Offer to sell it to him and then ship US Post. You have to fill out a declaration form at the post office. That should work and both of you will be happy.
Please explain. Both the German and US posts use the standard Universal Postal Union forms. So your statement is wrong as far as I know. Please enlighten me.Not necessarily. For instance german customs did/do not accept the US form for content declaration.
Wow!!! That's news to me. Of all the customs troubles I've heard of, that is one I've yet to hear. I do a lot of international shipping myself, though not photography related. Your story got my interest so I looked at the USPS website and it looks like yours was not a postal issue but a customs one. It says that German authorities require an additional invoice IN ADDITION TO the postal one in case of commercial shipments or personal shipments of US$300 or more. It says "Priority Mail" but I assume it applies to all parcels of any class. You can see for yourself at usps.com. Go to the bottom of the page and look for Postal Explorer, then International Mail Manual or IMM, then Individual Country Listings and find Germany. I checked some other countries at random and some have this same silly requirement while others do not. This may or may not have anything to do with USPS as the customs information is generally provided by the specific country. To be safe, I would assume all parcels to Germany from anywhere require the "Invoice". As for the form numbers, the 2976 corresponds to UPU form CN22, the 2976A is the CP72, and the 2976B is similar but for EMS which falls under a different UPU category. Virtually all the worlds' posts use the UPU forms.I had an Ebay shipment from the USA of a common Canon FD lens by a private seller with a 100% truly filled out USPS customs declaration. I was called to the german customs office where I had to open the parcel. The content was identical to what was stated in the form. But still german customs refrained from handing over the parcel, as they said that it lacked the required invoice inside the parcel. Never ever heard of such regulation. I explained that such would contain exactly the same data as shown on the form outside, except for the added term "invoice". No, the officer insisted on that invoice and gave me 5 days to present it. Of course the seller did not react on my request to send an invoice. Inspite of several visits during these days to the customs office, the parcel finally was due to be sent on my costs back to the USA, resulting in a total loss plus added two times shipping.
Sheer madness...
The respective customs office was located in a small 19th century harbour warehouse. The private shipments located in a small chickenwire cage in a dark filthy attic with birds flying along.... And only about 20 parcels, for a region of at least 1/2 million people....
But that is not the only mad encounter I had with german customs, threatened with totall loss of the goods.
A invoice by a private seller has no more information value than the customs form on the outside. Except for the term "invoice".An invoice provides supporting evidence for that value, but even invoices can be challenged.
Understood, but you were still dealing with a government office - the sort who often only look for what they expect to find.A invoice by a private seller has no more information value than the customs form on the outside. Except for the term "invoice".
An invoice is evidence of an enforceable bargain, which involves at least two parties - the importer and the exporter.So what is in an invoice that differs from what is on a customs declaration? Couldn't a scammer just print up a fake? Or AgX could have just made one up at home to show the customs officer? I would have thought that what you'd put on the postal form can be verified if they really wanted to or why bother filling it out. As a government employee, I should have known that common sense rarely makes it into play.
Given the prevalence of thorium coatings
By the way, only the early lens have the thorum coating.
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