Posting expensive item to Australia

hippiegal

Hi I wonder if you can help

I have listed an expensive ring on Ebay, valued at > £4,000. I've never sold such an expensive item before and have said in my listing I will post worldwide.

I have had a request from a person in Austrailia, asking how much postage costs would be.... I presume I cannot just send this via normal Airmail ....

what I need to know is

• what would be the best method to send the item
• what about insurance - would I have to take out 3rd party insurance and if so how do I go about doing that
• what about customs

thanks for any help you can give.x

grunnie

Contact your local post office and ask what the insurance rate for that amount is then add that in to the postage cost I sent an item to Australia recently with insurance

serial-secure

hippiegal wrote:

Hi I wonder if you can help

I have listed an expensive ring on Ebay, valued at > £4,000. I've never sold such an expensive item before and have said in my listing I will post worldwide.

I have had a request from a person in Austrailia, asking how much postage costs would be.... I presume I cannot just send this via normal Airmail ....

what I need to know is

• what would be the best method to send the item
• what about insurance - would I have to take out 3rd party insurance and if so how do I go about doing that
• what about customs

thanks for any help you can give.x

i send a great deal of items all across the world, most are not valued at £4000 however they are valuable all the same, i use the same method, firstly i send the item international signed for postage, then i ask the buyer to pay insurance upto the value of replacing the item brand new, your can find out royal mail enhanced insurance rates at royal mail.com,
if they want the item badly enough they will pay for shipping and the insurance, you will find that using international signed for postage will ensure that your item gets to where its going, it will also receive priority shipping and handling.

mrwibble

hippiegal wrote:

Hi I wonder if you can help

I have listed an expensive ring on Ebay, valued at > £4,000. I've never sold such an expensive item before and have said in my listing I will post worldwide.

I have had a request from a person in Austrailia, asking how much postage costs would be.... I presume I cannot just send this via normal Airmail ....

what I need to know is

• what would be the best method to send the item
• what about insurance - would I have to take out 3rd party insurance and if so how do I go about doing that
• what about customs

thanks for any help you can give.x

For an item worth that much look at using a courier - FedEx - for example - suggest you contact a local courier company and talk to them - they will be able to get a good discount - should cost around £40-50 for a fully tracked, insured, signed for service. I use UPS via Pharos International (google them for site) - you would need to phone them directly but they are a good company to deal with.

No need for a 3rd party insurance policy - using the local couriers account rather than going direct means that you pay less and their claims dept is used to dealing with them (less likely to just stamp a claim "insufficient packaging, claim denied").

Whatever you choose you need to think about import duty in Australia as if the buyer gets stung for £400 or whatever then they may not sign for the package - increasing the likelihood of disappearance. Have you checked what they are likely to pay on Oz customs site ? Look at similar items sold by high feedback business sellers who ship to Australia as well.

Has the buyer paid irreversibly ie not via paypal ?

Hope this helps