You likely will not be able to use the USPS official US mail. They will
not allow shipment of liquids of any kind, over a very small bottle
size, within the US. Since the shipment would be partly within the US,
their rules likely will apply to foreign shipments as well. Several air
express services will deliver to and from Europe in 2 days. However the
price is extremely high if you ship anything heavy or large. It costs
US$ 40 to 60 just to ship a small box with some candy and a torte from
Austria to the US by 2'nd day air express on UPS or Federal Express.

For anything as heavy as wine, you may have to use a slow boat and
hopefully ship when temperatures are lower. The air companies perhaps
have considerably lower rates for shipments that take several days, but
for heavy wine bottles this still likely is quite expensive.

Reply to .

"Mike Tommasi" wrote in message
...
Hi

anyone have experience with this? Does Fed Ex work, or the US mail? Do
we get slapped with enormous duties on arrival, or some exotic tax on
departure?

Hi, Mike -

Things have changed a lot over the past couple of years. In early 2002 I
shipped a half case of wine to Ian's by air carrier for ~$70. It was a lot
easier than carrying it with me on the plane, and not horribly expensive.

Nowadays, however, it has become not only prohibitively expensive to ship
wine; it is nearly *impossible*.

Just carry it with you. Hire bearers and pay the extra luggage fee if there
is one. Just don't waste your efforts on any plonk!

There are no export tariffs that I know of. Import is on your side, so
that's up to you to check out. :^)

I wil be in CA in september and I need to ship about 18 zins and 6
mourvedres back to France. I guess carrying these as baggage on the
plane will set me back a few $$$ so not a good idea.

Au contraire. Read above.

If you simply can't stand to pay the excess baggage fee, I'll be glad to
ahem _store_ them for you. Know'msayin'? ;^D

Tom S

P.S. - An alternative idea just occurred to me: Arrange things so that the
_only_ luggage you have with you is the wine! Leave all the clothes and
toiletries in your San Diego office. Send the clothes out for cleaning and
get one of your minions to pick them up and leave them in your office. Then
you won't have to pack for your _next_ trip. You'll then have the space to
bring a couple of cases of European wine _this_ way.

Think bicoastal. Well... sort of.

Bring it as luggage. You are allowed "2*pc" for transatlantic
flights, which start and end with the single ticket. i.e.
CA-NYC-CDG-LYS is all at "2*pc" of luggage. A piece is l+w+h under
62", and weighs less than 32kg(70lbs).

A foam shipping wine case fits nicely into one of those maxi rollons
available at Marshalls, or some other discounter, and takes up about
75% of the space. The loaded rollon and wine weighs about 55 lbs. You
could take two rollons and still have a lot of room left for clothing.

or, take A big hardside Sampsonite, line it with bubble wrap or
towels, and put paper mache burgundy separaters on each side. Holds
18 bottles, and comes in at very close to, but under 70 lbs. Strap or
tape it up, as there is a finite chance that the handle will come off.
TSI or whatever may want to look at it, so I prefer the roll on
technique now. I used the Samponsite bag for years from Italy to US.
Carried 18 in the suitcase, and 6 in a carryon many times.

If you have "excess" luggage, do not load over 70lbs. The charge for
over 70 lbs is something like $5-10 per pound over! Ship a 3rd 70 lb
bag instead. The charge for that should be in the neighborhood of
$100. If you do plan to do that, keep calling the airline until you
get a firm answer for the cost of the 3rd bag. I have carried many
excess luggage containers Italy-US, but have never gone US-Europe with
excess luggage. (it is cheaper for me to buy a ticket to Europe, pick
up merchandise, get two pieces for free, and pay the $100 for the
rest, than to air ship the lot).

Far and away the cheapest way to ship US to Europe (Italy excluded) is
by USPS. Fed EX, DHL, and UPS are fantastically expensive. USPS has
a 3 day service arrangement with almost every country in the world,
Italy excluded.




On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 08:58:05 +0200, Mike Tommasi
wrote:

Hi

anyone have experience with this? Does Fed Ex work, or the US mail? Do
we get slapped with enormous duties on arrival, or some exotic tax on
departure?

I wil be in CA in september and I need to ship about 18 zins and 6
mourvedres back to France. I guess carrying these as baggage on the
plane will set me back a few $$$ so not a good idea.



Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France
email link http://www.tommasi.org/mymail

I HIGHLY recommend carrying it on the plane with you. That's what we
now do, after trying a few other methods. when we go back and forth.
Even when we are bringing back as much as 5 cases each!

You should call the airline ahead of time to let them know you will
have some excess, heavy baggage. We forgot to do that once, and they
almost didn't let us bring it on (even with excess baggage charges!)

e.

Taking it on the plane with you seems to be the best option, from what
has been posted. A second coice would be to buy your wine at a store
that will ship outside of the country. If you do ship yourself, I
suggest using a service that prepares packages for shipment. For
example, nearly any city has services that will prepare and make
shipments for you via UPS, Federal Express etc. There many special forms
that are required for international shipments.

I assume you will be shipping to France. France has a huge number of
regulations concerning items entering the country. The USPS site at
http://www.usps.com has sections concernng the regulations of various
countries, including France.

My shipments by air express from Europe usually clear customs here
without delay and without being opened, because companies such as Demel
or shipping services hired by companies do all of the paper work
properly. Even any customs duties can be prepaid in many cases.

Reply to .

Mike Tommasi wrote:
Hi

anyone have experience with this? Does Fed Ex work, or the US mail? Do
we get slapped with enormous duties on arrival, or some exotic tax on
departure?

Mike,
Just to elaborate a bit on what you've already been told: commercial
parcel services are very unwilling to ship wine internationally for
individuals. However, they do permit retailers to ship internationally,
so if you're buying from a retailer you can have them ship it directly.
It is quite expensive, though, since they also must pay customs on it,
so you're far better off taking the excess baggage on the plane if you can.


I wil be in CA in september and I need to ship about 18 zins and 6
mourvedres back to France. I guess carrying these as baggage on the
plane will set me back a few $$$ so not a good idea.

Au contraire, it's the best option if it can be mananged. As I've
mentioned before here, I've never been charged duty on wine brought back
into this country, though of course I have no idea if the douane de
France behaves similarly. Two cases is doable IMO, especially following
gerald's plan. On thing I found when we shipped our wine back from CA
is that wineries in CA use smaller 12-bottle shippers (ca. 27 x 38 x 52
cm) than you can find for sale in most retailers. If you need a few of
them, let me know and I'll get in touch with some friends in CA. (Tom S
or Emily [winemonger] might have more immediate supplies handy)

Mark Lipton

"Mike Tommasi" asked of the group.....

anyone have experience with this? Does Fed Ex work, or the US mail?
Do we get slapped with enormous duties on arrival, or some exotic tax
on departure?


Mike, I have no experience US-Europe, but have often taken up to five cases
of wine as checking in luggage, half way round the world.

I have never heard of an "export tax" - and my experience (albeit into the
UK via Heathrow) - two cases of wine is a such a piddling amount that,
unless you come across a pedantic, brain dead customs officer, with no sense
of humour whatsoever, then any import duties assessed should be minimal at
least, and possibility nil - notwithstanding any import limits on returning
nationals.

Mark Lipton has sent me two bottles from the US to NZ via FedEx - very VERY
fast service - but that was in a small styrofoam package - and I would not
trust that method to sending yourself two cases.

Check your two cases in; pay the excess baggage fee (if applicable) and act
suitably embarrassed and joke with the French customs officer that "this is
just cheap American rubbish that a friend insist that you accept as a
gift" - I am sure that any self respecting Frenchman will understand your
dilemma.

--

st.helier

p.s. Let me know what happens - I will be bringing a case or two with
me!!!!!

I absolutely have some shippers you can use. I'm down in LA, but happy
to give them to you.
-emily

On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 08:38:41 -0400, gerald said:

[]
]
] Far and away the cheapest way to ship US to Europe (Italy excluded) is
] by USPS. Fed EX, DHL, and UPS are fantastically expensive. USPS has
] a 3 day service arrangement with almost every country in the world,
] Italy excluded.
]
]

Hi,

Just a note to mention that for some time the USPS outsourced european
delivery to some german company -- can't remember the name. In any
case it was pretty horrible for a good long time, to the point that the
IHT even had a feature story about it. Seems to be mostly cleared up
now, but "cheapest" isn't always "best". I have good luck US=France
with UPS.

I agree the best way is to hand carry. But if that's too onerous, you
can avoid any French import tax by clearly marking the customs
declaration as "gift." Of course it's even true!

-E

]
]
] On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 08:58:05 +0200, Mike Tommasi
] wrote:
]
] Hi
]
] anyone have experience with this? Does Fed Ex work, or the US mail? Do
] we get slapped with enormous duties on arrival, or some exotic tax on
] departure?
]
] I wil be in CA in september and I need to ship about 18 zins and 6
] mourvedres back to France. I guess carrying these as baggage on the
] plane will set me back a few $$$ so not a good idea.
]
]
]
] Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France
] email link http://www.tommasi.org/mymail
]


--
Emery Davis
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