buying a gen daytona from oversease. What do i ask seller to declare as value?

[sprockett]

Im buying a daytona from overseas.

I have told seller to

1. declare value as $X000

2. insure for $X000

I think this is the safest and I am OK with import duties (seller won't under declare value anyway).

However, my concern is that I read somewhere that you should not declare the item value, because then people will know how valuable the package, which makes it subject to theft!

Any thoughts?? Anyone bought a high value item (close to USD10k) from an overseas seller before?

Thanks!!

[Tom Hawkes]

Have him hide the watch in a plastic toy and declare 5$ on the package. No theft, no taxes.

[freddy333]

You could declare the value as $25 (to deter thieves) & include a note within the package explaining the real value & reasoning for the low declaration. That way, if the package gets opened (by customs), they will see why you declared the low amount (though that may not excuse you).

[Tom Hawkes]

TBH a 10k watch + costs of shipping and insuring + import taxes etc.. For that additional cost you probably could just buy a plane ticket and pick the watch up yourself on a weekend.

Edited April 3, 2012 by Tom Hawkes

[panerai153]

Possibly i'm wrong about this, but according to one of the folks at our local Post office, the USPS will only insure up to the declared value. So if you declare it at a low number, you are taking a risk that should it get lost or stolen, you are out your 10k less the declared value.I don't know

I would have the seller declare it for it's full value, take photos of the watch, the watch iside the package, the watch packed in the box, the box closed, and the box with all the labels on it. That could help to substantiate your claim should a loss occur. Another thing that I have done in the past when shipping some precious stones,sent to me for approval, back to a jeweler was having the UPS manager personally inspect the package to actually see what was inside. in fact they required that since i was insuring the package for around 8k.The manager signed and affadavit to the effect that the package contained the stones.Of course, i could have replaced the real stuff with fake stones, but at least he was satisfied that there were stones n the package.

[Mills]

TBH a 10k watch + costs of shipping and insuring + import taxes etc.. For that additional cost you probably could just buy a plane ticket and pick the watch up yourself on a weekend.

I agree with this. Where are you buying from/to?

[cougar1]

Be extremely careful about whether the insurance truly covers the item in the package, most carriers will insure upto any value, but you need to read the fineprint and make sure the insurance includes watches, jewellery, gold, silver etc. Most don't want to deal with these items, and if the watch gets lost they'll just show you T&C's rule xx subsection xx, paragraph x, and you will find yourself out of money and a watch with no comeback.

Tbh, for a watch of this value, you would need a third party precious metals insurer. I wouldn't trust any carrier insurance, they are a bunch of monkeys handling packages. No way I would declare full watch value on a package written on the outside!!! It's almost the annual salary of some of these guys, no offense to them. You may well get your watch intact, but your are taking an enormous risk, unless you know it's fully covered!

[Yellowbird]

Not sure if it is worth it. Are you based in US or EU?

[DeeKa]

There is the possibility to externally take insurance.

The company is named ParcelPro and specialised on watches and jewellery.

The only thing is that you are limited to some parcel services like FedEx, DHL, ...

Dee

[freddy333]

I also agree with cougar that there is often fine print within the USPS contract that excludes pretty much whatever of value they lose.

Alternatively, you could insure the package for its proper value & send it via registered mail, which is what Rolex USA always recommends. It is probably the slowest method (could take a few weeks to reach you), but the package is kept under lock-&-key at all times & must be signed for by each & every person who touches the package.

[Logan]

You're probably getting a fake anyway.. so just have him post it at $5 value..

[cougar1]

freddy333 makes a good point about registered mail services being under lock and key at all times, this is definitely a safer method than most couriers. It can get a bit hairy when travelling over international boundaries as the insurance value covered can change somewhat compared internal registered mail. It's still a very good option though, unless you can either third party insurer and still go registered which is even better. If you can get the seller to sign up to something like parcelpro you would sleep happy knowing it's fully covered, it's not an easy process though.

Lookup UPS also to provide something similar to what panerai153 described above. Don't use Fedex, they have left many people high and dry on gen forums in the past, they are very difficult to deal with in the event of a claim on things like this.

Alot depends on where you are getting it from? Anyway hope the whole thing doesn't put you off purchasing a grail etc, better to be cautious on this occasion, it's not too often you'd do a cross country purchase of this magnitude.