MIMF

I just finished a guitar that I'm about to ship to a customer in Germany. The back and sides are cocobolo, sitka top, mahogany neck, ebony fingerboard and bridge, snakewood binding. I'm planning on shipping it USPS. It's my understanding that all I have to fill out is the simple Customs Declaration form. Under Detailed Description of Contents do I just say acoustic guitar? Any and all advice is appreciated.

Dave, I recently shipped a guitar to Austria and used USPS (which was by far the best price). Here is what I did.

First, buy your postage online, it is significantly faster and cheaper than going to the post office. Weigh and measure the box accurately, it will make a big difference on postage. Declare the contents of your package as "acoustic guitar" and "guitar case" (separate items). Declare the value of each (your customer will pay VAT based on this and that is what it will be insured for). Use form 2976-A.

Include an invoice - mine has three items, the guitar, the case and the shipping (which I billed him) - declare the same prices as on 2976-A. I'm assuming all of your woods are either not on the list or Appendix II (no Appendix I stuff). I have two statements in my invoice - one for the woods that are not listed in CITES (I do describe them with common and scientific names and describe their use in the guitar), then I have a section for the Appendix II items (Honduran mahogany). I included a Certificate of Export for my White MOP and the source of my other woods (LMI, I did not include LMI's invoices). If you would like to PM me an e-mail addy I could send you a copy of my invoice.

Fill out all the paperwork and print it out, make four copies of the invoice and take the whole she-bang to the post office. They have the special little plastic envelopes to stick on the box, send the tracking information to your customer and cross your fingers...

I paid for the shipping but billed it back to my customer, he paid all duties and taxes. It took around 10 or 11 days, the guitar was well packaged and survived the trip in one piece.

Wow, that's great Freeman, thanks.

First class mail is limited to $500 or $600 in insurance on overseas packages. You would need to ship Priority Express International to get the full $2500 of insurance protection I think. Postage rates just went up rather dramatically last week so it might be worthwhile checking with Fed Ex.

Important, at least here in Germany: the invoice must be visible from the outside, without opening the box.

The shipping might be billed separately so that the guitar appears to have free shipping to the custom people. Otherwise it will be included in the tax.

Beate Ritzert wrote:Important, at least here in Germany: the invoice must be visible from the outside, without opening the box.

The shipping might be billed separately so that the guitar appears to have free shipping to the custom people. Otherwise it will be included in the tax.

Shipping should be explicit on the invoice. If shipping is "free" the customs people will charge VAT on what they estimate the shipping to be worth. I ended up paying extra vat on a StewMac shipping because of that some years ago. German customs do believe in "free" shipping.

So here's the follow up. I shipped the guitar two weeks ago via USPS Global Express. The post office partners with FedEx. I had valued the guitar at $2500. It got as far as Louisville (I'm in Paducah, KY) and FedEx rejected it. They only accept items valued at $2499 or less! I remailed the guitar again a week after I devalued it by a dollar. Fortunately they credited me for the $341.65 in postage that I paid previously. Actually they issued me a money order for that amount, which they immediately cashed, and I handed back to them for the postage. Anyway I got a message from my customer today saying that he received the guitar. Thanks to everyone for their helpful comments

Here's the guitar.

Beautiful Dave!

So glad that worked out Dave. Sorry I misspoke about the max value, a dollar makes all the difference sometimes. With bearclaw like that your customer should be ripping it up all over Germany.

Looks like a lot of guitar for $2500. Lovely bearclaw top.

Michael Lewis wrote:Looks like a lot of guitar for $2500. Lovely bearclaw top.

+1 wow