Bought an RB67 with 4 lenses two backs etc. in a Halliburton case here two years back ( from Lenser) he shipped ( can't remember how, but he may) it arrived to my French address within a week or so, no customs delay ( or charge)whatever.
It's now a much bigger outfit and for sale here http://www.largeformatphotography.in...-kit-in-Europe at a good price, in the EU , guaranteed no customs hassle!
Mind you the Hass kit Lenser shipped to Ireland last year was another story.....
I sent some stuff to a member in Canada and UPS was cheaper than USPS but he insisted I use USPS. It turns out that FedEx/UPS etc want to charge an obscene amount for customs clearance on shipments of under $1600 whereas the post office charges $5 or something similar. I read up on it and it seems like something of a scam by FedEx/UPS.
Yes, that's true. FedEx and UPS love to screw Canadian recipients with ridiculous bogus fees over parcels sent from the US just because the parcel has to cross an imaginary line. In my case the bogus fees amounted to $ 40 for various invented "services". And that's on top of import taxes. It's a total rip-off.
I believe you can "Self-Clear" packages into Canada although the express services will try to convince you that you can't.
Back in the 1990s I sold an obosolete 1960 vintage US Air force aerial camera to a fellow in Japan via e-bay. He and I agreed that it would go by slow-boat the least expensive way. He got it in about six weeks and said there was no problem at all.
But that was in a by-gone time in the last decade of the previous century. A lot has happened since then.
Drew Bedo
www.quietlightphoto.com
http://www.artsyhome.com/author/drew-bedo
There are only three types of mounting flanges; too big, too small and wrong thread!
Is there any way to slip through the cracks by declaring the package to be "parts' or "For Repair" or something like that (Curio?).
My father inherited a pocket watch in the 1970s that caried a significant import duty (Europ to USA). He and my grand mother went to the customs office where she made a Sara Bearnhart scerne about WW-II and the quashed Hungarian Revolution, some of which was true, . . .and they waved everything. Its a much longer story, but that isn't photography!
Drew Bedo
www.quietlightphoto.com
http://www.artsyhome.com/author/drew-bedo
There are only three types of mounting flanges; too big, too small and wrong thread!
I always list them as 'old camera' or old 'camera part' I do list actual sale price. I use USPS and have the free special Customs envelopes and 3 copies of the printed form. No troubles yet!
Originally Posted by Drew Bedo
Tin Can
We do business with an excellent Canadian company in an Eastern Canadian Province. To solve the shipments crossing the border issue they have a building sitting astride the border with a legal address and phone number in each country. Must indicate a systemic problem of long lasting scale on both sides of the border.
Send to Spain is worst.
A little side note for people that are shipping internationally; from any country on the globe, to any other country.
The 'international' postal language is French; ie...Customs forms, etc...used for international parcels/shipmants.
This is somewhat similar to English being the international language for aircraft cockpit-to air traffic control tower communications.
International Postal Conventions established French as the common, international postal language many centuries ago.
Always fill-out all forms with the senders language, and also...in French.
In most cases, I wouldn't trust the translation to online translators (like Google translate).
Get help from someone who speaks French. Easiest/cheapest way is giving all the written particulars to your kids,
and have French teachers in their high school do the translation.
Marc
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