Horological Meandering

I have a watch listed in chrono24, and a buyer in the UK is very interested. Obviously I’ll need to get references and do some research, but we’ve exchanged lots of messages and my gut says he’s legit. I’ve never shipped a watch internationally before, as... 

And I think that amount is $5K USD. You should verify that, but if that’s correct and the watch is valued higher, you’ll need an alternative way of insuring it. There are a number of companies that can do this, one is ParcelPro. Check out their website, I... 

So that they will bill your buyer for any import taxes charged by the U.K government and paid for by FedEx. I once made that mistake in selling a watch to a German buyer and then I got stung for the $800 import tax charged by the German government.

You will have to insure via a third party service like ParcelPro. In order to do so, you will have to declare the full value (plus IT'S THE LAW). He will get hit with duties of approx 20%. If you have a buyer willing to pay 20% more than your asking price... 

He should proceed. My simple point there is I don’t believe it’s the responsibility of the seller to inform his buyer of what the buyer’s tax implications are. If the buyer gets a nasty surprise bill in the mail that he’s not expecting, that’s on him. ... 

I agree with NickO. While the exigibility of duties should (as a rule) be clearly identified on the listing, I also believe Chrono24 has information on the topic. That stated, it would be prudent to confirm to the buyer that they are responsible for payme... 

That’s the way to do business fairly.

Steve, are you saying that England tacks on a DUTY of roughly 20%? You are not referring to VAT, correct? Or are you? And if VAT I thought that does not apply to used goods. Coming from Europe to the U.S. duty is typically pretty low.

There is no import duty on watches imported to the UK from non-EU countries. Only VAT is charged, currently 20% of the declared value. (Many other imported items are charged duty as well as VAT - camera equipment for example). So how much you will pay dep... 

I guess VAT could be a killer.

Either this buyer is a total amateur and has completely forgotten about the likely customs duties, or he just wants to swindle you into sending over the watch. For a buyer to not have considered duties suggests to me that this person does not know what s/... 

Then again, even if the buyer did execute the transaction, there's still risk for both parties; as no system is a "perfect" system.

So it's possible that your watch is more convenient for this buyer than 20% more than any other option he has back in the UK, in which case nothing is strange. Otherwise, in the more likely scenario, it really comes down to the buyer either being dishones...