Stamp Catalog Never Delivered.

In April I ordered on Delcampe the revenue catalog of Spain and colonies.
It was never delivered and several messages to the seller were met with silence.
Yesterday (after 4 months) I received following message from the seller;

His/her message:

Dear buyer, all the postal packets that we have mailed over the last six weeks, with books or other heavier stuff, have been returned by your customs with the indication that we must apply online for a permit number prior to mailing. For this we will need your full name, e-mail and cell phone number. Thanks in advance and all the best .... Unquote

I had a few weeks ago a same issue in Thailand with a package I did sent out and was returned to me. The small customs declaration slip was not put on!!

So for sellers amongst the SCF members, please notice that this requirement is now somehow strictly enforced.

That's why I only pay with PayPal so If I don't get the merchandise I get my money back. If they don't accept PayPal I go somewhere else.

Timm,
In this case I know the seller is a doctor at a hospital in Portugal. They have lots of Covid patients, so I did not want to put too much additional pressure on him.
My message is basically that we should not forget to put a small customs declaration slip on our larger packages. In the past this was hardly ever enforced, but now it seems to be very important.

I don't understand the "permit" point. Surely, all that a sender needs is the completed customs declaration?

That threw me too. He shouldn't need to apply for a permit.

Your point about filling out the customs for is taken...

I would have thought that to be the Postmaster's responsibility.
Here in Oz, small country town, my larger packages are refused without a customs dec.

A cardboard slot template is employed to assess sizes of packages.

Until recently, we could print a declaration form from the Royal Mail website, affix it to the envelope and pop the envelope in the pillar box, with no need to visit a post office. Now a form with imdividual barcode has to be obtained from the post office.

It may be that the catalog was small enough to traditionally been sent under First Class (there is a revenue catalog of Spain and colonies that is not many pages). And as has been discussed here and in other forums , the 2016 UPU policy was finally implemented on Jan 1, 2021.

Postal regulations evolve; in my opinion both buyers and sellers should keep up with them (especially since we are all doing so much online these days). If online costs or headaches become too much, then perhaps it is time to go back to doing more local transactions.
Don

In Canada, it is requested of anyone sending a package other than lettermail outside of Canada, to go online and fill out the customs declaration form. You can print it out and attach it or you will be given a QR code. Then go to the Post Office and they will scan it and print the label and attach it to the package. Otherwise they may not accept it or even want to serve you because it ties up line and they hate using time to get the info from you and do form. Even if it slips by it will undoubtly come back to shipper for the proper executed and attached declaration. With all the world wide commercial trade taking place, all countries are wanting to get their share of fees and taxes on purchases coming into the country; as well as their fair share of tax from sellers not declaring income from online buisness. No more free rides.

I do this all the time mailing stuff out from Canada, and with an account with Canada Post, the process is even simpler online. Customs forms are just a part of doing business internationally nowadays.

~Greg