Several months ago ABEBooks had something about one had to provide a tax number (??) or something similar to ship to places like Germany and France? I can’t remember what the deal was and did not opt in. I now have a buyer in Germany that would like to order a book, but is blocked via ABE because of it. He is willing to deal off site but my question is, does anyone know what that restriction might be? Do I need to pay a tax somewhere, or reduce it off of his charge if he has to pay on his end? Googling it only gets me sites that will ship for me. Thanks!
Sounds like it might be VAT tax for importing into Germany.
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When selling a book going to the UK via ABE, they just do the tax via the site, and ask the seller to put a non-VAT note with ABE’s number on the customs label. There was something different about this one, you can’t even sell to Germany via ABE if you didn’t opt in.
I tried searching the ABE forum, there was definitely some chat about it back then, but it’s almost as bad as the NSFE forum. Maybe @bookwormapril will know, I believe she sells at ABE.
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ABE is blocking sales to France and Germany by sellers who did NOT sign on for an expensive disposal program with a separate company. If I sold a lot there, I might consider it, but with so few sales these days to non-US addresses, I’d rather not have to subscribe to an additional service.
I think books are VAT-free, but check online. Send your usual way from Canada. I am familiar with US export shipping, but not Canadian.
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That’s what it was! Thank you! I will just ship normally.
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Yes, like selg says, but it’s a lot more than “opting in”. There’s a bunch of paperwork to fill out (not with ABE – with Germany) – exactly how much of this type of packing material will you be sending, how much of that type, etc.
France was just as bad, although nothing about packing materials – just a lot of government stuff I have zero interest in even looking at.
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I turned off all shipping to Europe due to the new rules/requirements/paperwork. I just don’t have the energy for it.
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In past years, I used to ship many more books abroad, but the increases in shipping costs over the last several years have killed most of those sales.
Anything over 4 pounds is ridiculously expensive to ship. Does anyone else remember M-Bags? They were cheap but slow for heavy books or groups of books. The USPS may still have them, but they became quite pricey, so I have not used them in years.
Too many books come back, after months of floating around, unclaimed or rejected, many for unknown reasons. At the very least it allows me to evaluate my packing and shipping processes.
I offer free shipping, over a certain price for many books. Sometimes I can offer a non-US purchaser of a heavy book free shipping if they have a friend in the US who can receive it on their behalf and hand-carry it to them. It works a few times a year.
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Shipping to Europe is expensive. A few years when I made a trip there, a British friend, myself, and a mutual American friend made arrangements to have me transport an item to our British friend during my trip. The American sent me the item which was small enough to fit in my suitcase without much inconvenience. I delivered the item to our British friend with no problem.
I thought that was the end. While I was in England, my British friend asked me to transport some items to another mutual friend in Paris, my next stop. Shipping from England to France can also be pricey even though they are going a shorter distance. These items were somewhat heavier and bulkier and required a separate (plastic shopping) bag. I traveled this leg of the journey on the Eurostar. Baggage limits on the train are more liberal than the ones on an airplane. Since the bag was only going one way, I was soon rid of it.
It worked out for us because we all knew each other having met in person several times previously. I can’t imagine transporting items for an unknown customer.
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@SawleMill Like I said, we’ve all known each other for 10-25 years. We’ve met at conventions held by professional organizations. Not dealing with strangers
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There is an entire TV series that my wife loves about this very subject!
Now I am the guy who always gets a pat-down at every customs checkpoint, 'cause I’m the fellow with no luggage at all - just a Kindle. I keep clothes in the closet of each residence, so not only do I have “nothing to declare”, I have noting to paw through either. “No bags, no clothes?” “Nope, there are plenty of clothes at each end of my journey.” “And NOTHING to declare?” “Only about 1500 books on my tablet here, but they are all just ones and zeroes, not really books at all.”
Frustrates the hell out of them. One guy actually took my freaking WIRSTWATCH and ran it through the X-ray machine.
@packetfire The items that I was carrying were player piano rolls. There aren’t many player piano owners anymore and the few of us still around belong to organizations and tend to know each other. (Note my avatar).
TSA becomes curious when these cylindrical objects (piano rolls) show up on the x-ray machine. I have quite a collection of cards from TSA stating that they have opened my bag for inspection. 
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Oh yes. Amazon’s international reimbursement rate was pretty close to M-Bag cost and the time frame for delivery was such that they could be used. So allowing international for heavy books was no problem.
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Yes, I remember M-Bags too. Very convenient for shipping heavy items especially books.
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@booknut7 were you successful? Any issues?
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As selg and April stated, it was a disposal fee for Germany, involving way too much paperwork. Since I less than two books a year to Germany, I certainly am not going to bother. The buyer didn’t want to order outside of ABE, I think he thought I was trying to somehow scam him. I haven’t had any further orders to Germany from other sites, to test out just sending it and see what happens.
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I had problems with the Amazon generated customs declarations when shipping to Germany, even via FBA.
Amazon does not generate the proper number of copies of documents and buyers are required to pickup packages as a result.
One of the many reasons I stopped shipping internationally.
Now using Ebay’s international shipping, which is using DHL as a freight forwarder. Biggest problem is DHL is not shipping from the shipping hub in a reasonable time, and tracking is not updated predictably, but no problems with paperwork. By the way, Ebay is the exporter of record which makes it a lot easier to deal with regulations.