Shipping jewelry to russia?

[Sling 0]

Anyway to get around customs and ship jewelry to russia?

[dallasguy7 0]

I just prepared a package of candy and gifts (toys) for the boys. and put it in with that. No problem.

[dmhweb 0]

Anyway to get around customs and ship jewelry to russia?

Big mistake...

I wouldn't do it... Your package may arrive but the jewelry may go missing if it gets opened for inspection.

[KoshkaMoshka 0]

I wouldn't send gold jewelry to russia.....but i am sending sometimes expensive cosmetics and it' fine....no problem

[Satellite 1]

Anyway to get around customs and ship jewelry to Russia?

You can do one, but not both. You get around customs by wearing the jewelry yourself when you visit Russia. You can ship to Russia, but don't ship jewelry. Just sounds like a bad plan.

If you attempt it, one of three things can happen.

(1) Jewelry does not arrive (postal service person steals it)

(2) Jewelry arrives but customs cost is more than value of jewelry (customs official steals value or jewelry)

(3) Everything is fine (rare - you lie on customs declaration and nobody checks on other side or hide item within other items sent)

Edited February 17, 2007 by Satellite

[timelena 0]

Anyway to get around customs and ship jewelry to russia?

It is probably bad to say unpleasant things about your native country, but I once tried to ship a t-shirt to Russia. The parcel definitely did not look like a regular letter, so I had to fill out a customs declaration. As you can guess, the adressee never received the t-shirt.

[Marc and Olga 0]

EGADS! This reminds me of the airplane tickets I sent to Olga, I sent them UPS which was about $50 more then I expected and then I receive an email from Olga telling me she got a message that she had a package in Vladivostok but she needed to pay over $300 to get it!

After MANY calls to UPS to see what they knew they kept telling me that 1) Preprinted airplane tickets are not dutiable and 2) it was strange that there was a value on the declaration.

about the value on the declaration, originally I was going to insure them and when I decided that was way more expensive then I expected I asked to not have the value place on and the girl at the UPS store told me it is required...guess she was wrong!

BTW, Olga got her tickets and arrived in Los Angeles on Feb 12, 2007...where I met her and we flew to Tucson together! =) Next stop, wedding this monday (Feb 19) and then Anaheim, California for a Disneyland Honeymoon! Hey, she wanted to go there and who I am I to say no?

Edit: we did not pay any extra for her to receive them either!

Edited February 17, 2007 by Marc and Olga

[slim 1,525]

It's a crapshoot!!!

The best thing for you to do is to wait, and hand-deliver the stuff to her. If that's not possible, and you are going to send it, I would definitely hide it in something of little to no value, something that nobody would steal, or I would claim it on the customs form as "cosmetic jewelry" or something like that with only a low value on the price.

The candy idea before was good, and there are many other ways to smuggle things. Plastic baggies inside things like coffee, cakes, etc., are almost always good to go. No one is going to break open a $1 pound cake to check if there's something inside. (They do X-Ray though, so if theres an outline of a pound cake with a ring inside, they may just open it up afterall.) Just try to think like a guy that's sitting in front of a machine checking 200 packages a day. Do you really care if the package marked "make-up, CDs, candy" worth $8 gets checked? Probably not.

[Turboguy 6]

Slim, You are beginning to sound like an ex-drug smuggler with all that expert advice.

[1HappyGuy 45]

This is just a bad idea. The best suggestion is to wear it through customs, but they might still hit you up if they think its a gift.

Is it worth the risk?

[Turboguy 6]

I agree with Happy. Sending it is a bad idea. I guess wearing it though customs is one option. Of course depending on the type of jewlery and how prominantly you wear it you may find yourelf hit up by someone other than the customs agent. I guess the key is if you decide to wear it through customs don't wear lipstick too. LOL

[slim 1,525]

Slim, You are beginning to sound like an ex-drug smuggler with all that expert advice.

I'm a certified military customs inspector through U.S. Customs and U.S.D.A.

During the training, there were a lot of "what to look for" videos.

Customs inspections are nothing compared to inmate/detainee inspections. Talk about creative! (There were a lot of "how to videos" during this training as well.) Corrections officers have a 10 times harder job than customs agents, especially foreign customs agents.

I'm not condoning "smuggling" or breaking the law, I'm just saying that if you want your sweetie to get the jewelry, and not someone else, there are effective ways to do it.

Keep in mind... the best place to hide something is right out in the open!

[Turboguy 6]

Nothing like advice from an expert. I would think a peice of jewlery would get you in a lot less trouble in your carry on in a rather non descript packgage than baked inside a cake of some sort. I think something like that would raise a lot of eyebrows and could keep you from entering the country if they found it.

I just carried an engagement ring with me in a small box in my carry one. I did not have a bit of problem. Sending it in any manner is not a good idea.

[slim 1,525]

I had jewelry in my carry on as well, no one even checked it.

[mrsushi66 0]

My first trip I took a necklace with her engagement stone in it. I was parpared if things went well. I had it in my carry on baggage no one even asked about it. Of course it was a late flight through Moscow and the customs officer looked like he had been rid hard and put up wet so he just waved me on with a puff of his cigarette.

Of course I was fully prepared to have to deal with it and do what ever they required of me if they stopped so maybe my give a @#$% attitude might have worked in my favor. Lucky for me nothing got questioned and didnt have to pay a dime to give her the necklace, well other than the cost of the over all trip, hehe.

Paul