Will customs confinscate

[Assaulter_M-16a2]

yea i'm ordering a TM m-16a2 from dentrinity and having it expressed mailed i was of course gonna request that they paint the barrel cause it's the law and maybe later remove it but as far as trademarks go i think but im not sure that i can have them taped over and be able to peel the tape off then because honestly i don't want my gun all scratched up because customs doesn't like it what should i do have it taped or puttied. Have any of you guys had your guns confiscated and what happened with it i have never bought a gun from overseas before as you can tell.

[^cRYpTic^]

I have never personally had a gun come overseas, partially because some of my airsoft buddies have strongly advised me against it. Hopefully you won't have any trouble! However I have heard stories about customs stopping a shipment and holding it for months, often fining the people that are supposed to be receiving them. I think this happens the most with retailers, not individuals. By the way, what country is this gun coming from?

[Assaulter_M-16a2]

yea the gun is coming from hong kong. yea and i haven't ordered it yet because i wanted to know if i should tape or putty trades.

[Fox]

Yes, your gun very well could be confiscated while going through import duties. Especially because it is illegal for them to be sold in the US with out the trade marks PERMENITLY removed from the gun. Meaning they could never be recovered again. This is because TM does not own the Colt trademarks of the gun, and hence, they cannot be sold were the colt pattent is. I.e. America.

Defiently Putty if you want your gun.


Cheers
Fox


P.s. If your so worried about trademarks, either get a Classic Army gun which uses Armorlite trades, or buy a frick'n metal body for the thing since your going to any ways.

[Covington]

I suggest the stateside dealer, Project Airsoft (http://www.ProjectAirsoft.us).

[Fox]

Or www.combatdepot.com or www.airsoftarms.com or www.airsoftextreme.com

Etc.

Actually i've haven't heard good things about projectairsoft. So on that note, the rest of this conversation should be carried on in the RETAIL forum. Not this one.


Cheers
Fox

[Kendodude]

amazingly i've ordered my TM M4 from dentrinity shop with that special offer. Luckily my package wasn't confiscated as they put this gak like substance over my trademarks which easily peeled off like tape and didn't do any damage to the gun. They also hid the black metal flashider in the barrel safety cap thing and had an orange plastic flashhider on the gun. But for you this is a big risk as it was for me and if your lucky you may slip through customs seizure as I did. If your not comfortable with your chances then order from a stateside retailer. Correct me if i'm wrong but I think customs also checks for extremely large boxes and orders because drug dealers usually launder money in large quantities which is more suspicious then a tiny box. But then again you never know. What i'm saying is that i ordered a TM M4 from their and it didn't get seized from customs but i was probably lucky and you may or may not get as lucky as i did.

[DeltaSniper]

Ordering overseas is advantagous in one way. if you want something unique, the overseas retailers have it more often. otherwise, go to a us retailer. When it comes to shipping, youll almost end up paying the same price overall. If you can wait some time, most US retailers will get that unique item should you ask.

The chance of seizure is basically luck, what you do to it, and if seizure occurs, how discerning a customs agent is. When i ordered my m16a2 from Airsoft shop, they covered the trades with a putty that when pried at, comes off. Had a customs agent looked at my items, he might have passed them over as acceptable. Had he looked closely, he might not have.

as you can see, its possible. Some retailers, like dentrinity, gaurantee against seizure. they also destroy your guns trades if i recall correctly.

[Assaulter_M-16a2]

so what your are saying if i have the trades puttied that it will pass through customs because i thought about having them just tape it but i don't want to take that chance but i think the putty will probably be a better choice because it is hard to tell how easily it will come off just by looking at it than tape and maybe i'll get lucky and they'll hid regular flash hider with the gun thanks guys.

[Covington]

Burned, Puttied, Taped, etc...

If Customs gets a hold of it, you will NOT see your merchandise for a long time [if at all] no matter what forms you file or whether or not you and the shipping have complied with all laws. The Austin Airsoft community has tried several overseas suppliers, and we have made sure we did all possible to comply with importation laws. No matter what we tried, we had a significant amount of shipments seized and held for months.

I strongly suggest you use a stateside company.

[Assaulter_M-16a2]

well their is a really great deal they have on the gun so i'm going to order from them i just wanted to know what precautions to take i guess it probably would be smarter but i don't know i'd rather get that gun because i'm tight on cash at the moment so every dollar counts. How many fees did you have to pay and what was the price if you did pay them when customs confinscated them.

[Locutus2999]

Don't forget about the Duty bill you may receive after you receive the product. I only ever bought one gun (personally) from overseas, and that was from Redwolf, I received a $40 duty fee bill about 3 months later. Overall I would have saved about $30 if I had ordered stateside.

[Covington]

Originally posted by Assaulter_M-16a2
well their is a really great deal they have on the gun so i'm going to order from them What DEAL are you getting?

[jimmypop]

its really easy to get customs to seize your gun these days. if the trades are not removed from the box gun or books it can be seized.
like every one else said you will save your self tons of of potential hassle by buying from a stateside retailer. i would buy from some place some what local to you, that way if there is any problems shipping or dropping the gun off is not going to cost tons.

[Fox]

Originally posted by Locutus
Don't forget about the Duty bill you may receive after you receive the product. I only ever bought one gun (personally) from overseas, and that was from Redwolf, I received a $40 duty fee bill about 3 months later. Overall I would have saved about $30 if I had ordered stateside.

This is very true too. My team mate D_Man, and I will never order from overseas again because of this same reason. Each of the past 5 times we have gotten a customs bill some where between 30 and 75 dollars depending on the order. Once it came with the package as COD, other times it has normally come 4 to 16 weeks after the package(s) have been recieved.

I highly recomend just getting some patients and waiting for a stateside retailer to order you what you want, it takes longer, but at least you'll get it eventually.

Cheers
Fox

[Fresh]

we (our team) has order 5 times from DEN and next week will be a 6th. we have never had any problems. they will give you an orange flash hider and putty the trademarks. not one of our shipments has had a problem. business with DEN is fast and secure. i would definately go with them.

[Blade]

Just for reference, TNT is charging Duty fees on all guns and now started to charges duty on parts as well. Not sure why yet (investigating) but looks like there is nothing free of duty anymore with TNT.

[Covington]

Is this the "deal" you are getting?

Overseas
Dentrinity:
Product Name Tokyo Marui M16A2
$211.00

compare to:
Stateside
Project Airsoft.us
Product Name Tokyo Marui M16A2
$226

After you add in the difference between overseas and stateside shipping, I cannot see one choosing overseas.

[Crossfire]

When I ordered my Hurricane metal body, the trade-marks were covered in this weird, really adhesive tape that took a little while to peel off the trade-marks. It felt almost like tar on the outside, but Im glad that they used it what ever it was. It was stronger then tape, so I guess that was the 'permeant' removal.

I would also have to recommend getting it from in the states, but if you really want to get it from overseas, go ahead. I have never had any problems with them the numerous times i have ordered from overseas.

Jay,
You have to add the shipping in to get a more accurate number. If you *** shipping for both, they will come out almost the same most of the time, unless one or the other is on sale.

[Fresh]

hey blade, when did tnt start charging duties and from where and how much. we ordered ours and were delivered by tnt and no duties were applied. any guess why?

[Covington]

Jay,
You have to add the shipping in to get a more accurate number. [/B] Yes, that is why i mentioned that in my post.

If you *** shipping for both, they will come out almost the same most of the time, unless one or the other is on sale. Right; that's why I suggested stateside.

[Locutus2999]

Originally posted by zinger084
hey blade, when did tnt start charging duties and from where and how much. we ordered ours and were delivered by tnt and no duties were applied. any guess why?

How long ago did you make the order? I have heard of it taking as long as 6 months for the bill to come.

[Blade]

We usually receive the bill 4 weeks after reception. Even Instate suppliers using TNT will earn us a damn duty bill :( but it happened in the past we got bills from months ago.

CrossFire, some customers can be lucky but for retailers, it's much more complicated since we usually order big quantity. Meaning big boxes, which lead to more scrutiny from custom agents. The more trademarks US customer will request, the more seizure/hazzles we'll all gonna get.

note: You guys wanted airsoft to be more public, here is the price for it :p

[notabob]

i ordered my gun from ravensairsoft.net and i didnt realize they were going to drop ship it to me from hong kong. however, they did, but they shipped it using "hong kong post". is this the same as TNT? it has been 2 months now and i have yet to see any kind of extra bill...just curious.

[Fox]

Hong Kong post will use the cheapest sub contractor availible at the time to deleive things in the US.

Meaning this: They will ship it to the US, then TNT will ship it via 'Airborne Express' To your house. OR USPS, or UPS, or Fed Ex (Doubt fully Fed Ex).


Normally for all the times i've gotten one, UPS came with it COD, and the TNT ones have been 4 weeks to 16 weeks (1 month to 3 months) after a package as been deleived.


And as for TNT using duty bills, you might want to check on the legality of that. If the shipment is already in the US, it is up to the person who Imported the goods into the US to pay the bill, and there is no way a common carrier could charge duty fees if its only state to state deliveries with out crossing a boarder.

We're starting to get deliveries from Battenfield, which is a refinery thats part of the Petro. Canada oil group, and are having to deal with these things now :( US Customs is a pain in the *** when your dealing with 40,000lbs of EP 680 heavy duty grease :|


Cheers
Fox

[notabob]

yeah, the usps lady is the one who delivered it, so i guess i might be in the clear for duties...?

[Assaulter_M-16a2]

yea the deal i was talking about was the m-16a2 package for $300 it has a battery,hicap and a regular clip and it's express shiping is include in the $300. If you want to check it out it's at dentrinityshop.com But if there are going to be more charges than maybe i will just order from the combat depot or something. I think i will just order it from U.S. after hearing some of your guy's suggestions i don't want to run a chance at not having my gun or being fined for it.

[Darkstar]

The problem with ordering overseas isn't really simple and cut and dry. There are several disadvantages to ordering overseas.

First, you're sending your money overseas, whether to Hong Kong, Japan, Europe or elsewhere. Once you do that, whoever receives it pretty much has whatever discretion they wish as to how to use your money. If there is a problem with your transaction or shipping, you can probably kiss your money goodbye.

Second, people who want "full trademarks" might order a gun and have it shipped with putty or tape or whatever else. The fact remains that IF customs decides to inspect your parcel and they notice the tape or putty, they will try to peel it off. If they find trademarks, you're going to lose your money (unless you want to take a trip to California to grind them off). Its usually not worth fighting with Customs over this.

US based retailers have already gone through the processes of importing the airsoft guns and have taken all the risks away from their customers. There is no more US Customs to deal with and no way your orders will get seized once inside the US.

Another thing is customer service. Its nearly impossible to call overseas and get any form of customer service. No offense to our Chinese speaking friends, but the person answering the phone might not understand English, or you might not understand "their" English (due to a thick accent), and so on. I've heard stories of people calling a HK shop wondering where their airsoft gun is only to be repeatedly hung-up on.

Most reputable US retailers have phone number you can call to talk to a person.

And as some people mentioned, you will eventually receive a duty bill in the mail. And depending on how much the invoice lists the prices of the products in the parcel, you might get by with $20 bucks more, or $50 bucks more (depending on how much you ordered, this can vary). That $300 package might end up costing $350 or more.

There are all value-added things you can expect from US retailers, and in the end, you'll end up paying about the same price as you would importing yourself, just without all the risk.

Darkstar out.