Bartertown.com

Hi BT,

This forum has "helped" me so much - I figured I would ask another question

I have someone wanting models shipped to South America. I said I only take PayPal from verified accounts and only ship to verified addresses...

Anything else I need to be careful of? I'm not very clever when it comes to scams - so I usually don't "figure" those out before hand - I do have a pretty good "red flag" meter though - so I just want to be sure shipping Int'l is normal and done from day to day, issues that may occur, etc.

Thanks

First, you don't ship it as a "gift". That is mail fraud, and can get you into possible legal trouble. You need to take into account the foreign country's customs practices. Some countries will tack on outrageous import taxes to the individual the package is being deleivered to. I'm saying this because some people don't realize that their package can get held up in customs because they haven't paid the import tax. Also, you can track a package (usually using the customs tracking number) to the countries borders, but beyond that it is touch and go.

go to usps.com.. look up .. NM here's a link:

http://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manuals/Imm/immctry.pdf

that is the IMM.. international mail manual.. it'll tell you what you can and can't ship for every country ousdie the US.

it also has some info as to what get's taxed and what doesn't.

always keep a copy of the customs form, at least it's number. that way you have a chance to track it to US customs and hopefully to and thru the other countries customs..

never mark it a gift. that's a crime.. it violates several different laws in both countries. customs fees are taxes and it's basiclly tax evasion.
you'll see other people here, say that i'm wrong, or that that is only my opinion; but they're the ones who try to cheat their own country out of money. it's a fact.

i work for usps. it's my job to turn in people who violate postal regulations or federal law.
so far, i haven't.. but i've only seen people say they have..hearsay. so far.

it's only a gift if you don't get anything, money or items, back for it.
some countries, like canada, charge no tax on.., .. here's the exact quote, "Goods valued under 20 Canadian dollars are duty and excise tax exempt."

someone else posted before something about listing them as models, and not haveing tax charged, but i couldn't find that paragraph.


each country is different.

maybe one of the mods or admins can sticky the link to the info section.. like all the xbox 360 warnings, from 2 years ago.

Being that my nature tends to be "path of least resistance" I'm going to guess I'm not up for shipping int'l (I've shipped to Canada - that wasn't bad).

I appreciate all the help! I did check out the USPS website before I came here - must have missed that "manual" -probably because it was called a manual

Thanks again

Best,

-CS

it's there.. you just gotta know what it is and then look for it.. it's not out in the open.. then again, it's the government.. nothings easy to find for paperwork.

Personally, I'd say not to take PayPal for international* trades... actually, I don't like it for ANY trades,* but especially international.*

* Traders with high ref's are examptions, IMO. For PayPal purposes I consider >20 to be high.

If you send to someone dishonest, they can file that it never arrived or was "Signifigantly Not As Described." More often than not, you'll lose your money and not be able to do anything substantial about it.

Eric