True costs of oversea imports to Germany (1 Viewer)

[DerberAlter]

Today, at the customs, the young woman working there asked me a lot of questions in very critical way:

She: "I see you often here, what do you do with those chips?"
Me: "I'm a collector, I collect them. It's my hobby"

She: "Do you sell those chips?"
Me: "No, I don't"

She: "Are those chips any special chips?"
Me: "Yes and no. Special because they are only available in North America"

She: "Where did you bought them"
Me: "It's not a shop. I know the sellers directly"

She: "In case you sell them, you need to run an import/export business"
Me: "I don't trade them. Maybe I will sell some of the chips in the future, but what is the problem about this?"

She clearly felt "fooled" by me, and doesn't want to let me come through. Then I saw here googling around for "poker chips" and "casino chips". She was not even involved in my case - another guy was working on my package.

Background: I was at least 6 times there in the last months, and this woman was 5 times there, but never involved in my case.
Today I got the first shipment declared as gift (113 quarters) and declared item value $40. The customs guy asked for the the original invoice, so I told him, that the original price of those are 113 x $0,25 (face value). the employee accept this of course, because it's completely correct and logical.

I will receive at least 4 shipments from US in the next 4-6 days. None of them will be declared as gift

 

[mipevi]

Well clearly you must be making crazy amounts of money on those chips, why else would you have so many packages coming in all the time!

 

[DerberAlter]

In case I need to argue, It would be no problem for me. But it's an awkward situation to get questioned and interrogated in a room full of other people - for receiving packages. I don't think that I have to answer at all - but this would be very enigmatic and curious.

Well clearly you must be making crazy amounts of money on those chips, why else would you have so many packages coming in all the time!

just for the record: chipping is the most unprofitable hobby ever - at least for me.

 

[Nex]

You can always request your formalities be handled in a separate room. Of course you'll have to wait longer if you choose that, but it's possible, at least in Garching.

If I get critical questions from some employee that doesn't even handle my case, I'd simply counter with another question: "Do you require this information to do your job for my case?"

 

[DerberAlter]

If I get critical questions from some employee that doesn't even handle my case, I'd simply counter with another question: "Do you require this information to do your job for my case?"

so, you also heard some of those questions?

 

[PaulsonCollector]

Here in Dortmund the customs are handled near the airport, this is a 40 mins drive for me per direction. They do know me by name by now. The first time I received a huge amount of Paulsons they asked for the Paypal-voucher, so I printed it and returned there. They were shocked of that price, lol. Meanwhile they do recognise me. I'm there not only for poker chips, but for magic equipement and other stuff I'm buying around the globe. They ask for 19% of the value (VAT) and an additional fee. But Pokerchips are handled as toys here, never as Playing Cards. You should get your money back there.

 

[Nex]

so, you also heard some of those questions?

Whenever I did customs formalities myself, I was never asked if I was doing the imports as a business. When importing thru UPS/FedEx though, they forwarded me such a request from customs one or two times. Both times it was about shipments with a declared value in the high hundreds and low thousands of dollars. I simply replied I was importing the goods as a private person, not as a business, and that was all.

I have been asked about the nature of the chips, but only insofar that they wanted to find their true value. Like mentioned, the Horseshoe $25,000 chip for example. I gave them the info they needed to confirm the chips were no longer negotiable, i.e. no longer had the dollar value printed on them, but only the material/collector's value.

If I were to get bombarded with tons of nosy questions, I would make it clear that I'm not at their office to satisfy their curiosity but only to cooperate as far as minimally required by law to receive my stuff. I would also make it clear that I already view the fact that I have to open the package in front of them as an invasion of my privacy.

 

[PaulsonCollector]

so, you also heard some of those questions?

Funniest story so far with customs. Last year I've order a "Pyro Mini" from the US, video:

It was missing a CE-trademark and since it is "making fire" they've got nervous. So they've sent it to the regional government to check for safety. After two weeks I was able to pick it up. It was considered safe.

 

[Kid_Eastwood]

Well, in Belgium you pay a fixed fee of 22€ + VAT on content + shippig.

Last time I got my package opened and controlled. It was a rack of Lakeshore Inn quarters + 5 spares and in the end I only received 104 chips. A son of a gun at the customs just stole me a chip.

As description, I ask the seller to write sth. like :
- Toys
- Board game tokens
- ...

@DerberAlter , if this lady from the Germany customs is googling for « Poker Chips », she will likely find this forum and find all your import / export business haha. /kidding

 

[w00zie]

Last page of annex 1 lists only 9504 40 00 in the 9504 category, whereas poker chips would fall under 9504 30 (90).
https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_custo...43090&Expand=true&SimDate=20180326#9504309000

Today I picked up some Jack chips and had a friendly chat with a really old customs officer. I am sure he is about to retire soon.
Interestingly he said the 9504 30 90 is wrong. It would only be tokens etc. needed for running a slot machine and stuff. But with poker chips you can play without any machine or so needed. Concerning my past visits there they always used the 9504 30 90.
Today he put them in the category 9504 90 80. The result is the same as both categories are free of customs charge.

Paying an additional VAT (in Germany 19%) on the chips sucks big time, though...

 

[maxim_666666]

Each my purchase is very expensive. Anything over 22 euros is taxed at 33%. Before the economic crisis, the limit on parcels from abroad was 200 euro. (thanks to Jim for going to the meeting every time). But, I calmly live with it. This is a hobby. It is foolish to complain that diamonds are so expensive ...

 

[lasse1910]

In Norway we will pay the following for export/import

Let's say you want to ship around 500 chips from Norway to any countries in Europe / US
Oslo --> Anywhere in Norway: $18
Norway --> Europe: $62
Norway --> US: $80

When receiving a package we have the following fees:
Customs handling and transportation fee: $18 (may wary slightly)
VAT; 25% of package value

None-VAT limit: $40 (incl value and shipping price)

* From 2020 the None-VAT limit will be put to $0 to avoid people ordering cheap packages from China/eBay/Amazon

So if I order chips for a total amount of $50 including shipping they will cost me $81 when i receive them in Norway.