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Author Topic: The Mods need your opinion! Help!  (Read 7305 times)

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Online lovesbabysquirmy

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Re: The Mods need your opinion! Help!
« Reply #45 on: July 05, 2017, 09:34:28 AM »
I always lie about the worth in the customs form to avoid charges but pay a seperate postage fee to insure the parcel up to a chosen worth (2€ insure the parcel for 100€, 4 for 200...) - this insurance isnt labeled on the box to avoid theft.

Lying on customs forms is actually a very serious crime , so I don't advise ANYONE to do this!  :( 
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Offline minamarie

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Re: The Mods need your opinion! Help!
« Reply #46 on: July 05, 2017, 09:47:39 AM »
I always lie about the worth in the customs form to avoid charges but pay a seperate postage fee to insure the parcel up to a chosen worth (2€ insure the parcel for 100€, 4 for 200...) - this insurance isnt labeled on the box to avoid theft.

Lying on customs forms is actually a very serious crime , so I don't advise ANYONE to do this!  :(

No it's not an advice cause it's illegal - I only do it on private parcels (cause I just paid a dollar on that pony I am sending to friends even if it's worth 100 on ebay)and it is only mentioned cause the problem was - if they do lie (it was considered) it wouldnt be insured enough

Offline MLPWhitney

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Re: The Mods need your opinion! Help!
« Reply #47 on: July 05, 2017, 01:10:12 PM »
My sympathies to both parties involved. Moving forward, maybe the mods can implement a swap rule that the organizers address potential customs issues at the onset of sign ups. Or add it best practices to sending overseas in a pinned post on the swap forum.

i.e. "by agreeing to this swap, you may incur import charges if your partner is international", and then it is at least the person's prerogative whether or not to participate. The person mailing may not feel comfortable marking a lower value (though I don't see why they would be, as it is essentially a "gift" between parties. Unless the parcel goes missing for whatever reason, or the sender isn't as well-versed in mailing internationally. Just playing devil's advocate!).


I wish I had the right answer on this issue, and the mentioned solutions seem reasonable enough. I would probably have to lean toward the sender, whom accurately marked the value and withheld his or her end of the deal. I am not sure if the receiver was keenly aware of their import taxes or not, but if they had, perhaps they could have PMed the swap host prior to joining the swap. The fact that they had the package sent back before contacting anyone (not sure if that was their only option on the spot; to be fair) seems to be piece out of place. I think the receiver should either cut her losses (now knowing how to proceed with receiving international parcels in the future), or pay the sender to mail out again. Certainly not the fun solution, but in my opinion, the sender did everything correctly.

Again, my condolences to both sides, and I hope it gets resolved!
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Re: The Mods need your opinion! Help!
« Reply #48 on: July 07, 2017, 06:11:26 PM »
I have the same issue when shipping eBay purchases, I tend to undervalue them by about half so that the buyer isn't hit with a charge but it is still valued at something. Trades would be marked as gifts? I don't know as I don't do many trades but I'd hate to pay for my own gift.
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Re: The Mods need your opinion! Help!
« Reply #49 on: July 09, 2017, 10:29:29 AM »
Receiver needs to pay for resend, package will be at real value and they will have to pay for import fees , is their responsibility in my opinion , the sending back to refuse fees was a NO NO, they could have made a correction on the fees proving the value was a mistake and savage the the swap that way.
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Re: The Mods need your opinion! Help!
« Reply #50 on: July 10, 2017, 06:26:53 AM »
It's really tricky in this case, to me, because it's a custom swap. I've been puzzling this out for days now, but one thing that occurs to me is something that came up in another thread. Namely - the idea of 'I don't want this pony anymore because I can't even resell it once it arrives, as it is a custom item."

Customs are art; and while there may be an incredible amount of time poured into an artistic work, that doesn't inherently give it value to an outside observer. If you're going to sell a Van Gogh, of course you'll have oodles of buyers; but what about a lesser-known painter of a similar talent or style? Why does Van Gogh sell for millions, but my watercolors sell for $5?

For that reason, I don't feel that undervaluing a custom pony is particularly bad or wrong for the purposes of customs forms; because yes, while it is a beautiful work of art that anyone in the community would appreciate, to any outside observer it's "a $5 pony with paint on it," which isn't worth very much at all - unless you like that sort of thing. And there's even a lot of people within the community who don't enjoy custom ponies, or certain styles of custom ponies; that doesn't mean the pony is worthless, but simply isn't valued by those people. It's what makes reselling customs so difficult; the artist might decide their original work is worth $300, but the new owner may only be able to sell it for $25, because that's what the market dictates. As sad as it is, that pony is now "worth" $25, according to the market.

Also relevant, aren't all items in a custom/art swap considered to be 'gifts', since it's an artist-for-artist trade? It seems like, to me, valuing your 'artistic worth' on a customs form is a bit of a thoughtless move, unless they completely forgot about the fact that customs fees exist, which tends to happen for us Americans more often than not! If they are still insisting on their 'right' to value their art as highly as they want, well ... :/ Maybe they shouldn't be in swaps that are allowed to send overseas, in the future.

It's a confusing mess for sure, so I hope my post offered at least a little insight, and I wish the best for all parties involved. A true headache, indeed!!
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Re: The Mods need your opinion! Help!
« Reply #51 on: July 18, 2017, 10:19:17 AM »
It's really tricky in this case, to me, because it's a custom swap. I've been puzzling this out for days now, but one thing that occurs to me is something that came up in another thread. Namely - the idea of 'I don't want this pony anymore because I can't even resell it once it arrives, as it is a custom item."

Customs are art; and while there may be an incredible amount of time poured into an artistic work, that doesn't inherently give it value to an outside observer. If you're going to sell a Van Gogh, of course you'll have oodles of buyers; but what about a lesser-known painter of a similar talent or style? Why does Van Gogh sell for millions, but my watercolors sell for $5?

For that reason, I don't feel that undervaluing a custom pony is particularly bad or wrong for the purposes of customs forms; because yes, while it is a beautiful work of art that anyone in the community would appreciate, to any outside observer it's "a $5 pony with paint on it," which isn't worth very much at all - unless you like that sort of thing. And there's even a lot of people within the community who don't enjoy custom ponies, or certain styles of custom ponies; that doesn't mean the pony is worthless, but simply isn't valued by those people. It's what makes reselling customs so difficult; the artist might decide their original work is worth $300, but the new owner may only be able to sell it for $25, because that's what the market dictates. As sad as it is, that pony is now "worth" $25, according to the market.

Also relevant, aren't all items in a custom/art swap considered to be 'gifts', since it's an artist-for-artist trade? It seems like, to me, valuing your 'artistic worth' on a customs form is a bit of a thoughtless move, unless they completely forgot about the fact that customs fees exist, which tends to happen for us Americans more often than not! If they are still insisting on their 'right' to value their art as highly as they want, well ... :/ Maybe they shouldn't be in swaps that are allowed to send overseas, in the future.

It's a confusing mess for sure, so I hope my post offered at least a little insight, and I wish the best for all parties involved. A true headache, indeed!!


Found myself thinking about this thread again.  How is it going, mods?

Lots of great thoughts here. Maybe Arena customs swaps that have international participants should have a standard set of guidelines for  the value to be declared on the customs forms.  If people KNOW they are receiving a $50 item subject to customs fees, then they can choose to opt-out of joining the swap.

Because, yes, art is subjective and the postal service wants to see proof of value when and if someone has to make a claim.  :( 
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Re: The Mods need your opinion! Help!
« Reply #52 on: July 18, 2017, 04:45:36 PM »
The parcel is still in the ether, waiting to be returned.
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Re: The Mods need your opinion! Help!
« Reply #53 on: July 19, 2017, 03:19:19 AM »
It's really tricky in this case, to me, because it's a custom swap. I've been puzzling this out for days now, but one thing that occurs to me is something that came up in another thread. Namely - the idea of 'I don't want this pony anymore because I can't even resell it once it arrives, as it is a custom item."

Customs are art; and while there may be an incredible amount of time poured into an artistic work, that doesn't inherently give it value to an outside observer. If you're going to sell a Van Gogh, of course you'll have oodles of buyers; but what about a lesser-known painter of a similar talent or style? Why does Van Gogh sell for millions, but my watercolors sell for $5?

For that reason, I don't feel that undervaluing a custom pony is particularly bad or wrong for the purposes of customs forms; because yes, while it is a beautiful work of art that anyone in the community would appreciate, to any outside observer it's "a $5 pony with paint on it," which isn't worth very much at all - unless you like that sort of thing. And there's even a lot of people within the community who don't enjoy custom ponies, or certain styles of custom ponies; that doesn't mean the pony is worthless, but simply isn't valued by those people. It's what makes reselling customs so difficult; the artist might decide their original work is worth $300, but the new owner may only be able to sell it for $25, because that's what the market dictates. As sad as it is, that pony is now "worth" $25, according to the market.

Also relevant, aren't all items in a custom/art swap considered to be 'gifts', since it's an artist-for-artist trade? It seems like, to me, valuing your 'artistic worth' on a customs form is a bit of a thoughtless move, unless they completely forgot about the fact that customs fees exist, which tends to happen for us Americans more often than not! If they are still insisting on their 'right' to value their art as highly as they want, well ... :/ Maybe they shouldn't be in swaps that are allowed to send overseas, in the future.

It's a confusing mess for sure, so I hope my post offered at least a little insight, and I wish the best for all parties involved. A true headache, indeed!!

I think you made some good points here :bigups:
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Re: The Mods need your opinion! Help!
« Reply #54 on: July 19, 2017, 05:39:33 AM »
The parcel is still in the ether, waiting to be returned.
It can take months for that to happen, sometimes I think they send stuff back via surface mail to cost the least amount of money. If so three-six months wait is possible.
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Re: The Mods need your opinion! Help!
« Reply #55 on: July 19, 2017, 05:13:27 PM »
The parcel is still in the ether, waiting to be returned.
It can take months for that to happen, sometimes I think they send stuff back via surface mail to cost the least amount of money. If so three-six months wait is possible.

That's exactly what we thought too.
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Re: The Mods need your opinion! Help!
« Reply #56 on: July 20, 2017, 07:39:22 AM »
The parcel is still in the ether, waiting to be returned.
It can take months for that to happen, sometimes I think they send stuff back via surface mail to cost the least amount of money. If so three-six months wait is possible.

That's exactly what we thought too.

That is awful.  If I was the creator and sender of the custom, I would be livid and more than frustrated.  :(  I can see why we had to get the mods involved. 
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Re: The Mods need your opinion! Help!
« Reply #57 on: July 20, 2017, 02:56:58 PM »
If this was an Ebay  transaction, the moment the buyer refused to receive it  they voided their buyers protection , ebay or seller do not have to refund or resend anything to the buyer  -_-
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Offline MLPWhitney

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Re: The Mods need your opinion! Help!
« Reply #58 on: July 20, 2017, 07:35:33 PM »
The parcel is still in the ether, waiting to be returned.
It can take months for that to happen, sometimes I think they send stuff back via surface mail to cost the least amount of money. If so three-six months wait is possible.

That's exactly what we thought too.

That is awful.  If I was the creator and sender of the custom, I would be livid and more than frustrated.  :(  I can see why we had to get the mods involved. 

Agreed, just a terrible situation. The sender I still do not feel did anything wrong. If anything, the receiver may have been keen to import charges they may incur from other countries, and could have given a head's up either prior to the swap or to the swap host prior to everyone's mailing deadline. I am not saying they are in the wrong, however, the sender (I feel) is in between a rock and a hard place, by either mis-declaring the customs value (and god forbid losing the package) or mailing normally and this happening.

I feel for each party involved, including the mods. Hugs all around. I hope the package gets recovered sooner rather than later!
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