WARNING: Shipping guitars overseas

So my honey Linda decided to part with her white MIM Standard Telecaster since she doesn't play it, and we desperately need the cash right now. I posted it on eBay this past Saturday, and a buyer in Italy pulled the trigger within two hours. Sweet!

Or so we thought.

There I am the post office with the guitar all packed up. I had already created the shipping documents online, so all I needed was the clear envelope for the paperwork. The guy behind the counter gets this really concerned look on his face and says "let me check something. Italy is one of the most restrictive countries to ship to".

Guess what? YOU CAN'T SHIP MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS TO ITALY!!!

Now, I realize that, as a seller, I have obligation to see if it's OK to ship to another country....BUT....the buyer pulled the trigger without doing his research, or even asking about it first. So now we have to refund the guys money, and try to sell the guitar again.

So learn from my experience here. If you sell something on eBay, be sure to state in your ad that certain countries are a no-no.

AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!

none of my items are available overseas.

when i post items my account automatically makes it so the items cant be seen overseas.

Did they specify WHY you can't ship instruments to Italy?? What's that about?

As much as I love the country of half my natural origin (I'm Sicilian on my mom's side), I can tell you that they have had many, many problems over the years with mail and merchandise shipments being stolen. So the Italian government clamped down on what can and cannot come into the country, and this includes musical instruments of any kind. The USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL, and all other carriers have it in their shipping literature the following that is included in a rather long list of prohibited items:

Bells and other musical instruments and parts thereof.

This would seem to include pickups, bridges, tuning keys, strings, straps, etc.

There are also many threads on the web about people having problems shipping guitars into Italy. My guess is that they have to have some sort of special arraignment with guitar retailers in order to get guitars into the country. Probably some sort of high-security shipping channels that is not available to private sellers.

Actually, I also discovered that Italians absolutely LOVE (Mike/Amimbari, cover your eyes) Fenders, and they try everything imaginable to get them cheaply from the United States. This could be a side-effect of the shipping restrictions. For those of us selling privately on sites like eBay, it's almost impossible to do.

Long live free trade. ;-) Thanks for the info. Too bad for musicians everywhere though IMHO...

Then again, I guess getting your shipment ripped off is worse than not being able to try to ship...

I wonder if people in Switzerland or France can get into Italy easily with gear?? Could be an interesting business opportunity??

Madmike ... international bass smuggler and man of mystery.

I like the sound of that.

I have had ebay buyers ask me what it would cost to ship to ..... and .... Well some places are normal, some are so high it almost equals the item price the buyer wants to buy it for.

UK is never an issue, but some of those countries are just so "iffy" I do what Mike does USA/CANADA only. in the ebay ad.

and its hockey playoffs ... so canada is iffey; being i'm a flyers fan and all.

Go Sharks!

Yup, Italy ruins it for the rest of us.

If we're talking hockey GO HABS GO!! (Until the Nordique comme back from the grave...(it is Easter;-)) )