Jewelry Shipping to Japan

Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience with shipping to Japan? What’s the
best service to use? Fedex, UPS, postal? It will need to be insured.
I’m assuming that I have to fill out some forms for customs. Where do
these come from?

Is there a way to figure costs before shipping? I’m charging the
card before it ships.

Is there anything I need to be aware of or look out for?

Any suggestions, pointers, hints would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much for your help!
Amery

Amery,

I shipped a cell phone to Japan last fall by USPS Global Priority,
but watch out - I also got ripped for $ 900. A guy in Japan was
posing as two sisters from Georgia, and used their Paypal accounts to
pay for the phone.

The “sisters” supposedly wanted to send the guy a Christmas gift.
Yeah, sure…

Hello Amery,

We ship overseas for our Ebay business and here’s what we have
found. Regular USPS shipping is the most economical because contract
carriers such as Fedex & UPS charge an additional brokerage fee for
physically moving the items through customs. Not only will your
customers have to pay the normal customs charges, the carrier fees
can be a steep and nasty surprise. Packages of less than 4 pounds can
go letter post; packages of more than 4 pounds can go parcel post.
International priority mail is also an option for some weights.

As far as insurance goes, you have a couple of options. Foreign
packages can’t be insured unless you send them registered mail (I’m
not sure that this applies to all countries, however). Most sellers
opt to go with private insurers (search shipping insurance on the
web). Some will also allow you to add tracking with these services.
I’ve never had to use such a service, but did do some research when
we decided to expand our shipping. There are two different custom
forms. It depends on the dollar amount of the item. Some countries
have restrictions on shipping jewelry. I don’t think Japan does.
Sometimes we will put ‘fashion accessory’ on the customs forms when
shipping jewelry and have never had a problem.

Hope that helps,
Tracy Burlison

Brian,

That was an expensive phone!

I’m certain this woman is legit. I’ve met her once, and I have a
friend who happens to live in Tokyo and she’s familiar with the
store. But thanks for the word of caution. It’s sad that there are
such scammers out there!

amery
Amery Carriere Designs
www.amerycarriere.com