[meteorite-list] Lost packages

From: stan . <laser_maniac_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Feb 14 01:05:04 2005
Message-ID: <BAY101-F30977EE6137EA1635FA88DF06A0_at_phx.gbl>

>Let's get something strait now. Almost every customer in Europe wants their
>packages to declare "NO VALUE" "GIFT" "For scientific study only" etc, to
>avoid customs. Except there is a problem with that. When you declare no
>value, then there is no possible insurance value either.


thats not true - at least for my post office.

i usually put no customs value or a small amount - say 20$ - but ALWAYS
insure a package for what it's worth - and have not had a prob;em processing
the one claim I had - nor have I had anyone calim that customs gave them a
hard time even though the insured value is written ont he customs form - in
obvious conflict with the dclared value.

basically the post office explained it to me that the customs declaration
can be set at value of the transaction - but the insurance amount can be for
whatever you can document your loss at should the package go missing..

so as a hypothetical example, if you sell your customer a several gram
howardite slice _at_ 20$ - a killer deal because you want them to come back
again and again - you can put 20$ ont he customs form for shipment to
germany - but you can insure it for 200$ - the price some dude in germany
recently bought the same material off of you for.

a convinient loophole i'd say
Received on Mon 14 Feb 2005 01:04:54 AM PST