mbassoc2003 wrote:I found that things 'go missing' a lot if you ship to Italy and you declare the value of stuff. If you send registered there is no requirement for the recipient to sign for stuff, so unless you're gonna use UPS or some such, there is no way to protect yourself from the Italian corruption there.

Things got slightly better from the UK now that we don't need to make customs declarations to Italy, but theft is rife and their public still refuse to acknowlege receipt of mail even when shipped registered.

Don't ever ship to Italy unless you know and trust the guy you're shipping to. It's not worth losing your money with no recourse. Too much crime in the system.

Thanks Ian for your words!

As i have always asked (and this caused me some strives in the past...) i dont want to cheat/fraud while declaring a different value on the duty custom form... i want to avoid additional troubles.

My 2 cents in order to better explain the italian case:

all in all, the italian postal system is not the best in the world but i have not thjat much to complain about it... ok, timing is not performing properly and costs are extremelty high, but i rarely had issues with losses or damages...

what is awful, to avoid as much as possible are the italian duty customs!!! they are likley the main cause to losses, delays and damages on item! now, if you declare your goods below a certain threshold (say less than 20 bucks) then the process bypasses the duty custom and this is smtg vital if you dont want to have neverending issues with them.

i will leave you just a single case to better understand: i bought from the US a divine right game. this, of course, had a final value igher than 20 bucks... so it stopped to the duty customs... they found that in the box there was a metallic box (the seller used to keep all the counters in an old metal candy box) and they opened the box, they inspected the game and the candy box and... they closed and TAPED all the 4 sided of the game box with the brown tape!!!!

when i found it, i was totally astonished... i opened a claim and the claim is still there... it happended in 2005...

At the end of the day, if you want to have stressless deal with italian guys, it is sufficient to keep a low value of the goods... this will reduce by nearly zero your risks of troubles! in apprxo 8 years of trading with the US i had one loss only.

Thanks for your patience and ciaooo
axel

aia wrote:
Thanks Ian for your words!

As i have always asked (and this caused me some strives in the past...) i dont want to cheat/fraud while declaring a different value on the duty custom form... i want to avoid additional troubles.

My 2 cents in order to better explain the italian case:

all in all, the italian postal system is not the best in the world but i have not thjat much to complain about it... ok, timing is not performing properly and costs are extremelty high, but i rarely had issues with losses or damages...

what is awful, to avoid as much as possible are the italian duty customs!!! they are likley the main cause to losses, delays and damages on item! now, if you declare your goods below a certain threshold (say less than 20 bucks) then the process bypasses the duty custom and this is smtg vital if you dont want to have neverending issues with them.

i will leave you just a single case to better understand: i bought from the US a divine right game. this, of course, had a final value igher than 20 bucks... so it stopped to the duty customs... they found that in the box there was a metallic box (the seller used to keep all the counters in an old metal candy box) and they opened the box, they inspected the game and the candy box and... they closed and TAPED all the 4 sided of the game box with the brown tape!!!!

when i found it, i was totally astonished... i opened a claim and the claim is still there... it happended in 2005...

At the end of the day, if you want to have stressless deal with italian guys, it is sufficient to keep a low value of the goods... this will reduce by nearly zero your risks of troubles! in apprxo 8 years of trading with the US i had one loss only.

Thanks for your patience and ciaooo
axel

We have the same issue here in Canada, claiming the true value is an exuse for customs to open up and ruin your item.  I have no problem paying the extra duties but it is a shame when a fine collectable is destroyed by some dough head at the border.  

Putting a low value for the cutoms sheet may be "illegal" but it is practicle.  I once had an item I pruchased on Ebay for over $4,000 shipped as a used book for $20,00.  I had it in my hand in a few days.  If this was declared at the true value the item surely would have been opened and wrecked   .  No thanks!!

mbassoc2003 wrote:Difference in Canada is, if I ship something to you International SIgned-For, or Airsure, I can be sure your postal service will get a signiature at your address at your end, and that is all I need as proof of receipt of goods to cover me with PayPal's Seller Protection Policy.

In Italy there is no such assurance, and this allows a lot of buyers in that country to deny they received their goods and claim their money back through PayPal. At the same time, if the italian postal monkeys say it was delivered, PayPal say FU, sue the buyer.

So fraud is rife in Italy and they know there is nothing you can do about it as a seller. I've had exactly the same issue with Greece. I know there are honest buyers, and I know there are honest postal workers in Italy and Greece, but it's a complete turkey shoot, and crime and corruption are far more acceptable in italian culture. It's no big deal screwing foreigners, and the moral upstanding citisens are figting an uphill battle to try to get their country to be less corrupt.

I'd sooner send unrecorded to Canada than I'd send recorded to Italy unless I knew the person receiving the goods and trusted them.

Yes I see your point, I never ship to strangers in Italy. When I was active on Ebay a few years ago I stopped selling to Italy due to a few "lost" shipments.  I also stopped shipping to a few other european customers as well (like Spain and France) for the same reasons.

Gentlemen, pls dont misunderstnad my words:

1) i am well aware that fraud in italy is a plague... its never clear whether the fraud is done buy the buyer or someone else in the distribution chain... hence: trust is truly a value whenever you need to decide to ship to italy!

2) i clearly wrote that italy postal system is not the best in the world... i am well aware that tracking is not possible from the US with "ordinary" options...

This however cannot be generalized into: the assumptions the posts in italy dont work and everybody in italy is a criminal... I'd like to remind that generalization in such terms brought huge disasters in the society of last century... Do you think that every man living in palestine who is not a jew is a terrorist?

Ok, dont want to start a fire, i just wanted to provide you with an obejctive assessment of italian situation and dont want to end up with the usual things like: "pizza, mafia and..."

I kindly ask you to stop this topic here (it is OT BTW).

aia wrote:Ok, dont want to start a fire, i just wanted to provide you with an obejctive assessment of italian situation and dont want to end up with the usual things like: "pizza, mafia and..."

It's a management of risk thing. It is safer for the majority of people not to ship to RIGHT-WING NUT JOB RACISTS. They have no way of protecting themselves from those RIGHT-WING NUT JOB RACISTS, and RIGHT-WING NUT JOB RACISTS will not change their systems to be honest or trustworthy.

I don't think there is anyone here who wouldn't talk to any of our fellow Acaeum membersm regardless of which NEAR-AUTISTIC MENTAL STATE OF INFANTILE SELF-CENTEREDNESS [SEE AYN RAND OR ANY OF HER FANS] we're in. So it's not a personal thing.

But the issue with RIGHT-WING NUT JOB RACISTS, regardless of protestation, is that the system is corrupt and fraud within it is rife, and we all know that this is a ribbon of corruption that pervades every aspect of RIGHT-WING NUT JOB RACIST life, through both law and politics and public service, and if an entire culture permits that sort of corruption within it, there can be no doubt that those moral standards and practices filter down to the lesser educated and more loosely moralled members of RIGHT-WING NUT JOB RACIST society. The lower the education, the more they are likely to learn by examples, and the examples in RIGHT-WING NUT JOB RACIST society are not great.

RIGHT-WING NUT JOB RACISTS' morals will not change. RIGHT-WING NUT JOB RACISTS haven't changed fundimentally [NOR HAVE THEY LEARNED TO SPELL] in the past two centuries. It's just something we all have to live with. Naturally that cannot be prescribed to specific RIGHT-WING NUT JOB RACISTS, but if you don't know the individual RIGHT-WING NUT JOB RACIST, you have to play the odds, and the odds say, don't ship to RIGHT-WING NUT JOB RACISTS unless you send by courier and you can guarantee a signiature at the other end (hense UPS or DHL [WHO REGULARLY CONTRIBUTE TO P.E.T.A.]).

mbassoc2003 wrote::lol:  
You completely missed the point; and you need to look up the definition of 'racist'.

I'm not sure about that - I thought the whole point of hysterical political rants would be to abandon all sense of reason or decorum, preferably in a public forum, while flopping around & speaking in tongues. This shows one's enemies that one is possessed by the gods, an ancient warning that the flinging of monkey poo nears commencement. DAMN DIRTY APES!!!

mbassoc2003 wrote:ROFLMAO.
You crack me up.    

Seems like uncharacteristically Americanized phrasing. If I didn't know better I'd think it was intended with sarcasm. Oh well, tanto va la gatta al lardo chi ci lascia lo zampino, I suppose.

stratochamp wrote:i won the 1023 & 1026.

Did you ever get around to scanning/taking a picture of these?

ShaneG.

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Citadel of Fire and Trial by Fire $9 min bid

Seller also has other JG lots but most are very common items.

Mines of Custalcon in another lot is harder to find