International purchase, sealed collector's item, customs

[istvaerde0]

Dear ebay members,

I'm a novice and would like to expand my collection; about to have my first international purchase on ebay, so pardon for the question: how do customs handle such item? Would they "butcher" it, tear original seal, unbox and repack?

Thank you very much!

[tarpedge]

It is examined by x-ray, and will only be opened and resealed with official tape if something needs to be removed.

[istvaerde0]

Great response! TYVM.

[robot-hands]

Entirely possible they will open anything and everything.

I sold a new sealed Dark Tower (1981) board game and Canadian costoms opened the box  and every bag of sealed parts.

Buyer was hot...

[istvaerde0]

I'm quite discouraged now.

Don't want to take the risk and have the seller lose his/her well earned money, but I don't want to accept receiving something less than what I paid for either; so the best option would be to wait for another, non-international opportunity (that may never come). What a bummer.

Thank you for the response.

[imakesugar]

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@istvaerde0 wrote:

Dear ebay members,

I'm a novice and would like to expand my collection; about to have my first international purchase on ebay, so pardon for the question: how do customs handle such item? Would they "butcher" it, tear original seal, unbox and repack?

Thank you very much!

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I think It depends on where You are buying from. Living in the USA I have never had a package opened from an international sale. USA customs does not check anything less than $200. I think If the item is going TO USA and is less than $200. you would have no problem.

[istvaerde0]

I'm in Europe wanting to order from US...

[robot-hands]

Oh, I didn't loose a penny.

Inspected packages are not the respnsibility of the seller.

[imakesugar]

Oh, then I would check the custom site for My own country. You could google something like reviews of BLANK Country and see what their limits and how they handle the purchase imports in Your country. It would be good to also check the list of things it is illegal to import to Your country. Make sure YOUR purchase is not on that list.

[zanadoo_56]

I'm in Australia and they generally use x-rays machines here HOWEVER I had two parcels opened because:
1. The US seller used an old cardboard fruit box to pack my item. As it could have introduced foreign bacteria etc into the country the box was confiscated and destroyed. Unfortunately in Oz Quarantine's haste to open the box my purchase was damaged with a box cutter. 😞
2. This parcel was posted from France with no customs sticker on it and the seller's name was middle eastern. It was scanned and opened by Customs, no doubt thinking it was all very dodgy. This time nothing was damaged but it had Customs sticky tape all over it. 🙂
Hopefully the seller you have chosen is very experienced re packaging and paperwork.

[7606dennis]

Hopefully, Customs will use the least obtrusive method to do their job as possible, but it should be noted that Customs Inspectors in almost all countries are given wide latitude to perform their duties.