One of our most common inquiries is how to order from outside the United States.  We have another blog article about “Why Doesn’t CollectorKnives Ship Internationally?“; and it eludes to the general recommendation of using a re-shipper.  But for the most part it just explains the facts of why we have chosen to cease international shipments.  Here we are going to dive a little deeper in exactly how to use the re-shippers and what our recommendations are in this scenario.

First off, we have many international customers using services such as AMForward, MyUS, BorderLinx, and ShipITo; with rave reviews for each.   As newer referrals are received, we will add them to the bottom of the article.   That is as far as we will go in making a recommendation; thus you should look at them, and any others that exist, to make your own decision.  From conversations with customers, they can actually use these services and get shipping cheaper than directly from the sellers anyway.  For example, a small flat rate box (under 1 pound) was received in the UK within a week for $26 using MyUS.  Some want you to get a membership, others have a pay-as-you-go plan as well.  Options and services vary from provider to provider.

A few recommendations we would offer to make the process much easier.

Do not ask them to open the package and verify contents.  The less people fondling your knife, the better you will be.  Also, some of these companies are in liberal states and apply their own policies ad-hoc.  For example, last week a customer asked for verification from a re-shipper in California.  They decided on the spot that they had a policy against shipping dangerous weapons, and the 3 1/2″ slipjoint qualified in their mind.

Request, in your CollectorKnives order notes, to have us leave out the invoice.  Many times when customs or other official handlers see the value of an item – it disappears.  Not going to name any countries specifically, but many empty boxes with customs tape have shown up over the years.  This also leaves you in full control when submitting your customs forms.  Some companies require an invoice to validate your customs forms.  You can submit these electronically.  You could use the order confirmation from us or use a free download-able form such as this one from Vertex42  to have maximum control over your information.  Just download it, fill in your information from the actual order, and save it as a pdf to send to the re-shipper.  We do not advise falsifying the information provided.

Remember a couple things when filling out the customs forms.  Any handle materials under the control of US Fish and Wildlife that are claimed on the customs form, should require additional fees, delays, and possibly export licenses.  So, if you claim stag, horn, abalone, pearl, most ebony and rosewoods, etc. you should expect them to get hung up in outbound customs if your licenses and fees are not in place.  The re-shippers may point this out to you as they review your paperwork.  Many sellers will put “Camping Tools” or such on the customs forms to avoid catchphrases that may hang things up.  Although, we do not advise falsifying the information provided.

Another great thing with re-shippers is that most will combine shipments.  So you can put multiple orders from different sellers in the same outbound box.

So, short answer:  1) Get re-shipper account, 2) Order items and have them shipped to your unique re-shipper address, 3) Submit your sales invoice and customs forms, 4) Ship it.

One thing we would ask.  Since there has been a large increase in fraud via the use of re-shippers; we would appreciate any credit card purchase be done thru the Paypal payment method.  You do not need a Paypal account, there is an option on the payment screen for a non-member payment.  This affords us a bit more protection on the purchase.

We would greatly appreciate any feedback on the mentioned re-shippers and the names of any others that you would recommend or advise against.

Some issues reported to be aware:

Shipito: Their preferred transport to the UK does not allow knives.

Borderlinx: If they know it is a knife, they will balk.  California is just a liberal country in itself.

This is feedback from “Radu” on his experience with EshopWeDrop.

“Hi Mike,

I have received the package yesterday. Perfect experience with the reshipper. Once the package arrived in NY they notified me by email to upload the invoice to their website. They took care of all Customs formalities both in NY and in London, paying all duty and tax with their money. They even included full warranty. Once he package was cleared and dispatched to their warehouse in London they sent me the consolidated bill for: transport, custom duty, VAT, handling, and insurance. All in all $50.

All steps fully tracked on their website, all progress signaled with email notifications.

Hope this helps,
Radu”

We have a customer from Poland that uses KurierUS.com often and they seem very pleased. Costs are from $20 to $60 for Express. They do not open the box unless you want them to combine, verify, remove paperwork, etc. They allow you to do your own customs paperwork; and you can even supply your own label if you wish. Processing time is quick and delivery time just depends on the service selected.

Saw a facebook post about Stackry; pasted it here.  “for canadians who have problem shipping across the pond…I have been trying a service called Stackry…I ship to their location in NH and they ship it to me here..u can consolidate ur packages and ship them all at once…they give u multiple options as far as posting including DHL,USPS, Fedex etc…have tried them multiple times so far whenever direct shipping was not possible…so far very happy with their service..
PS..their service is free…u got a pay small fee for consolidation…they also hold the items I think a month or so…for folks in europe and anywhere in general (with some exceptions) they offer the same service”