US Customs discussion - airports, importing

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#31
tesi said:
i have paid approximately 9% plus a fedex handling fee on a kelly. fedex billed me directly several weeks after receipt of the bag.
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If the bag is shipped FEDEX/UPS/DHL/etc, you will definitely have to pay customs fees. This is because (unlike the post office) courier services are responsible for clearing the packages and these packages are never inspected by CBP (Customs and Border Patrol), other than random spot checks. failure on the part of a courier to pay customs duty on all shipments results in heavy fines and could potentially result in CBP revoking the couriers clearing privileges, which in turn would affect their delivery guarantees. This is not something courier services are willing to risk. The tax calculations and payments are built into their supply chain.

If the bag is shipped via the national mail carrier, which then transfers to the US Mail on this end, it's a bit of a crapshoot as to whether you will get charged customs duty or not. This is because the USPS does not clear the packages. Instead, packages are delivered to CBP and then released to the USPS by CBP after inspection. CBP does not look at every package, nor do they have the manpower or systems to levy duties on all packages above $800. Hence, lots of packages get through with no duty levied. Of course, delivery guarantees are not made in this case (just estimates) since things can get hung up in customs for a few days, perhaps even a week or two.
 
#34
lala28 said:
This is all very helpful. I may sound silly but how does one declare the value of a used Birkin?
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When I bought my used Birkin in march from hong kong, customs valued it at $10,000, which is much greater than what I paid...found out that's what they valued most Birkins. Then the package got held up at customs for several weeks while I had to fill out some forms and prove to fedex the lower amount paid who in turn had to work with customs to get my package released. It was a total pain and all the while my poor Birkin was sitting at some customs holding spot :( I still have not received the customs bill yet...am dreading when i get it!
 
#36
lilgraycat said:
It may help to ask the seller of the preowned Birkin to attach an invoice to the Fedex/DHL waybill pouch so that customs can see the actual price you paid.
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That's useful if it's going by mail. If it's FEDEX or DHL, since they clear customs, the seller will have to provide the value at the point of shipping and it's highly unlikely that it will be questioned by customs, since FEDEX/DHL/etc clear the package as third party agents on their own. Customs never actually handles these packages, except very, very rarely for a spot check to keep the courier services honest.
 
#38
tustin said:
What are your experiences at customs when you've declared your H & Birkin purchases when you come home?

Do they charge you the extra duty (in excess of the allowable $800) right then and there? Or do they send you a bill?

Also, do they search your bags? For me, this would be totally annoying if you were honest and declared everything to find that it caused them to search your bags and waste your time. Has this happened to anyone before?

TIA!
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I just bought 2 birkins from Australia, but I didnt get checked by the US custom at all... Maybe it's bc I didnt report it to them... In addition, I mailed the orange boxes back to the States, but I didnt get any custom bills.

They didnt search my birkins at all, and dun worry... Custom officers are not so rude...
 
#39
Thanks, Rachelbabe! I was thinking of declaring it so was worried about the process since I'm a chicken.

I opted to send it from FSH and just received it today. Interestingly enough, it took 2 business days to get here - it left FSH on Thursday and arrived today.

Based on my research, I think that the US customs duty is 8%. But I will definitely expect to pay duty on the bag, not the shipping charges!

The one thing that I found a little annoying is that H put the invoice on the top of the box for the world to see how much the bag cost. It's kind of conspicuous! I wished that they could have just folded it close. Oh well.
 
#40
Unfortunately customs charges are on the total of the bag and the shipping charges. Did they ship FedEx? If they did then you can see if it was blocked at customs on the package tracking. If you didn't have a customs sticker at least on your box you should be ok.
 
#41
Please let me know what they charge, if at all. I am trying to plan my attack for a European trip later this year! Thanks and good luck. BTW, what did you get?;)
 
#42
I just purchased a birkin from a reseller in Hong Kong. I was so afraid that I would get "busted" by U.S. customs if I underdeclared its value so I had the reseller put the purchase price on the outside and enclose a copy of the invoice inside the package. Thank my lucky stars -- it passed with flying colors (I used EMS / U.S.P.S.) and it did not appear that customs manhandled it in anyway.
 
#43
na294 - I don't think that Customs opened my box but I also don't think that I'll be one of the lucky ones to not get charged customs duty! I will hope, though! Will let you all know what I get charged...
 
#44
lala28 said:
I just purchased a birkin from a reseller in Hong Kong. I was so afraid that I would get "busted" by U.S. customs if I underdeclared its value so I had the reseller put the purchase price on the outside and enclose a copy of the invoice inside the package. Thank my lucky stars -- it passed with flying colors (I used EMS / U.S.P.S.) and it did not appear that customs manhandled it in anyway.
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-I found that when someone has shipped to me via EMS, it sails through, no Customs charge (bags other than bIrkin, have no experience with that).

But, as others have said, if it is FedEx for example, you will get hit. I just bought a pre-owned Marc Jacobs for 850 USD, the seler marked the bag on the p/w as 500, I just got a bill from FedEx for 70, which means customs valued the bag at more than 500 with a duty charge of 9%. They valued it for about what I paid for it! Howdeydodat???? LOL They must have someone sitting around figuring out resale values ???? The box was not opened by appearances(though I have had labels slapped on boxes indicating they had been xrayed, near as I could tell as to what the label meant), and the shipping from Dubai to US took about 3 days. so it didn't linger long in Customs

So in the end I honestly don't know if they charged 9% or something else, as the box wasn't opened but the $ did not correspond to 9% of 500$

Sorry to be long-winded
 
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#45
Rachelbabe said:
I just bought 2 birkins from Australia, but I didnt get checked by the US custom at all... Maybe it's bc I didnt report it to them... In addition, I mailed the orange boxes back to the States, but I didnt get any custom bills.

They didnt search my birkins at all, and dun worry... Custom officers are not so rude...
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This is a highly risky thing to do. Once you get caught by customs, you will be on a watch list and really go through quite an ordeal. Search the forum as others have posted about this.

I declared significant LV purchases a number of years ago coming from Heathrow and customs looked at my paperwork and simply waved me through.
 
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