I’m based in the UK and I have a card that is valued at around £3,000 approximately. Its PSA 10 and the case has a small crack on it (in the corner, not over the card). The card itself is still in perfect condition and from research PSA should just swap the case for me without any issues.
However my worry is import fees as I’m very inexperienced with this. I’ll be submitting to PSA directly myself as I dont think the 2 UK grading services offer a middle man re-casing service. So ill be filling out a form on the PSA website and sending the card directly to them using Parcel Force to ship. This will likely cost £150+ to send and insure, then around $50 for the re-casing service itself.
My questions are:
1 - Will PSA contact me after it has been recased to say what I owe in order to get the card shipped back to me in the UK?
2 - The main question, will there be import fees to then get the card back from customs? This is my main concern as import fees for the card would be near £1000! It seems harsh considering the card is from the UK originally and I’m just sending it to the US for a ‘repair’ technically?
3 - Is there anything that PSA declares on their end to state the item came from the UK originally, is not a sale and is simply being sent back following repair so import fees should not be considered? Is there anything I need to do to flag this?
4 - If the item does get held at customs upon its return, is it at that point that I must prove I originally sent the item to the US in order to avoid import fees?
Sorry for all the questions, like I said this is a first for me. I assume it is possible as Ludkins and Graded Gem consistently send cards for grading and import fees aren’t charged following the cards return to the UK.
I sent 1 email to the general Ludkins email but didn’t get a reply. I know they are extremely busy right now with the year coming to an end so I didnt want to pester them and just made the assumption that its not a service they offer.
I might try sending 1 more email. If they can include it in one of their submissions that would potentially save me almost £200 in postage and insurance!
No. Shipping costs back to you are shown upon submission. Only contact you get would be upcharges if there are any.
No. Keep the post office receipt and that will be your proof of export. Fedex will contact you once PSA’s package arrives in the UK and as long as you provide a photo of the receipt with the tracking number they will clear it with customs. You will be charged £21 for that, though.
Yes, PSA’s export form will states these are being sent to original sender after being professionally assessed.
Same answr as question 2.
Additionally, you say you are sending with Parcelforce, which I understand, given the amount (Royal Mail only insures up to £250), but bear in mind that Parcelforce doesn’t send to PO boxes, so you will be taking a bit of a gamble there. I was able to send once with parcelforce because the person at the post office didn’t realise it was a PO box and the package went through some hoops until (I assume) someone from PSA phisically collected it from a depot. Since I’ve always sent to PSA’s PO box address I am not able to give you advice on how to work that one out, so you may want to get in touch with PSA and ask them what address is best for international customer’s who can’t send to PO boxes.
I am pretty sure both UK services do offer recasing although it may not be every month, I think they maybe do something like every three months. I have enquired about it before with Ludkins and they do this service for sure
Thanks for your replies guys, very much appreciated. I’ve emailed Ludkins again to ask. I’m more than happy to wait if I’m able to go through them. They’ve always been great with my grading and it would give me peace of mind, so fingers crossed.
Thanks for being so detailed with your response. Interesting to know about Parcelforce. It was just the first service I used but id be open to using any. Is there another UK international service that you’d recommend for PO Box addresses?
I always use Royal Mail, but their insurance only goes up to £250, so it wouldn’t cover you to the full amount.
Fedex might be a good option, but unfortunately I have no first hand experience using them to send to PSA. I use them for other imports and exports and they were always quick and efficient.