I am that guilty person SKB mentions but is too nice to call by name. Holt’s did suggest that I just import the gun as an antique. I wanted to just send it the normal way via SKB but the thought of getting it six month sooner made me decide to give it a try. Ten years or so I could buy a gun at Holts and have them mail it to my house for $55.00 so this is something I have done in the past. This should have been easy on both end as a 1870 made gun which is considered to not be a gun by BATF and an antique to boot. Where it got complex is having people at Customs and FedEx both give me wrong information and then refuse to accept their error.
Fedex had a total dollar figure, they require you to go through a broker, that included import insurance by the broker and a broker fee. Worse the included the cost of shipping(FedEx) which just put me over the limit by about $29.00. There was also an error of the fedex shipping bill which was a number 5 in a box which should have been a 1. That took two hours for them to decide that it was OK to release the item anyways. To get that done I had to speak with three customs people. I found a local import broker who only does a few of these self import packages for guns a year. I was able to show them quickly the gun was pre 1898, an antique and violated no laws to own or import. They were very easy to deal with but a totally unneeded expense.
If I do a second one this would be a cake walk on that end. It took a day of my time, but if done again would take just a few hours unless they screw up different things which will give me a fresh set of knots to untie. Final cost was about what SKB charges, perhaps a few dollars less. If I had not used a broker when none should have been required I would have saved a few hundred dollars. But I have had the gun for months and am still waiting for two other guns to be imported from the auction just before the one I bought the Westley. Time or money as they say.
Here were the bottom lines. FedEx should not have included shipping cost into their calculations. If not I could have easily picked it up from fedex or even had them deliver it to my home. The broker fees were not needed if FedEx had used the correct value. They will be quicker doing this again I’m sure. Customs only got involved because FedEx made a mistake on their Airbill/shipping form. Had the correct number been used Customs was never needed, after the item was declared an antique. Would I do it again. Maybe if I’m in a hurry to get a gun.
