Worst ever experience getting deck through customs?

Yes I was also told customs checks are sporadically and randomly selected. And @earthair I love your idea! Hahaha I can just imagine the look on the workers faces...

I haven't really had any bed experiences. I *have* had one very funny experience.

Back in the middle nineties, a friend in America sent me a beautifully packed box, including a spherical silver censor, a carved orange-calcite lion (a large one, weighed a couple of kilos!), a book, some carved wooden objects, some seeds from her magical garden which she thoughtfully labelled "craft items", a dolphin statuette and a copy of the Herbal Tarot.

Customs has the right to randomly open the occasional parcel, and my parcel turned up resealed with Customs tape and with a Customs label. Checking with the sender, all the items had been placed back into the box, I was missing nothing. BUT ...

(and here is the funny bit)

To make sure drugs or something else small and contraband hadn't been shrink-wrapped into the deck, they opened it, and undid the shrink-wrapping, then obviously thumbed through it. 77 of the cards had been replaced into the deck's box and re-closed carefully. But one, the Ten Cups subtitled Marijuana, had deliberately been left, placed carefully and flat-to-the-bottom of the box so that it wouldn't be damaged. I fell over laughing when I saw it. They were sending me a clear and unambivalent message: This card is about illegal drugs. We've separated it from the rest of the deck so that you know we know that. <giggle>. And yes, for the rest of the time I lived at this address, every single time I got a parcel from that particular sender, I had a "random" search done on it. Poor them, they never caught her sending drugs to me.

earthair said:

Are you asking me? How am I making life hard for other people if I put the true contents on the declaration- which might stop the receiver getting stung for extra money, and saving a customs person the trouble to do some work, and stop them touching/looking at something they might be scared by?! I'd say writing 'cursed tarot deck' on the declaration is win-win for everyone

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Because if you put that on there you will almost certainly see the thing confiscated in some countries. And when it's a confiscation, no insurance and no compensation is paid.

Did you know that in Italy it is ILLEGAL to send tarot cards in the mail ? there's a thread here somewhere. Even Lo Scarabeo don't put that on the declaration,as I recall (not that they use the Italian mail anyway, these days; they use TNT.)

How is

'Evil occult stuff plus pre-cursed Tarot cards which you open at your own risk'

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a true description, anyway ? DO you pre-curse all the cards you mail ? How are cards EVIL ? That's NOT true and you KNOW it isn't, and it will help no-one. I just put cards. It is the VALUE that is the actual issue, anyway - not what it is. They don't have to open the package to charge you, either.

gregory said:

Because if you put that on there you will almost certainly see the thing confiscated in some countries. And when it's a confiscation, no insurance and no compensation is paid.

Did you know that in Italy it is ILLEGAL to send tarot cards in the mail ? there's a thread here somewhere. Even Lo Scarabeo don't put that on the declaration,as I recall (not that they use the Italian mail anyway, these days; they use TNT.)

How is a true description, anyway ? DO you pre-curse all the cards you mail ? How are cards EVIL ? That's NOT true and you KNOW it isn't, and it will help no-one. I just put cards. It is the VALUE that is the actual issue, anyway - not what it is. They don't have to open the package to charge you, either.

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My dear, I think we have very different senses of humour!
Of course I wouldn't actually curse cards... unless I get sticky tape wrapped around me when wrapping them .

Twas merely an amusing thought, along with writing 'Satanic Equipment' or 'Radioactive Sandwich' on the form.

Mi-Shell please don't worry, I won't actually curse your cards or write anything silly on your package!!!

Re sending cards in Italy- wow that is odd.

I meant that writing it on there would be of NO help to the people you are sending to. Even suggesting it might persuade someone to actually do it.

earthair said:

My dear, I think we have very different senses of humour!
Of course I wouldn't actually curse cards... unless I get sticky tape wrapped around me when wrapping them .

Twas merely an amusing thought, along with writing 'Satanic Equipment' or 'Radioactive Sandwich' on the form.

Mi-Shell please don't worry, I won't actually curse your cards or write anything silly on your package!!!

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Well it made me smile but if we all had the same sense of humour the world would get boring pretty quick

The trouble seems to depend largely on what country you're in. In a stiff bureaucratic law-and-order country like Germany the customs are perfectly predictable once you understood the complex set of rules.

The simplified version is this: From a certain list of countries it's 19%. No extra charge from the postal service. Customs procedure takes two to four weeks. If the customs form hasn't been filled out properly by the sender (because for example satanic equipment doesn't fit any of the given product categories , but they always find a reason) then you can send them additional information (paypal receipt, invoice and stuff) via fax and they fix it for you. Causes further delay of two weeks but works reliably.

Sometimes the sender doesn't remember the parcel value correctly and just puts in "10 USD for a card deck". That never caused any trouble, as common card decks usually cost no more than 3 USD.

earthair said:

But tax is usually applied uniformly, which this isn't! Imagine if Car Tax was collected by random selection too...

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I feel there is more than one way of looking at this. We (in the UK) should be paying customs charges every time we buy a tarot deck over a certain value from countries outside the EU.

We don't actually end up paying the tax every time, sometimes we are lucky. If the tax was applied uniformly we would be paying it every time, not just sometimes.

I know which option I prefer.



I always assume that I will have to pay a customs charge, then it is a lovely surprise if I don't have to pay it.

avalonian said:

I feel there is more than one way of looking at this. We (in the UK) should be paying customs charges every time we buy a tarot deck over a certain value from countries outside the EU.

We don't actually end up paying the tax every time, sometimes we are lucky. If the tax was applied uniformly we would be paying it every time, not just sometimes.

I know which option I prefer.



I always assume that I will have to pay a customs charge, then it is a lovely surprise if I don't have to pay it.

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I am fine with the customs charge. It's fair enough (though I do sometimes wonder at the fact that in the originating country they pay the same as I do, and their tax is included...)

I am NOT fine with the Post Office charging £8 to collect it. I have asked to be allowed to drive to customs and pay just that sum THERE - no dice. When you have paid £8 for them to collect 89p you can get a MITE peeved........

avalonian said:

We don't actually end up paying the tax every time, sometimes we are lucky. If the tax was applied uniformly we would be paying it every time, not just sometimes.

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Is it possible that it depends on the country you get your stuff from? In Germany imports from "developing" countries are custom-free (including China, Russia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Ukraine), while I always pay for stuff from USA, and I paid for parcels from Japan, Singapore, Neu Zealand and such.