Shipping Woes

[corrado26]

Originally Posted by werecow

has catawiki stopped doing weaponry auctions? Used to be every week. Now nothing for almost two months.

Yes, they have stopped all auctions with weapons. I think the reason for this are the more and more difficult or nearly impossible possibilities to dispatch or ship weaponry!

[urbanspaceman]

Originally Posted by corrado26

Yes, they have stopped all auctions with weapons. I think the reason for this are the more and more difficult or nearly impossible possibilities to dispatch or ship weaponry!

I emailed customer services three times asking 'WHY' they stopped listing weaponry and got the same pre-prepared response each time: "...we have stopped...".
Oddly enough, they still list Japanese swords and non-Western swords ie ethnic.
Go figure.
I also thought it was because of the difficulties with logistics but a katana differs in no way to a UK sabre as far as the world outside is concerned.
However, there were virtually no listings from UK vendors after Brexit; and many European vendors were resorting to third-party facilities to overcome customs red tape, at 100 euros a pop.
Big pity: I acquired several items from them.

[werecow]

Yeah, it's a real shame. I got my first few antiques from there at the start of the pandemic. I had no idea what I was bidding on, so they're not the greatest quality pieces perhaps but it put me on the antique & ethnographic arms collecting trail. I don't have that many connections yet in this community so it's a significant lost source of new toys and it was always fun and informative to window shop there.

[corrado26]

The main problem is that DHL, Fedex, HERMES etc. do not transport any kind of arms, so shipping guns, pistols, swords, knives etc. are impossible to ship at reasonable costs. Therefore you are forced to use the help of special transporters, which have very high prizes to send items to other countries. These from supplier to supplier very different fees didn't match with the ideas of Catawiki, so they stopped the auctions.

[urbanspaceman]

Yes, I agree, it has proven a major problem for vendors and an expensive surcharge for customers; but why are ethnic items excepted? Rhetorical question really, but maybe someone can answer it.

[BUCC_Guy]

Originally Posted by corrado26

The main problem is that DHL, Fedex, HERMES etc. do not transport any kind of arms, so shipping guns, pistols, swords, knives etc. are impossible to ship at reasonable costs. Therefore you are forced to use the help of special transporters, which have very high prizes to send items to other countries. These from supplier to supplier very different fees didn't match with the ideas of Catawiki, so they stopped the auctions.

FedEx just facilitated shipping two halberds from Germany to the U.S. for me.

[Triarii]

That's good news. They wouldn't ship US to UK as the UK depot bounced a sword back.

[urbanspaceman]

I have to keep returning to this extreme stupidity in the midst of the general stupidity we have inherited recently, i.e. what is the difference between a 19th century cavalry sabre and a Japanese Katana as far as the general populace is concerned.
Furthermore: unless you are part of a re-enactment group or theatrical troupe a firearm replica has to be coated in a bright coloured plastic skin, yet 100% accurate air-pistols - that can actually inflict harm - and blank-firing replicas are readily available to anyone over 18.
I despair!

[SteveL]

Originally Posted by corrado26

The main problem is that DHL, Fedex, HERMES etc. do not transport any kind of arms, so shipping guns, pistols, swords, knives etc. are impossible to ship at reasonable costs. Therefore you are forced to use the help of special transporters, which have very high prizes to send items to other countries. These from supplier to supplier very different fees didn't match with the ideas of Catawiki, so they stopped the auctions.

I've purchased two different times from Hermann Historical in the last 6 months.....and both times shipping charge for 2 35-42 cm daggers was 65 euros. No problems with customs at all.

I purchase 1 dagger from Czernys 30 cm....and they want to charge 230 euros....and it takes 2plus months to receive it.

Something is not right. Not only is one auction house trying to charge 25 percent buyers premium -- but they are also trying to heavily profit off the shipping.

Anyways....Ive found that if the item is really nice....it's best to just go over to Italy, Spain, or France and pick it up personally.
In the last 12 months I've been Spain & Italy twice....and France once on three separate trips. If I have to pay 230 euro for one little box....I might as well just fly over there.

[werecow]

Interesting... What country are you in? I've never paid more than a little over half that in shipping from Czerny's (but the last time was early last year), and that was for a large pata gauntlet sword (I still find it absurdly expensive). From what I understand the long wait times have to do with Italian customs rules for exporting antiques.

[SteveL]

Originally Posted by werecow

Interesting... What country are you in? I've never paid more than a little over half that in shipping from Czerny's (but the last time was early last year), and that was for a large pata gauntlet sword (I still find it absurdly expensive). From what I understand the long wait times have to do with Italian customs rules for exporting antiques.

I'm in Northern VA in the US.

The shipping via direct purchases from individuals in Italy has been great and very efficient. No problems with cites or customs....
Only when I purchase from auction houses do things get complicated and very expensive.

In my experience, France is the country that is the fastest and I have the least problems with when it comes to shipping antique knives and daggers to the US

My only other bad experiences were with DHL, during the heart of COVID, when I think it was bad for everyone.
The items still came....it just took 45 to 100 days.

Ive read here that others have had lost or missing packages shipped from Europe or shipped to Europe from the US....I'm happy to say Ive never had that problem one time.

[werecow]

Ah, that explains the price difference.

I've had three bad shipping experiences. Two of them were customs issues. The only time anything was returned to sender was from Spain with Correos. The sender sent it to me again with Seur (but insisted that we split the costs for this second shipping) without problems.

The other times were a very long transit on a kindjal / qama from Brazil followed by me being charged twice the import fees (I never received a refund for this in spite of repeated attempts), and the worst one was a saif I bought from the UK right after brexit that was stuck in customs for two months and came to me bent at a 20 degree angle about halfway through the blade and with some more bends in the blade. It's still got a pretty big wobble in it but I don't want to risk more damage to it. Pics from after I bent it back. Luckily it was not the highest quality or most expensive piece.

[Lee]

This conversation has been split off from http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=28513

[SteveL]

Originally Posted by werecow

Ah, that explains the price difference.

I've had three bad shipping experiences. Two of them were customs issues. The only time anything was returned to sender was from Spain with Correos. The sender sent it to me again with Seur (but insisted that we split the costs for this second shipping) without problems.

The other times were a very long transit on a kindjal / qama from Brazil followed by me being charged twice the import fees (I never received a refund for this in spite of repeated attempts), and the worst one was a saif I bought from the UK right after brexit that was stuck in customs for two months and came to me bent at a 20 degree angle about halfway through the blade and with some more bends in the blade. It's still got a pretty big wobble in it but I don't want to risk more damage to it. Pics from after I bent it back. Luckily it was not the highest quality or most expensive piece.

That's too bad on the Saif. Was it insured?

I have actually had good luck with Correos.

I tell the seller to add "objeto artesanal decorativo"
to the customs declaration and in three Correos shipments from Madrid -- no problem. Of course these are all daggers not swords. But they are truly decorations in my mind and not weaponry.

[werecow]

Originally Posted by SteveL

That's too bad on the Saif. Was it insured?

I have actually had good luck with Correos.

I've shipped two other swords with Correos without difficulty. I guess the third time was the charm.

As for the saif, I stupidly forgot to take a picture when it was still obviously bent and did not follow up on it. It is kind of a rough around the edges example anyway so it doesn't bother me too much. I'll probably post some better pictures of it on here sometime in the future to ask for opinions on where it came from.