Calling all Aussies who have purchased kitchen knives from outside Australian borders!
I'm interested in hearing about your experiences of purchasing from overseas knife shops / makers. The foreign transaction I'm fairly clear on: find knife, purchase knife in foreign currency. It's what happens next that I'm less clear on:
I'm interested in hearing about your experiences of purchasing from overseas knife shops / makers. The foreign transaction I'm fairly clear on: find knife, purchase knife in foreign currency. It's what happens next that I'm less clear on:
- The overseas knife shop / maker would organise postage (at the purchasers expense) which could be either regular postal service (e.g. USPS, Japan Post, etc) or courier service (e.g. FedEx, DHL, UPS, etc).
- I'm guessing that the sender (in this case the overseas knife shop / maker) would fill out the customs declaration about contents (e.g. kitchen knife) and value (e.g. foreign currency value).
- Then when it hits Australian customs and quarantine, is there associated import paperwork required by the purchaser to import a fixed single edge blade into the country (as border force suggest you'd have to declare such an item if you were walking it into Australia: https://www.abf.gov.au/entering-and-leaving-australia/can-you-bring-it-in/categories/weapons)? Or is the senders declaration sufficient?
- I'm assuming customs would want their slice of the action, so there'd be import duties and taxes payable on the imported kitchen knife? How does that work? Do they send you a bill? Or do you have to lodge paperwork in advance?
- Any good or bad experiences with different postal methods / couriers?
- Anything else that is important that I've missed?