International Shipping - Customs Inspections
PonyPuller
Posts: 134 ✭✭
A new experience for me...
I recently purchased a circa 1900 copper medal via e-bay, from an international seller in Germany.
Package arrived today, opened and re-sealed with big green tape across the top which reads "EXAMINED BY US CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION". I'm thinking "uh oh..."
Sure enough, they had sliced open the top of the padded envelope. The medal was originally packed in a folded cotton pad, and wrapped in double-layer bubble-wrap inside the padded envelope.
The inner packing had been cleanly sliced open with a razor, straight through the bubble-wrap and cotton pad (you can actually see a slice right through the layers of cotton), the medal had been removed and then loosely shoved back into the original packaging.
Upon close examination, there's a nice new shiny straight cut on the rim of the medal....
Fortunately, this isn't a particularly valuable item, but I can only imagine the problems this could have caused if it had been a move valuable coin. There was clearly no regard for protecting the item in the packaging when it was sliced open.
What I can't figure out is why they bothered to open this package. Nothing about it suggests anything suspicious, and it clearly has a customs declaration on the outside identifying the medal and relatively low value which was paid for it.
- Mark
I recently purchased a circa 1900 copper medal via e-bay, from an international seller in Germany.
Package arrived today, opened and re-sealed with big green tape across the top which reads "EXAMINED BY US CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION". I'm thinking "uh oh..."
Sure enough, they had sliced open the top of the padded envelope. The medal was originally packed in a folded cotton pad, and wrapped in double-layer bubble-wrap inside the padded envelope.
The inner packing had been cleanly sliced open with a razor, straight through the bubble-wrap and cotton pad (you can actually see a slice right through the layers of cotton), the medal had been removed and then loosely shoved back into the original packaging.
Upon close examination, there's a nice new shiny straight cut on the rim of the medal....
Fortunately, this isn't a particularly valuable item, but I can only imagine the problems this could have caused if it had been a move valuable coin. There was clearly no regard for protecting the item in the packaging when it was sliced open.What I can't figure out is why they bothered to open this package. Nothing about it suggests anything suspicious, and it clearly has a customs declaration on the outside identifying the medal and relatively low value which was paid for it.
- Mark
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Authorized dealer for PCGS, PCGS Currency, NGC, NCS, PMG, CAC. Member of the PNG, ANA. Member dealer of CoinPlex and CCE/FACTS as "CH5"