importing flashlights

jook

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
115
Location
jersey city, nj
Has anyone had experience importing flashlights from overseas, particularly China? I recently bought a sample of different flashlights. Very nice stuff, though I haven't received them yet - they're held up at customs at JFK Airport where they've been sitting for 2 weeks. I'm not sure of all the reasons why customs held it up, but one of them is they said the declared value was too low. They assigned a value of $1500 to it, more than three times what I paid.

I had them shipped via TNT. TNT ships by air as opposed to surface. I know that air is a more expensive way to go, but for the small quantity, it didn't seem worth it to bother with getting a customs broker or dealing with customs myself.

So, I'm paying $143 for shipping (to the seller) plus $287 for customs and TNT handling fees. Shipping and related charges are almost as much as the product.

Was there a better way to do this? And if not, I guess this will be the start and end of my career selling Chinese flashlights :).
 

JonSidneyB

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 22, 2001
Messages
3,423
Location
Greenfield In
you got off cheap. Customs has hit me for a higher percentage than that without the 3 times valuation.
 
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