This is a tough situation . . .  I looked at the five items you sold him Mr. Bombadil and I would guess the weight is low, however, the value seemed around $200 .  Assuming you filled out a "Green" customs form and declared the actual value, the buyer probably had to pay a customs fee/tax.  Just recently I posted a thread asking about this and I know Sotterraneo gave some good information about Italian customs.  Maybe he (or someone else from Italy) can clarify one other thing.  . .



When a customs fee is due does the post office leave you a "note" of some sort and you have to go claim your item and pay the fee to get it?  Or do they deliver it and leave a "bill" of some sort.  If you have to go get it, maybe your buyer missed the message or didn't understand it or whatever.  Just a thought . . . is it possible it is still in waiting for him to pick it up, pay his fee and take the  items home?

beyondthebreach wrote:
When a customs fee is due does the post office leave you a "note" of some sort and you have to go claim your item and pay the fee to get it? Or do they deliver it and leave a "bill" of some sort. If you have to go get it, maybe your buyer missed the message or didn't understand it or whatever. Just a thought . . . is it possible it is still in waiting for him to pick it up, pay his fee and take the items home?

The standard procedure is this: the Post Office sends you a letter informing you about the money you have to pay to pass item(s) via Customs. You pay via money order to the special Post Office branch as indicated in the letter (they are only in the main cities- mine is near Milan so I never go there in person). If you are bright, you fax immediately the receipt to the fax number written in the letter. Then you sit and wait for the package to arrive. It's possible that the letter has been lost and so the buyer never had any news about his package. That the package has been simply (ehm...) lost in transit.  Or he could (COULD) attempting to pull a fast one on the helpless seller. For packages shipped air mail, a long wait is very strange. I usually receive items via air mail from the US in 15-20 days (magic cards travel a lot faster of course!).  For surface mail, the average is two months.