General Forum

I had a simialr experience with a member on here, although it was a buy from them and not a trade. He sent it up to Canada with UPS and the declared value (also purchase price) of $70 USD. because of that, I had duty and UPS brokerage fees of $40 CAD on top of that. I don't blame him, we worked it out, but there are extra fees with that. 

PWE and small bubble envelopes can be sent as letters and there's no customs and no questions.

A couple of questions. 

There are references to a "gift" but I don't recall that terminology in the customs form I fill out via PayPal. Am I missing something?

Also, I've written $10.00 as the value only because I must fill in an amount after initially using $0.01 to avoid any charges to my partners up north. I upped the amount to not draw attention to it. I don't know if that matters. 

Is the work to rule affecting any of this?

We should get this pinned somewhere with trading.

The very first item when filling out the PayPal customs form is "Package information" with a dropdown menu; choices are Commerical sample, Gift, Documents, Returned goods, Merchandise, Others

Sportzcommish wrote:

A couple of questions. 

There are references to a "gift" but I don't recall that terminology in the customs form I fill out via PayPal. Am I missing something?

Also, I've written $10.00 as the value only because I must fill in an amount after initially using $0.01 to avoid any charges to my partners up north. I upped the amount to not draw attention to it. I don't know if that matters. 

Is the work to rule affecting any of this?

No it is not, Joshua.  It has always been at the discretion of the Customs agent. As for the declared amount, as long as it remains below the allowable limit, it will not raise questions.  $0 is just as valid when dealing with used items.  Value is discretionary.  I am surprised you don't have to enter the "Gift" piece.

I was not trying to throw negative blame at anyone. It was a mistake that happened. Both parties are at fault but it was a mistake not on purpose. I do not think that your trade partner was being neglagent in the shipping aspect. Lets say I was your trading partner, If I sent it to you and put the $200 value on the shipping but I did know that it would be extra cost its on me for not doing research. If you knew this information and did not share it with me then you did not share the information for me to know to put less on the value. Again I am not trying to put negative blame anywhere I am just trying to help anyone who is trading with someone from a different country just know, let the other party know shipping policies for international trades. I am glad you and the trade partner are looking forward to future trades.

Now I remember! I use First Class International Mail and this is what happens when trying to select "Gift" as an option:

And that's for both letter or large envelope.

I was unaware of the fact about the additional charges based on gift "value", but wondered why they asked when shipping internationally. Thanks for the information and apologies that it happened to you. Maybe everyone will be advised for their next interntaional trade because of your posting.

To be a gift, it needs to be a good that can have a commercial value. A document sent in an PWE is seen as being just some pieces of paper with no commercial value no matter what they're. That's why they can't be marked as gift. If you sent them as a small packet / first class package and fill a customs form where you declare that your document is actually a book, a magazine or whatever else, then you could declare a value and mark it as a gift. I don't really know what it changes, because the value limit for a gift is also CDN 60.00 anyway. Moreover, alcohol and tobacco are not accepted as a gift by the Canadian customs, but I will gladly accept all your scotch and bourbon bottles that you're willing to ship my way.