How Much Hassle & Risk When Buying a Pipe From Italy?

[beefeater33]

That's a great looking pipe George! I'll echo the others- No Worries! The seller has 30 day money back returns too....... that's always a plus............ ::

 

[pipesticks]

I have only one experience to share here. I bought pipes off ebay from molinaoutlet in Italy. Pipes delivered in record time and boy, did I get my money's worth.

 

[saltedplug]

Pretty, pretty, pretty. I'm jealous! Enjoy!

 

[pebowles]

If you are making a purchase of, say, $2,500, and you live in California, you will likely recieve a bill for sales/use tax, whether you are buying a pipe or anything else expensive from overseas. I dont know about other states. As a citizen and taxpayer, I applaud the dilligence of the State's agents to collect the money we residents are are owed. As a guy who has been nailed a time or two myself...well, that's another story!

The State gets the records from US Customs. Private sellers probably just tell customs they are sending a $50 gift or something, but businesses need to be real Boy Scouts in this regard.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

no problem with Italy either,and delivery times were always surprisingly short.

Now I see, how lucky You boys in America are, based on my information,and for few exceptions the U.S Customs and Border Protection seems not to collect no SalesTaxes upon item arrival, whereas our does,so anything which has commercial value more than $ 40 is subject to customs clearance and processing.

Georged, My Congarts on Your New acquisition, You know, I love how Dunhill design them pipes,classic&sophisticated

 

[tschiraldi]

I can now add Finest Lighters to the list of shops in Italy that sold and shipped quickly and hassle-free.

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

Now I see, how lucky You boys in America are, based on my information,and for few exceptions the U.S Customs and Border Protection

Not exactly. DHL and FedEx sometimes make a small charge to your credit card a day or so after delivery. The entry on your statement will read something like "international services". That is for customs duty, which is very low for pipes (2.9% as I recall). We have no national sales tax. However, states do, and they also have what is called a use tax. As noted elsewhere in this thread, states can get information about the value of the item you purchased from Customs and insist you pay the use tax.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

OldGeezersmoker: Thanks for this piece of information,this practice you just described here seems to me way more 'human yet consumer friendly' when I'm comparing it to ours.At least for every purchase outside of EU which has the value more than $ 40 I'm to pay our national Vat of %24 to Customs dept.And this is upon arrival.Moreover Should the parcel coming via DHL Express then I'm facing to an additional no negotiable clearance fee of $ 18,How's that sounds?

 

[9mmpuffer]

Citizen of the United States of America have a $800 duty free allowance on items shipped from abroad, so unless you are breaching the $800 USD limit, there is no duties.

 

[jamesc]

I live in Hawaii and if the Italy shop sends me something express I get it just as fast as anything shipped from the mainland.

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

I have had duty charged on about half of my Italian shipments through DHL and FedEx, none of which exceeded $800. Usually the amount is less than $5. It does vary by value, apparently, as no two charges have ever been identical. I am not up to date on customs law, but there used to be a distinction between what you could bring back from a trip abroad and shipments from Italy.
BTW, a Facebook friend got hammered for a processing fee for a FedEx shipment from Novelli for a $150 pipe. Less than $5 duty, but their freight forwarding subsidiary billed a $30 or so processing fee to his card, which he ended up paying. Only time I have heard of this, but my friend had no incentive to make the story up.