No subject

I never pay any customs duties or import sales tax. Here's why. A few hints for overseas shipping - 
both for sellers and buyers. 

1) From the USA you can indeed ship by USPS First Class or Priority and declare a low value 
    (like $20) for the contents and still insure at the actual high value online with U-Pic or Shipsurance 
    at only $1.oo for every $100 of value. This is much cheaper than USPS insurance. And less 
    prone to theft or mishandling by clumsy custims' fingers.  I hear that U-Pic and Shipsurance 
    pay out in a matter of few days if there is a claim for damage or non-receipt - unlike USPS. 
    You do not need tracking if they reimburse quickly for damage and loss anyway, right?  

2) For high value items it is worthwhile for the overseas buyer (importer) to use a reshipper in 
    the USA.  Currently shipito Company (which I use) reships at only $1.oo plus USPS rates !!!  
    I got me a US shipping address with this reshipper. First, I compared 35 of the largest ones. 
    The following criteria were important for me: 

    - low rates for individual reshipping (ranges from $1 to $35), or for annual subscription ($50 to $350) 
      for storage until consolidation into one large package (from 0$ to $15), and for conslidation 
      (ranging from $2.oo to $30). 

    - reshipper offers many options for oveseas shipping, from First Class USPS to various courier
      services. 

    - reshipper does not open the packages to verify contents (unless you instruct him to do so!) 
      and will not systematically unpack the merchandise (take the 78s out from the cardboard squares) 

    - reshipper will let me make my own customs declaration online.  Saves a lot of money!   

After this comparison I decided to use shipito (since May last year). By using them I save a lot of 
money, whether I want them to re-ship a package to me overseas immediately after receipt, or if I 
have them consolidate a dozen of shipments into a large one, throwing away the outer packaging.  
As I said, the packages that I send to myself never exceed a declared value of $20, so - no duties due. 

Benno 

.