Hey everyone, I’m currently working on a deal with someone who lives in Australia and I’m in the U.S. The deal is for a single card around $1,000 and they are asking if I can mark the declared value under $400 as to avoid the import fees. I don’t mind doing this to help them out as long as it won’t hurt me in any way but I’ve never shipped overseas and I’m not sure how to mark the value or what would be the best service or company to use. Any help is greatly appreciated!
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usually when u ship oversea u don’t want to put the exact value on it if it worth quite a bit, so writing 400 will be much better than 1k as it will have a lower chance of getting steal
Things to keep in mind.
- This is illegal tax evasion.
- All the risk is on you if you ship the item uninsured/underinsured and it gets lost. You lose your item and buyer opens an eBay or PP claim to recoup their money.
- To avoid the issue in #2 you can demand an irreversible unprotected payment method such as Venmo, PP F&F, Crypto, etc.
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If they want you to under declare then they should be fine with a Paypal Friends/family payment. Tell them that, plus they assume all risk if lost, then you’ll be happy to under declare.
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Unfortunately PP FF is not 100% safe, I got scammed once (I actually never asked for FF, but that guy did it anyway), he used his parents credit card and then just called the bank and told them that it was “unauthorized” payment, so they canceled it and refunded him. I lost card, money and PP added $20 fees for my account being in negatives. It wasn’t much of a lose, card was about $70, but still kinda sucked.
If you want a 100% secure method then you should use crypto as everything else still can be canceled If a buyer is using credit card.
As for OP - I wouldn’t deal with overseas folks, I’m sure you will find a good US buyer. It will be less stress and more safe.
Nothing wrong with posting to people overseas if you are a bit careful. Plenty of great collectors here in Europe as well as Australia and other parts of the world. If you are unsure of anything just make sure you do everything by the book to cover yourself and get the proper tracking and insurance. If something feels dodgy don’t bother but that’s the same when dealing with someone in your own country.
I would have struggled as a collector in the UK with parts of my collection if others from the US and abroad were not willing to ship here, and I have helped collectors abroad with their collection in places even like Chile. My point is it’s better for everyone in the Pokémon tcg to have a worldwide network and we can all help each other out so don’t close off your options too hastily 
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Customs in Australia has no jurisdiction over you, the worst case scenario if they somehow find out the true value, is that the correct value is put on the package and the buyer pays the relevant import fees.
If it is declared under $1000 and is not A grade heroin it will not be stopped. There are a few countries that require itemized invoice with proof of purchase (Poland comes to mind). But luckily not Australia, we have too many Wallerydoos and Gumbats to deal with than petty under declarations.
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I couldn’t disagree more, I PREFER dealing with overseas collectors. In fact, on one of my IDs I ship FREE internationally.
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