[klkitchens]

Much like the prohibition for Paypal gift payments, can we get an official forum policy on customs declarations for international shipping?

I've had it happen many times on ebay, but was surprised to find it happen here as well.

Someone was inquiring about a $600 lens I was selling and they asked me to mark the customs value as $20 and label it as a "broken lens, for parts"... both of which were completely false.

I've had, in the past, people want items marked as "gifts" instead of merchandise.

Both of these are attempts to circumvent paying any due taxes and duty in their own country for the item, and requires the seller to commit international mail fraud.

If this is something the site doesn't want to officially address, then at the very least hopefully this post will encourage sellers to mark shipments correctly.

Thanks!

[Parallax]

Someone was inquiring about a $600 lens I was selling and they asked me to mark the customs value as $20 and label it as a "broken lens, for parts"... both of which were completely false.

Actually, that's already covered in the forum rules. What people who ask that are asking you to do is to commit a fraud. The rules prohibit discussion of illegal activities.
Your point is well taken, however. It might not be a bad idea to address the specific issue in the Marketplace rules.

[stormtech]

If I offer anything for sale here internationally, I just add a line in my description that I will not alter the customs form - simple enough!

[klkitchens]

Ironically, after posting this here, I saw on a board gaming site where someone was praising a company in the US for shipping them an item to The Netherlands and marking it such that duties were avoided. Not a person, but a company. Was very sad that a company would do such a thing.