Question Regarding Posting Swords From Uk.

[MikeMuramasa]

Hi, so I'm trying to sell an antique wakizashi, but for now I'm only posting within the UK, to avoid problems with our customs. However, I'd like to be able to ship overseas, as, it'd greatly help with sales, most interest is from abroad. Any people able to throw some advice my way about this? Last thing I'd want is for customs to seize it.

[Stephen]

does it go thur customs leaving? no problems coming into USA  just dont use the word sword, and  use Japanese names

 

Japanese wakizashi antique cir 1600s

[MikeMuramasa]

Cheers Stephen, I believe it does.

[Stephen]

I just sent one in using above, no problems so far but its just left heathrow in its way to liverpool ,,,,the rest remains to be seen

[MikeMuramasa]

Nice, I'll try something like that. Thanks!

[pcfarrar]

Your fine shipping swords, but the people working the post offices always try and refuse them as weapons. Just call it an artwork when they ask and your fine. 

 

You are best using the following postal methods (do not use any other).

 

Small wak/tanto: Royal Mail International Tracked and Signed.

Long wak/katana etc.: Parcelforce Global Priority

[MikeMuramasa]

Thank you for the advice. Much appreciated!

[Stephen]

Current locations is Parcelforce Customs so far so good, now its in the hands of the lackey who reads customs form and welds his supreme power...lol

[Guest Rayhan]

Mike, I suggest Parcel Force for sure. At this point in time my least painful experience. Please take a look at the destination counties rules and regulations and fill in you forms accordingly. Most countries are accepting of antique swords over 120 years etc etc. I believe there is also indepth experience and advice on multiple threads on the forum for this issue so be vigilant and research the forum carefully.

 

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/1860-importingexporting-and-customs-queries-and-advice/?do=findComment&comment=14275

 

Rayhan Perera

[MikeMuramasa]

Parcelforce have been my go to, so yeah I'll likely stick to those. Had a lot of interest from people in Canada. Thanks Rayhan.

[Brian]

I'm trying to get 2 Fairbairn Sykes daggers from the UK via a decent means...but holy %&^^@, your Parcelforce is expensive!!
They want like £80 for express (EMS) for a small package. Insane. And priority is about £66 which is not much better.
Getting ridiculous to ship anything from overseas nowadays.

 

[Kronos]

Try Parcelforce through ParcelMonkey.co.uk, it's a hell of a lot cheaper.

[Brian]

Awesome link! Thanks James, looks really promising

[pcfarrar]

Awesome link! Thanks James, looks really promising

Use Royal Mail tracked and signed for FS knives. It can be as fast as Parcelforce and costs £15 ish to South Africa. Parcelforce Express uses FedEx so avoid that. Only Global priority is safe.

[Brian]

I was looking for the service that uses EMS. Thought that was Parcelforce Express.
The rest go through the post office here, which is not very functional right now. At least EMS is delivered to me, not the local PO and I can track it. Regular airmail is too risky.
Do not want to use UPS/Fedex/DHL on principle.

[pcfarrar]

I was looking for the service that uses EMS. Thought that was Parcelforce Express.

The rest go through the post office here, which is not very functional right now. At least EMS is delivered to me, not the local PO and I can track it. Regular airmail is too risky.

Do not want to use UPS/Fedex/DHL on principle.

 

You need to use Parcelforce Global Priority, that is EMS. Global Express is definitely FedEx (it's really good and fast but you may have issues with swords/knives).

 

By complete coincidence I just bought a Fairbairn Sykes too. 

 

I'm not keen on using services like Parcel Monkey as you can't deal with Parcelforce directly if there are any problems as you are not the customer. You can also get 15% off the price of Parcelforce at the moment using:

 

http://www.parcelforce.com/rewards4u?iid=CAROUSEL1_R1910

[e_v]

I can add a bit of information regarding the countries I have experience with:

- Italy: don't send it there. Customs would seize the parcel and you'd have trouble, because recently they decided  any Japanese blade is a weapon (fun trivia: the italian law states clearly that stilettos, bayonets, switchblades and double edged blades are the only bladed objects needing a licence, but for some reason nihontos get seized too)

- Switzerland: no problem, just specify it's an antique object as suggested above.

[MikeMuramasa]

Thanks had issues with posting to Italy with other items before. I've also noticed many nihonto sites won't ship to Russia and parts of China.