Someone in Germany wants to buy an old gauge from me. I know very little about overseas shipping, but I do know some countries won't let certain things cross theri border and they also impose import duties. Do any of you know anything about shipping something to Germany? This would be a commercial transaction.

 

whenever i ship to europe, i always use usps flat rate boxes and claim the value as $50 or less. the buyer should tell you what to do, as they have always told me in order for them to save on import tariffs.

 

The flat rate box gets there, huh? I thought the flat rate box was just for the USA.

 

I ship a couple of times a year to family and mark it as gifts, with no problems.
Bill, buyer likely knows that most everything will have duty on it, for them to pay. If it's old car parts that should not be much.

 

Same thing here. I used to own S2KAccessories.com and I shipped to Germany all the time. USPS is the way to go.

 

We shipped packages all the time when our son was in Germany three different times. You need to declare the item on a customs form (in the rack at your p.o.) but I would NOT indicate it's a commercial transaction....asking for lots of problems IMHO. I would mark it "used gauge" and "gift".

There should be info at www.usps.com

 

I lived overseas for years. If anyone sent me anything, I asked them to write GIFT on the paperwork, otherwise there would be a healthy import tax on the item.

One other tip, since it's going to Germany, you may want to use DHL.

 

Thanks all. I'm a little nervous about calling it a gift when I am clearly selling it. DHL seems to be pricey. The guy has written back to me three times telling me to use USPS. I'll give this some more thought.

 

^ If he suggest USPS, he's in the drivers seat. I can see your problem with stating GIFT, you don't want custom's to come back on you.

 

If his payment bounces it could be a gift.