Customs charges when buying from ebay?

[Wannabe Junkie]

Hi!

I wondered if anyone could help me? I'm hoping to place an order for several e/s pans and a pallette through an ebay shop in the States. I just wondered if I was likely to be charged by customs at this end? I know that it does happen when ordering through Strawberrynet but with SN they will refund the charges - I'm not sure how this would work with ebay sellers.

Any advice/experiences gratefully received. Buying from the US seems to be so much cheaper but I'm wary that there's a catch!!

Thanks

 

[Ambi]

I've bought from eBay about 50 times now and not once has there been any customs problems, [in my country the limit is about 45 Euro, if the label says the worth of the contents is less than that there's usually no problems, if it's more than 45 E you might have to pay 22% tax and if it's over about 85 E you also have to pay 12% custom fees.]

Some sellers mark it as a gift in which case the value doesn't matter [although in some cases they might get suspicious and check what's in the package because a lot of people abuse the "gift" thingy to avoid having to pay customs/taxes etc, especially those who send tons of packages overseas.]

And then there's those people who falsify the Customs Forms declaring a minimal value [label says value $20 when really it's $200] but that's illegal and you'll get fined if you get caught, so don't ask them to do it

 

[Wannabe Junkie]

Thanks Ambi! That's really useful. It looks like I'm better off buying in smaller amounts rather than one large lot to combine the postage. I still think it will be cheaper than buying in England.

Thank you

 

[Wannabe Junkie]

I've just been looking at details on the UK customs website and the limit for gifts is £36 (45 E) but for goods is £18 (22 E). Fortunately that only includes the value of the goods not P&P but still it's pretty low.