I've just sold a watch on Ebay, the buyer is in Shanghai, China. The watch sold for 950 Euro and the buyer wants me to declare low value, 200.

He has 75 transactions with 100% feedback also for watches and watch related stuff.

In principle I'm not against it, but he asked for this only after he had won the auction and I'm not that an experienced seller (although I'm quite an experienced buyer ) I don't want to get ripped off but I want to help too.

Does anyone have any experience of posting to China and any warnings?

Nervously, Chris

 

I have. I've never had a problem sending there, but I think theres's always a risk factor, especially with eBay because the Buyer always has the upper hand. He could always say it was lost in transit. etc. I don't think he would do that but it can happen and I've had friends encounter the same. So the risk is there. Sometimes I just go off gut instinct and if the buyer has been very communicative then I tend to trust, and take the chance. I can see where he is coming from as the customs duty is pretty cutthroat over there.

Good Luck!

 

It is fraud. And fraud against the Chinese govt, who i would imagine are not particularly forgiving.....

 

With eBay/PayPal requirements for a signature for high value items, $200+ US, I ONLY ship international by FedEx through the shipping specialist ParcelPro, which provides insurance coverage as well.

I no longer ship to China, because every recent buyer has pulled the same "please declare a low value" on me.

To me its just not worth the risk to not fully cover myself.

 

My conundrum exactly, what did you do?

I feel like I'm almost being forced into it as it was asked after the watch was bought.

 

I'd like to know too. Rather annoying he asked you after he bought it...

 

Tell him you aren't dicking around with Customs. If he doesn't like it, you can report him to eBay for trying to beat the system.

 

No, I am missing something and that is experience of 1. Selling much on Ebay and 2. Dealing with a Chinese buyer.

After reading up on Ebay I'm just going to try and cancel the transaction and change my selling profile.

Shipping for full value and having it sent back eventually after buyer refuses to pay customs, or alternatively, declaring a low value and having it go missing are not really the scenarios I want visit.

 

What the buyer did was wrong - he's asking you to add an amendment to the sale that is against the law. Personally, I'd tell him you're reporting him to eBay for what he did. You do have the messages still, correct?

 

Send them an invoice with a note that you will not under value the watch for customs, then wait and see if they pay. If they don't pay within four days report them to eBay for non-payment. Best scenario will be a no pay, then you can re-list or offer it to an under-bidder.

 

Yes I saved the messages.

Thanks for the good advice guys.

Regards.

 

Well, I come from China and currently live in Canada. I never try to buy a fine watch in mainland China, so I'm not sure how much exactly they charge. But be fair enough, the duty in China is so high and easily to be a deal breaker. Thinking about maybe 30% duty, I'm totally not fine with that.

 

Yeah, I agree. Sweden where I'm from has 25%, makes it really expensive to buy watches from outside the European union (EU).

 

Yup, that's a lot for sure. But 30% is just my assumption, I will post the exact number when I go back to China.

 

Near that is the 21% we have in Spain.
And depending on the post company, there's another 20-30€ for handling and clearing customs for you. Just in case you don't want to spend the entire morning in the airport customs office.

Edit: I deleted last paragraph of this post, after considering it inappropriate.

 

I've received watches from Japan, USA, UK, Israel, France, Germany etc. and have never had a customs or tax query.

Fingers crossed.