Shipping a paintball marker out of the USA

[PumpMag]

Is it legal to ship a marker from California to Canada?

If so, is there anything different or specific that I need to do?

[Chaos_Theory!]

Its not illegal at all, however, there are some things to watch out for. DO NOT, i repeat, DO NOT let the shipping company know its a paintball gun. Although it is not illegal if they see the word GUN they assume its not legal to ship it normally. You either wont be able to ship it or customs will have a field day with it and cause problems. Come up with a name that wont set of alarms like pneumatic marking device or something along those lines.

[FiXeL]

Shipping will not be a problem at all, customs is something you should worry about. Avoid terms like gun or pistol because usually that's enough to freak them out. Paintball marker is ok, but i prefer to have it shipped as sporting goods and the marker dissasembled. I live in the Netherlands and we have very strikt gun laws over here. Fortunatly a paintballgun falls under airguns, and those are legal to own.

I bought a few guns from members of AO, 1 from a guy in Great brittain, and 2 mags from the states. All came trough customs without any problems. (last package was even opened by customs to verify its contents)

[Tao]

Is it legal to ship a marker from California to Canada?

If so, is there anything different or specific that I need to do?

Shipping the tank can cause issues since it is regulated by Transport Canada and Department of Transport...hence the TC and DOT numbers.

[angrysasquatch]

Completely legal up here. I'd agree that "paintball marker" would be a better way to word it.

Also, if you're shipping first, DON'T ship it as a gift. The laws up here dictate that you sent it as a gift, therefore if you don't end up getting your money, the law can't do anything. If you've already been paid, it doesn't matter though. Shipping as gifts helps us Canuks dodge the taxes

[Ydna]

I usually write "recreational paintball parts" regardless of what's actually in there (gun, tank, jersey, whatever). Avoid going fedex or ups, they don't like international shipments for these things. USPS is okay but even then the box might get snagged at customs and be tagged with an import tax. From what I can tell it seems to be less often than not though, the way it works is random packages are picked out of the line and inspected. They don't have the manpower to check everything (else they would...lol)

[Tao]

Completely legal up here. I'd agree that "paintball marker" would be a better way to word it.

Also, if you're shipping first, DON'T ship it as a gift. The laws up here dictate that you sent it as a gift, therefore if you don't end up getting your money, the law can't do anything. If you've already been paid, it doesn't matter though. Shipping as gifts helps us Canuks dodge the taxes

I always still get dingged GST anyway. I don't really care since I don't ask it to be shipped as a gift.

Also DON'T ship UPS across the boarder. They have money grabbing "brokerage fees" whic will cost the buyer and additional 40-50% of what the package is worth!!!!!

[athomas]

Yes, avoid UPS at all costs. USPS is great. It usually arrives fast and sometimes you avoid the HST/GST. Low cost items usually get by the tax. Higher priced items usually get hit. We expect to get charged the tax anyway, so its not a problem. USPS only charges a $5 brokerage fee if you do get hit. Thats not that bad on higher priced items and like I mentioned before, you rarely get hit on lower priced items.

UPS is an automatic $30.00 processing fee plus the tax.

[mag_lover05]

write "gift" on the customs sheet, that way the recieving party doesnt have to pay a fee.

[phizz]

I live in Canada and get markers shipped to CAanda all the time from the states. Not illegal. Much like the others guys who are posting on here I have the same ideas, and here is what I tell the people I buy items to do for me.

Things to do.

1) never use the word gun, I always tell people write the contents as " sporting goods, marker"
2) if you want to be nice mark as a gift so the other guy can avoid duties, and taxes.
3) send by USPS unless they specify something else, they won't charge brokerage fees like UPS

Pretty simple other then that. I have probably bought at least 15 markers from the states, all but one have made it across, the one that didn't make it was a PGP, and it was marked Gun parts. Customs sent me a form to prove what it was and I emailed the info all private messages pics etc, but never heard back.. oh well, my mistake for not telling the guy what to put on the package. It never stopped me from continuing to order from the states and never had a problem since.

[PumpMag]

Thanks for the info guys. I appreciate all the advice.

[Tao]

Yeah just to show how bad UPS is: My $200 pump cost me $300 since I forgot to specify to ship with USPS NOT UPS

[jade_monkey07]

yeah when i ordered my 500$ tac-one i got butt raped by customs and ups....best thing to do is like everyone else said claim it as spare or old marker parts, if they force you to put a value put it at like 10$ regardess of the actual cost. they wont bother you then

[Lohman446]

yeah when i ordered my 500$ tac-one i got butt raped by customs and ups....best thing to do is like everyone else said claim it as spare or old marker parts, if they force you to put a value put it at like 10$ regardess of the actual cost. they wont bother you then

Commit fraud on a postal form to aid another in avoiding taxes? While I agree with limiting broker fees trying to avoid legally imposed customs is another ball game entirely.

Not a great idea.