (big, massive dolls made of resin that come from Asia). One time, a fellow collector in Russia was charged $300 for handling fees!! The company marked the full value of the doll ($2,000), and the customs workers opened the package and destroyed it, and then made the girl pay to pick it up. It was so sad I never want anything like that to happen to my customers, so I always mark a package down and mark it as a gift.
 
to be honest marking the package with a higher value doesn't give the package any better treatment. the package isn't insured and it doesn't stop it getting lost sadly :/ and ive had post i have had to pick up to pay for with a big ol' foot mark on it
 
Same thing with Sweden. Its crazy expensive with customs fees! I have been lucky so far but it happened to me a few times before pin trading. Its not fun when you have to pay double the value in fees.
 
OK, I have a question and need input from both UK and US traders. If I'm sending a pin to the UK and it is a pin that has a resell value of $100, but I mark it as a gift with a value of less than $30, am I allowed to insure the pin against loss at the true value of the pin or can I only insure it for the stated value on the customs form? This is purely hypothetical. The few times I've sent pins to the UK I have always marked as a gift and put a low dollar value on it. I've always wondered though, given the track record of the USPS with losing pins.
 
echoharmony said:
Isn't it illegal to lie on a document like that? =/ I mean it sucks having to pay fees, but I wouldn't want anyone to get in trouble or anything either....
Click to expand...

A trade can be put as gift, as no money is exchanging hands, you are in effect exchanging gifts. It only affects purchases, which of course have to be put as merchandise and the value is lower before it triggers a customs fee.

The few times Ive been slapped with a customs fee, its been because the sender filled out the customs form incorrectly. I recently traded for one $15 dollar pin, the sender put it as merchandise, 2 pins @ $60, I just couldnt understand why the sender would put two pins and that particular value. I wasnt best pleased because it cost me £16 in customs ($25 equivalent). Ive even had Ebay purchases where the sender puts down a value which is double or triple what I actually paid, why??????

So, as others have said just put cost as the value, or the exact amount we paid you for it, if a purchase. We are not asking anything illegal.
 
Just curious: do they charge customs on 'merchandise' even if it's under $20?

I agree on the trades: it isn't dishonest to list them as a gift. Marking a purchase as a gift would be illegal.

Luckily, Canada Customs almost never hits me with duties. I've purchases thousands of dollars worth of pins from the U.S. (don't tell my husband!) and I've only been dinged twice, and even then they only charged me sales tax (no import duties). They do add a fee for 'processing' when they collect money - it's $10 here.
 
There is nothing worse than getting that grey card through the door, I got one recently but from a purchase from a reptable company (I'm still trying to sort it was I shouldn't have been charged any extra customs as it was already in total price, but that's another story)
I don't know how royal mail can justify 8 pounds for holding an item. It sucks!
 
I always get my packages, be it purchases or trades, marked as a gift, and under $30, having said that most traders I've traded with unless they're new, know this anyway so it's never an issue. I of course do the same when sending....I've had packages reach me marked as gift, and value over $30 but still no customs....I guess sometimes it just depends. It is frustrating though, especially if the pin you have traded is worth the equivalent of the customs charge!! Something to bear in mind....
 
I'm going to ask them to show me how they can justify that charge when I go down to collect it tomorrow. I'm guessing they'll just spout some rubbish like 'but we have to pay the fee for you' or something :facepalm:
 
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