Thread: Question about Customs/Import duty

OK, so I buy my coins in the States and I live in the UK. When I pick them up I get hit with import/customs duty.....a nasty experience but expected. I then send my coins to get slabbed at PCGS in California, do I have to pay import duty again on the same coins?

I have three submissions with PCGS at various stages in the process............any authoritative answers would be welcome....marbury518

I wouldn't think so as they are your property.

Mmm but if they (PCGS) put a value on the outside.....do customs care if it's my property already....last time I went to pick up something which i knew would incur a charge the staff member said if you disagree with the charge to can write but don't expect a reply!

Take photos of the package and the contents when you send them to PCGS, then take those photos with copies of all the paperwork to customs when you go to pick up the return. The point is, you must prove to the customs officials that you are not making a new import. I know from experience that this method avoids duties on re-import to the US, and there's no reason it shouldn't accomplish the same result in the UK. Good luck.

I would call PCGS and ask how they handle it. They must have experience in international shipping, such as labeling it "Returns to customer" or just the charge for "authenticating and sealing customers goods". I have received gemstone rough from Africa and Asia, and it has a custom's label as "rock samples" and a low value. The only time I had problem was when an African wrote "no value" on his label. Customs rejected it back to him until he put a low value ( I think $5) on it

Jim

PCGS now has a grading office in the UK.

Originally Posted by marbury518

OK, so I buy my coins in the States and I live in the UK. When I pick them up I get hit with import/customs duty.....a nasty experience but expected. I then send my coins to get slabbed at PCGS in California, do I have to pay import duty again on the same coins?

I have three submissions with PCGS at various stages in the process............any authoritative answers would be welcome....marbury518

Called PCGS and they said they have to put the cost of the grading service..........so, theroetically I would be paying import duty on a service
rather than a product.......not just, or sense but there we have it. PCGS were helpful though.

PCGS in UK? I knew they had one in Paris, but UK? Really. More info please.

I don't "do" slabbed coins, but what keeps you from sending them to Paris then? Shipping is unlikely to be more costly than to the US, and you certainly don't have to deal with any customs issues.

Christian

To send them to Paris you need to do it via a conduit (PCGS validated dealer) and the list of these
is short and when I have contacted the ones I knew about and felt comfortable with, they didn't
want to get involved. They said is was a bureaucratic activity and said no anyway.
Furthermore, why do I want to pay to ship internally round the UK then pay someone else to send
my coins to Paris.

In 6 years of buying high value items from the US and far off countries I have yet to get hit with any customs payments.
I guess my time could be up soon

As far as I am aware only one of my buyers has been hit and he was in Jordan.

I'm in Canada and twice in the last year I got nailed with duty. Once for an item from BEP and once for an item I bought on ebay from a retailer.

You're not really paying customs on the service, but rather on the value added. Think of it this way:

You own the coins. (You _might_ have to provide proof of ownership. Previous receipts would probably suffice.) Once you can prove you owned the coins prior to them being shipped out of the country, you would then need to settle ownership of the holders. The holders _could_ be priced at the going rate of slabs ($4 each?), but PCGS opts to price it at the rate of service. Why? Because they don't want you complaining to them that they charged $X for a product worth $4. I'm happy the gov't doesn't choose FMV to determine customs due. After all, your $200 coin would now be worth 3x that.

I`ve never got caught for customs either, I bought 3 seperate expensive antique watches last week from the US.
The value was clearly visible on the customs forms, not a bean was paid in tax.

I buy from Heritage quite a bit and Stacks Bowers and get hit every time......just bought from Moore's Numismatic Auctions via i-collector and got hit last week. The thought of entering into a lengthy bureaucratic dialogue with customs trying to haggle would be a non starter for me as I don't have the time.