A tip for people selling internationally...

[alenppc]

This is a tip, from my experience, for people selling their Amiga hardware internationally.

If you have never sold or bought hardware from abroad, you really have to consider that the person buying the product will be hit by (possibly very high) import duties. Selling between EU countries doesn't count as there are no cross-border fees, but if you are selling from/to any other nation please consider this:

- When sending your parcel be sure to clearly mark it as a Gift even if you do receive payment for it. When you fill out the customs form make sure to tick the relevant box.

- The declared value is normally useless, because even if you declare it worth $50,000 and the parcel gets lost in the post internationally THEY WILL NOT REFUND YOU. Instead they'll blame the post office of the other country. The declared value is simply there to allow the customs to calculate the import duties.

Now, this (the commercial value declaration) is a requirement when buying NEW merchandise over the internet, in this case you are not paying the origin country's taxes (VAT) but you pay your own country's taxes.

For example if I buy a DVD from Amazon.co.uk I am only charged the price before VAT, so the cost is actually the advertised price less 17% (or whatever the UK tax is) and then when I receive the parcel I am charged a 15% local tax on the top of the sale price + some customs handling fees.

But in our case, let's say that you want to be very "honest" and let the customs charge the person who is buying the product their local duties; consider that most of the Amiga hardware sold is used, which means that you already paid the tax at the time of purchase in your country of origin.

This obviously depends on individual laws, and I am no lawyer but I think that in most cases taxes should NOT be charged on used products as they already charged you when you bought the product when it was new.

So the bottom line is: what do you have to gain by declaring a high commercial value on such a shipment? You won't get anything out of it and the person receiving the parcel will have to pay a pointless surcharge and not everybody can afford it! The best thing is to declare that the parcel has NO commercial value -- or 0.

As an example of such stupidity I can mention the case when I bought what I thought was a used PCMCIA card (but it turned out to be an incompatible piece of junk). The seller was in the US and charged me US$5 for the card. Unfortunately he also declared a value of $50 on the parcel which in turn meant that I had to pay around $15 of import duties (taxes+handling), which was basically three times as much as I paid for the card in the first place! I managed to get the problem resolved, and Canada Customs eventually refunded my money, but not everybody is so lucky.

[InTheSand]

All good stuff listed above...

And it's worth noting on the last point that some countries have a cut-off where any items below a certain stated value won't attract further taxes. It might be worth informing the seller of your country's particular limit and asking them to put the value at lower than this.

On the flip side, what happens if the package is stopped by customs, opened and they find that the 4Gb CF card you ordered is actually worth more than the stated $5?

 - Ali

[weirdami]

- When sending your parcel be sure to clearly mark it as a Gift even if you do receive payment for it. When you fill out the customs form make sure to tick the relevant box.

No.

[AmigaMance]

 Why not?

[asian1]

Other tips:
1. Payment: ask for cash in advance payment for 1st time customer.
If a customer make a "unsual" large order, ask for cash payment in advance.
There are many case involving frauds, stolen credit cards, western union, etc.

2. In several countries there are foreign currency restriction, rapid exchange rate movement.

3. Shipment: because of custom problems, it is almost impossible to ship goods directly to several countries. It's better to use transhipment / smuggler.

4. Local post service in several countries are unreliable. Many valuable items are missing from international packages. It's better to use courier service.

being that i work for usps and formally fed-ex, it is illegal to mark a fasle classifications on your package or parcel. but i wont tell if you wont ;-)

[Piru]

@bark40oz

FedEx is sniffing for DVDs these days.

Really cool ;-)

[redrumloa]

@Piru

Eeeew, I'm going to post this one at Whyzzat!

[Piru]

@redrumloa

I got it from slashdot

[CLS2086]

I read it days ago on Yahoo! too  :lol:

[Framiga]

sorry but i don't beleive that a dog, is able to recognize a DVD inside to whatever thing. Others various substances ok but a DVD!?! no way.

[nadoom]

Why not?

because that would by lying? wouldnt it?

if people buy off a person in another country it is up to them to understand the various import laws of said country. why should a person lie in order to give another person a cheaper deal?

It is nice when items sent abroad are labeled as a gift, however whether a seller chooses to label it as such or not should not reflect on the sellers reputation.

[PaSha]

InTheSand wrote:
All good stuff listed above...

On the flip side, what happens if the package is stopped by customs, opened and they find that the 4Gb CF card you ordered is actually worth more than the stated $5?

 - Ali

Well, with up-to-date hardware this might be tricky.

But, with old Amiga stuff, it's not really an issue. The possibility of the customs officer even knowing what a Zorro card is, is pretty slim. And if he/she is an Amigan, then he/she will probably decide to give a fellow Amigan a break. ('Commodore?!? This junk must be 20 years old???')

Basically:
"Old computer parts, value 10 EUR"
Customs officer to co-worker: 'Look! somebody's bought some old ISA graphics card... why does he even bother? Wouldn't it be easier to get some old junk like this from a dumpster? He sure could do better for 10 EUR... (laughs)'

And the board in question could be a 250 EUR Picasso-IV...

Anyways, the limits in Norway are 200 NOK (25 EUR/17 GBP/33 USD) for purchases and 500 NOK (63 EUR/42 GBP/83 USD) for gifts. Shipments with a value lower than these limits, go through for free.

So if you buy a DVD for 199 NOK, the total cost is:
199 NOK + no taxes/fees = 199 NOK

But if it costs 201 NOK, you have to pay 25% VAT and some customs handling fees.
201 NOK + 50 NOK VAT + 70(ish) NOK fee = 321 NOK

Makes sense, doesn't it?

[Doobrey]

Piru wrote:
FedEx is sniffing for DVDs these days.

Pfff, just send another package full of doggie biscuits to draw their attention from the DVDs :idea:

[acottrill]

What you are proposing is called "tax evasion" in my country.  I don't know what they call it in your neck of the woods but I'm pretty sure they have a similar term.  I'm pretty sure when caught both parties are punished.  Not worth it IMHO.