Help buying on eBay: Can you explain the International buyer note about import duties/taxes?

Not sure if this applies, but read up on incoterms… – if all else fails just ask the other party for details.

Generally, no problems in the US for import duties. The price you see, is the price you pay.

But when I ship to Europe, from US, my Euro friends deal with nightmares of massive import tax and customs holdup. They’ll hold the package until customs tax is paid, based upon a high percentage of the declared value, which cannot be cheated because would affect insurance protection.

It’s absurd, some of these taxes approaching 40% additional to declared value. Buyers often request item to be declared as a gift… but that holds up the shipping for weeks, with holes punched in boxes to view contents. It can get ridiculous, and I do less international selling because of the hassles.

But receiving in US from anywhere in the world, I’ve never paid an import tax, and rarely had to pick up a PO. They just deliver to my doorstep.

I have ordered a lot of stuff from china and there was never a problem with charges. It’s a disclaimer and I would guess that they would need your authorization to add any more than you already paid. Keep in mind that it can take up to a month to get something from china so don’t order for last minute needs. The most important thing is to read the ads closely and ask questions. Read through their feedback profile and click on negative feedback to see what people complain about. read the positive too, there are a lot of people out there who want something for nothing and will never be happy. It helps when you ask questions to say please and thank you. It is in their culture to correspond this way and you will get better customer service being humble.