I've never traded seeds out of the country and was wondering if I can just simply send a bubble envelope to Spain from the US without marking it as anything or getting any special anything. Just wondering if customs might be a problem? Is there anythig I need to know?
Question about shipping seeds to Spain
Hey Core
I sell on ebay and shipped a book to a person in Spain. It was lost. We followed it all the way from the ship out of the states in New York. Then it just vanished. I was told by the Postal people in New York that Spain is one of the worst for customs "taking" things. The buyer in spain tried contacting customs and was met with only excuses. The book was a high price item being a 1830 edition on phrenology. I hated selling it and even worst knowing it is prob still sitting molding in a warehouse.
Geo
Hi Core,
Shipping seeds into the EU (Spain included) is allowed, as long as they're not for commercial purposes. If you fill in your customs form, just state that your envie contains ornamental seeds, that they are a gift and that their value is $ 0.00. That will usually do the trick. This isn't something customs-agents would be interested in (unless they're avid gardeners too).
If you don't trust that, you'll have to ask someone in another EU-country to act as an intermediate. This way you should be able to skip Spanish customs alltogether.
I'm not worried about Spanish customs grabbing my seeds. I'll keep the customer form in mind if I send a bunch of seeds. The seeds I'm sending are all flat and small so I'm just taping them in the middle of a birthday card and sending that way.
I have more worry of the US homeland security having some sort of problem. Who knows with those guys. That's why I love FedEx. They simply don't care what your sending. Don't have time to steal it or look at it. I think Fedex will ship anything they just want to be warned if it's toxic.
I have a few tricks I use to receive and ship seeds over seas. So far I have not been caught Yet. Yet being my only worry.
Geo
I sent seeds to Spain last year with no problems. and the ones I sent to France got there too.
US postal service, nothing special. Think it cost me about 0.90
Yes it cost me 90 cents for a flat envelope and my seeds made it to Spain already. Just waiting for my seeds to show up in the US.
same here. and i think the other person and i shipped on the same day.
my best is US customs is slower/stricter than over seas.