selling to the US

woolybear

if anyone can advise I me I need similar help to the first poster. I make felted ooak orangutans, I am currently selling one tomorrow on Ebay and it is most likey to go to the USA. How do I get it there at a reasonable rate and does the buyer need to pay import duties. The item should sell for about £200. Looks like the postage alone will be £50. What will the buyer need to pay on an item of that value. Should I mark it as a gift and will that get me in trouble. I just don't want to get bad feedback for not warning people of the additional costs, i did not realise they would be so huge, thanks for any help.

soolin

woolybear wrote: »

if anyone can advise I me I need similar help to the first poster. I make felted ooak orangutans, I am currently selling one tomorrow on Ebay and it is most likey to go to the USA. How do I get it there at a reasonable rate and does the buyer need to pay import duties. The item should sell for about £200. Looks like the postage alone will be £50. What will the buyer need to pay on an item of that value. Should I mark it as a gift and will that get me in trouble. I just don't want to get bad feedback for not warning people of the additional costs, i did not realise they would be so huge, thanks for any help.

Firstly I have moved this post to its own thread as I think that will make it easier to respond to.

Price finder on the royal mail site is here:

http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinder?catId=23500532&gear=pricingcalc

That will give you all the various prices inclduing tracked options. International signed for does not guarantee you a signature on delivery, so that is no good for paypal. That means you must use airsure but adding on the additional amounts for insurance as basic airsure as airsure otherwise only covers losses up to £39.

You may find this post useful:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1623183&highlight=tips+new+sellers

As for declaration on the customs form, DO NOT mark it as a gift, that would be fraud. It is up to your buyer to pay the duty and tax if charged.

Lastly as you've chosen to sell overseas it is always best to know your costs in advance never leave it to chance. It is much easier to add all the postage costs for each 'area' into the postage box so that buyer can see before they bid how much it will cost them. It saves a lot of mucking about afterwards and the risk of a buyer getting difficult when they realise the costs.

Also since you are a business seller (making goods for profit) you are subject to returns, make sure you have a clear concise returns policy in place to protect yourself against chancers and make sure you are correctly registered with all your contact details showing for the buyer.

ArmitageShanks

You can't mark things as gifts. We're now sending around 150 international shipments a week and what we are aware that can be done is to deflate the item value.

cyberbob

I've recieved stuff i've bought from Amazon.com marked as a gift on the customs form

soolin

ArmitageShanks wrote: »

You can't mark things as gifts. We're now sending around 150 international shipments a week and what we are aware that can be done is to deflate the item value.

I think though that for someone only selling an item or two overseas it would probably be a false economy to underdeclare the value. If one of your lot goes missing you can probably cover your own loss elsewhere for the difference, if the OP is only sending one item to the US he will probably want insurance to cover the item in full in case it gets lost, so will need to declare that on the customs label at the PO when he buys the service.