Shipping challenges in Europe for Keris
 

Hi

Anyone from Germany can advise? I won a bid for a Bali keris from a dealer but there is delay of shipping as apparently many shippers refuse to send it due to the nature of the keris as a weapon.

Hi Anthony,

May I ask from where you coming? Normally you can ship edged weapons from Germany without any problems. Shipping to some countries (for example the States) is in the moment very expensive or not possible due corona.

Regards,
Detlef

Detlef, I'm not so sure that USA shipping is as bad as it has been made out to be.

I have sent a number of small packages to several different destinations in the USA over the last few weeks, there was no difficulty in lodging with Australia Post, transit time was a bit slower than normal, but in a couple of cases it was super fast. Postage costs were the same as normal.

I use Australia Post, I never, ever use courier companies, in my experience they are, generally speaking expensive, unreliable and difficult to deal with.

What I can say is that it is not possible to ship krisses from Indonesia to Europe by Fedex at present for dubious reasons (coronavirus or new Customs regulations?).
Regards

Hi

I am from Singapore and item is a Bali keris to be shipped from Germany. This is the dealer appointed shipping agent reply. I think basically I am screw here. Most likely I have to ask for full refund if it is not possible.

//dealer agent quote//
as a Kris is a kind of weapon, all our shipping partners refuse to undertake the transport. We keep on searching but I´m not sure if we can find a good solution.


//dealer quote//
If you want to have the Kris shipped with us, we can't guarantee a successful delivery. For this we would charge you 130 euro plus the customs documents and the customs presentation. Otherwise I recommend again:

Mail Boxes Etc. – Center 2923 Nürnberg

Can you kindly advise me which shipping companies that we can use in Germany? I can provide advice to those people handling my keris. Many thanks.

Best is to ship it by post. Don't use the description keris. An employee adviced me once to describe it as men's accessories. Never had problems with it.

If i am not mistaken, Alan would often list keris for shipping as "Dhuwung-Indonesian handicraft made of metal and wood". :)

If we ship anything to another country we complete a form that is for the Customs agency of that importing country.

It must be absolutely truthful. Not truthful you can be in big trouble.

But there are many ways in which to be truthful, and a lot of people cannot differentiate between the various forms of the truth.

I rather like the "men's accessory":- absolutely truthful.

Just be certain never to lie. It is my understanding that every parcel that enters Australia is x-rayed. This probably applies to other countries as well.

A special from and to germany is that the weapon-law forbid „two-edged- daggers and push-daggers“ as forbidden weapons.

If you buy something from outside EU, your shipment will go thru customs. A risk that they keep and destroy it. Nobody knows how much they x-ray while shipping to outside germany and where they scan.

Best Thomas

Hi

Thanks for sharing, I suppose the dealer has to refund me as it is simply not possible to ship.

It is ok to ship keris into Singapore as long there is correct declaration and there is a requirement for buyer to apply the police permit.

A properly declaration will not have problem but to lie about it will cause the offender a fine and possible jail term as well as blacklisted. So no more keris hobby.

Hello Alan,

It's not a problem based in the States, the problem is that DHL ship parcels most of the time by passenger airplane and since there due corona are only very few filghts they have to book place in cargo flights. ;)
So a lot services not possible, parcels possible but extreme expensive. I've shipped parcels to the States in the beginning of the corona crises, sometimes it need very long but have had parcels which receive very fast. :shrug:

Regards,
Detlef

Hi Anthony,

Just checked the shipping by DHL to Singapore, it's possible without any restrictions!

When you want you can pm me, when you can let ship the keris to my address I will ship it to to you. I've shipped many many times to Singapore without any problems at all. The shipping to Singapore by DHL is just 46,00 EURO.

Regards,
Detlef

Hi Thomas,

This will be a problem when you receive something from outside EU by German customs. But not a problem by export. And the "two-edged-dagger" story isn't true at all, have had this with a person from cutoms in the past and at last they handled it over in my hands. Read the weapon law from Germany, you can read it online. And all is different also by ethnograhic items.

Regards,
Detlef

Hi, I assume you are from Germany?

Thanks GOD. Very grateful for your help.

I will discuss with the dealer co and update you again thru PM.
They want to bill me extra euro 130 for shipping but they said no guarantee.

Don't do it, it's possible to ship the keris to you without any problems, the problem will be only in the head of the persons from the auction house!! :D

Yes Anthony, I am from Germany and glad that I can be from help for a forum fellow. ;)

Amen to that.

PM for your queries, I am mailing out weekly and receiving often too. No hurdle too large that it cannot be managed easily and with current systems and restrictions in place, its all just jumping through hoops, not the end of the world.

It is true, shipping from the US at the moment to the EU is problematic and with major delays.

Gavin

Rather the other way around Gavin! ;) Have received a parcel from the States rather fast!

Regards,
Detlef

Hello Anthony,

It is exactly as Detlef said. No problem but in the head of the seller.

But I am wondering if there isn't something else behind it?!

Like the seller changing his mind, having received a higher offer, etc. because the reason he gave you does not seem to be true...

... or...

... simply wanting to make it sound very difficult just to charge you more.

What I am writing has nothing to do with the shipment of kris but refers to books. I recently ordered some books in Java (I live in Europe) but due to the COVID shipping via Indonesian Post became now impossible due to the price increase (six times more) :shrug:

May I ask from where you coming? Normally you can ship edged weapons from Germany without any problems. Shipping to some countries (for example the States) is in the moment very expensive or not possible due corona.

Regards,
Detlef[/QUOTE]

I've had shipments from the Netherlands and Israel to the US and both have been very slow. 30+ days seems to be the transit time. My experience is that items seem to get stuck in the NY International Shipping Center.

Hmm, i came to know that the same keris was also sold in another online auction avenue. The agent suddenly said my parcel was prepared and ready to ship on Monday when I asked for refund.

I felt confused over these 'episode'. Anyway, i was not told yet how much the actual shipping cost. Let us wait and see.

Yeah, I thought there was something fishy about this whole episode.
Hope you will get your keris in good order.

I want to thank you here as well for helping me to ship to Singapore via DHL orelse i can never get the keris out of Germany. It is on the way.

The dealer is hopeless.

Hello Jean,

When I am correct informed this are "new" custom regulations from Indonesia.

Regards,
Detlef

You are welcome Anthony! :) And yes, it's on the way and it will receive by you soon when all works normal!

Regards,
Detlef