Mailing jewelry from US to AR?

[River222]

Hi. My first post here of what I expect to be many.

My girlfriend's birthday is coming up and I want to send her a not too expensive silver necklace.

I'm seeing that mailing silver is prohibited unless it's sent via insured priority express international like with USPS. It's small, so I'm hoping I can just put a the necklace and a card in an envelope and drop it off at USPS. Is that my best option? Anything else I need to know?

Thanks!

 

[D.B. Cooper]

You should try DHL. Less hassle.

 

[River222]

You should try DHL. Less hassle.

I just got a quote from DHL's website and sending a 1 lb envelope through them costs $150 while USPS is $36.

 

[Tilda]

You hope that sending the necklace in an envelope will help. As a guide, a magazine (exempt from tax) sent with a set of playing cards as a gift was retained by the customs. It’s his and miss at most. If she has a CUIL she can clear it but without a good value they will apply only value that they find. Example: I once had to pay a full movie value for a CD worth of pictures of my cousins.

 

[River222]

You hope that sending the necklace in an envelope will help. As a guide, a magazine (exempt from tax) sent with a set of playing cards as a gift was retained by the customs. It’s his and miss at most. If she has a CUIL she can clear it but without a good value they will apply only value that they find. Example: I once had to pay a full movie value for a CD worth of pictures of my cousins.

So they will make her pay a customs tax to collect it? Should I send a receipt with it so they know the value? What is a CUIL?

 

[lunar]

Since it is a new item and doesn't have a sentimental value (yet?), why do you want to go through all this trouble of mailing it from the USA.
Just buy it locally from the MercadoLibre, and get it delivered to her.

 

[elhombresinnombre]

Since it is a new item and doesn't have a sentimental value (yet?), why do you want to go through all this trouble of mailing it from the USA.
Just buy it locally from the MercadoLibre, and get it delivered to her.

My guess (perhaps the OP will confirm?) is that it is a custom made silver necklace so off-the-shelf products would not be of interest wherever they are on sale.

In my opinion, and based on my experiences over the last couple of years, the question is not so much one of how expensive is the delivery and/or how difficult will it be for the recipient to collect and will they have to pay a fee but will it ever arrive or will it not arrive?

Correo Argentino used to be dreadful and then it got a lot better but over the last few years it has, in my experience gone back to being a lot worse and then some. During the last couple of years, nothing we have sent overseas by regular post has ever arrived and nothing sent from overseas by regular post to us has ever got here. The only thing that reliably turned up were packages from The Book Depository. I don't know how they did that but now they have gone out of business. Oh well.

To the OP: if it is something custom made, bite the bullet and pay for DHL.

 

[YankeeTraderTM]

Use your USA credit card at Mercado Libre --you will get the MEP rate of exchange

 

[Silvie]

Don't risk it. Try to have somebody buy it locally. There is a lot of sterling silver here. I would not do it.

 

[River222]

Since it is a new item and doesn't have a sentimental value (yet?), why do you want to go through all this trouble of mailing it from the USA.
Just buy it locally from the MercadoLibre, and get it delivered to her.

Ok, this is good advice. I'll just save the piece I already bought for when I see her in person then. Thanks!