International Priority Mail limited to five items per box?

Posts: 636 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:10 pm

I recently had an ebay seller I won several auctions from send me the following message:

Quote:

Sorry for the delay getting your books out. International shipping has been a learning experience for me. Is it ok if I switch to UPS standard? If I get it to them tommorrow, they guarantee arrival by Tue Jul 29th. USPS Priority Intl has a restriction of 5 items max per parcel.

I've received far more than five items per box in the past. I checked the USPS website and couldn't find any reference to this. Has anyone encountered this limitation previously?

Posts: 3191 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:52 pm

The maximum number of items that can be added to an international label is 30 items.

So I'd assume that be claimable per box. Things did change May 14th, so that info maybe out of date. This is the first time I've heard of it though.

ShaneG.

Posts: 128 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 2:03 pm

Do not allow them to ship your items by UPS. You will pay a very large Broker Fee on top of any customs duties.

USPS Priority International Mail does not have a item limit.

Here is a link to the USPS Canada shipping conditions:

http://pe.usps.com/text/imm/ce_003.htm#ep2041503

Here is a link to the instructions for filling out the customs form PS Form 2976–A:

http://pe.usps.com/text/imm/immc1_008.htm#ep732534

Again, do not let them ship by UPS, Fedex, or DHL. These all charge very large broker fees

Posts: 5905 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 2:20 pm

NetRodent wrote:

I recently had an ebay seller I won several auctions from send me the following message:

I've received far more than five items per box in the past. I checked the USPS website and couldn't find any reference to this. Has anyone encountered this limitation previously?

He's either lying or was lied to by his post office. Either way, that information is 100% wrong.

Posts: 636 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 2:20 pm

Mercenary_Roadie wrote:

Do not let them ship by UPS, Fedex, or DHL. These all charge very large broker fees

I am very much aware of the brokerage fees UPS charges. I've never had problems with Fedex. I'm not sure I've ever received anything international via DHL.

Posts: 2339 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 2:27 pm

NetRodent wrote:

I am very much aware of the brokerage fees UPS charges. I've never had problems with Fedex. I'm not sure I've ever received anything international via DHL.

I have only had problems with Fedex once in about 10 packages. But with UPS its about 9 out of 10 packages.

I've never had a problem with multipe items either.

Posts: 4545 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 4:04 pm

NetRodent wrote:

I recently had an ebay seller I won several auctions from send me the following message:

I've received far more than five items per box in the past. I checked the USPS website and couldn't find any reference to this. Has anyone encountered this limitation previously?

NR the seller is wrong. What he/she is referring to, there are only five "spaces" on the customs form to enter items, so he/she might be too lazy or not knowledgable enough to know how to enter more items on the customs form. Conversely if they/you are feeling lucky, just list four items and the last item as "used books" and send it that way. I've never had a packaged returned for doing that, although technically it's not allowed. I guess if they did open it they never worried about it enough to return it. Good luck!

Mike B.

Posts: 101 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:07 pm

Every single thing I've sold overseas that's been mailed Priority I put "Used Books" on the space for declaration. My mail guys just ask, I say "Yep, more books" and they go "OK". I recently mailed Degassy all his stuff in 3 Priority boxes, and had like 40 items per box. I've never had a problem. So, 5 per box is ludicrous. Smile

Zen

Posts: 1348 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:31 pm

How would they know what's in the box anyway? They'd have to open it, or run it through a X-ray or something, and they're not going to do that -- besides, would it even be easy to tell, if they ran it through a scanner, that 20 pages of book 1 and 128 pages of book 2 and 78 pages of book 3 aren't all the same "item?" Especially if you label the customs form as "documents" with little value?

Posts: 4545 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:09 pm

serleran wrote:

How would they know what's in the box anyway? They'd have to open it, or run it through a X-ray or something, and they're not going to do that -- besides, would it even be easy to tell, if they ran it through a scanner, that 20 pages of book 1 and 128 pages of book 2 and 78 pages of book 3 aren't all the same "item?" Especially if you label the customs form as "documents" with little value?

They WILL open packages...

Canadian customs especially loves to do it, and then tape the box up inexpertly to send it along....

Mike B.

Posts: 1348 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:14 pm

No one I have sent to has ever reported their mail being opened before they got it. So, I can't say that I am aware of that, though that doesn't mean it doesn't happen -- I simply just don't have the volume of sales as others do to have any knowledge of said practice, so I count myself lucky.

Posts: 2130 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:47 pm

serleran wrote:

No one I have sent to has ever reported their mail being opened before they got it. So, I can't say that I am aware of that, though that doesn't mean it doesn't happen -- I simply just don't have the volume of sales as others do to have any knowledge of said practice, so I count myself lucky.

Happens all the time, the yellow tape of death Evil or Very Mad

Posts: 1348 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:53 pm

Ack, well that is unfortunate, and I would be pissed if it happened to me. That sucks.

Posts: 1117 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 10:15 pm

Blackmoor wrote:

Happens all the time, the yellow tape of death Evil or Very Mad

I figure I'm about due, as I haven't seen the tape in a while.

But to get back to the original topic: I've had boxes stuffed full with far more than five items. Generally the seller just marked "Y books" or "Book x Y" on the customs form -- where Y is the number of books. (Though sometimes they didn't even mark that.)

Posts: 109 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:19 pm

USPS online or paypal has an option to add more than 5 line item descriptions. Most of the time each item needs a description to pass through customs without a hitch. Chances are the seller didn't know about it? Priority isn't bad overseas but my packages get hung up in customs quite often. Sad

Posts: 636 · Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 3:01 am

It seems like the customs form limitation mentioned above was probably the cause. I just received the following missive:

Quote:

I dropped it off with USPS today. The limitation may just be part of the Paypal software, and in fact I found a link to a PDF form in case there are more than 5 items. However, I avoided the problem by listing this as a single item of type "used book" with a quantity of 23. Hope you enjoy the items. Thanks again.

I greatly appreciate the help and advice you have all provided in this thread! Very Happy