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Plum Cottage BearsA collector from Norway wants to buy a bear I listed on Etsy. I would welcome some advice on the best--and least expensive--way to ship the bear. I am located in Long Beach, California, USA. The bear is 17 inches tall and is made of sparse mohair to look old, but not aged. When I had my supply business, we shipped internationally, but we used DHL sometimes and sometimes the post office. I imagine that the bear would have to be shipped via the post office. What about customs in Norway? The buyer wants to pay by Paypal. What else should I be asking about this international sale? Thanks for any advice. Happy holidays. Gail S. Thomas
Past Time BearsGail, if you go to the post office's website https://www.usps.com there is info about international mail, what forms to fill out, what Norwegian customs will require, etc.
A year ago I shipped a cat to a little fjord in Norway. The town was so small they didn't use street addresses. The mailman knew all the names of the families. I sent it USPS Priority mail International, Insured. No problems at all and the cat arrived very quickly.
Karen
desertmountainbearI always ship USPS insured. You can not add insurance when shipping through Paypal. But you can add it when shipping through the USPS site. In order to add the proper insurance it is important that you claim that amount on the custom forms. It is all very easily done on the site, they guide you through the process. One thing I have found and you may want to consider is spending the extra $7.00 or so and shipping it Express. You get $100.00 of insurance for free, and it is super fast. It is also the only type of mail that can be tracked once it leaves the country. When shipping my bears out I always use Express, they will track it to the door I believe.
Joanne, so true! Most of the time I charge for USPS Priority and bounce it up to Express for the customer. It also helps that it gets there faster and there's less chance of it getting lost.
Plum Cottage BearsThank you all for your assistance with my shipping questions. I presume that I will need to charge my local sales tax on cost of bear and shipping, even though it is an international sale. Your comments on this point would be appreciated. Happy holidays.
desertmountainbearYou do not charge sales tax unless the bear was purchased by someone in your state. At least that is the only time I do.
