Andrew,

On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 01:42:58 -0700, Andrew Warren wrote:

> I know there are a few Europeans on the lis, and a number of people 
> who routinely ship items between Europe and the USAt; I hope one of 
> you can offer some advice.
> 
> I live in the USA and just bought an item from an individual in the 
> Netherlands.  Now I need to have it shipped, and it's turning out to 
> be more difficult than I thought it would be.
> 
> The seller says that UPS and DHL are unsuitable because they don't 
> offer enough insurance (the item's value is slightly over $US2000).  
> I don't know if that's true; I'll check tomorrow.  He's going to 
> investigate Federal Express's policies tomorrow, as well.

I can't help with that part - I use Royal Mail (from here to there) and USPS (from there to here) so I have 
little experience of independant shippers.
 
> Any other ideas?  Also, do import duties or other customs fees 
> generally apply to this sort of person-to-person transaction?

Oh yes!  Unless you are incredibly lucky you will have to pay these, plus a fee to the shipper for collecting 
it from you.  This may not be trivial!  Try to find out the brokerage fee (or whatever they call it) before 
you decide, because it can make a big difference.  For stuff coming this way by mail there is a value below 
which there is no tax to pay (not the case here though, it's about a fiftieth of the value you're talking 
about), but this doesn't apply to independant shippers, who always have to collect the tax.  

What did the seller recommend?  Have you investigated using the Dutch mail service?  It's much more common to 
use the national mail services over here, rather than independant shippers.

Good luck!


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist