A very Happy Y2K to all:  I just arrived home from the holidays and am
now getting caught up on my back MMD issues.  I am pleased to say that
my computer booted up just fine and even displayed the year 2000 and
there are no problems.  I wonder what all the doom-sayers are going to
do now?  Too bad we do not have a time machine so that we could send
them back to the dark ages where they belong, but then again they might
finally succeed in blocking the worlds progress and we would not be
where we are today.

Now what do you do with all the extra food, water, and camping
equipment that you acquired for the Y2K disaster?  Well the merchant
whom purchased it for you does not want you to bring it back.  He spent
a great deal of time and money to get it for you and he does not want
to be stuck with it either.  The best thing to do is to donate it to
your local food bank, or homeless shelter, or rescue mission, Salvation
Army, or senior center.  The freeze dried food, and camping equipment
would make a very nice donation to your local Boy Scout or Girl Scout
troop, and these are all great deductions on your income tax.

In the past 100 years we have moved from the horse and buggy to the
automobile, from coal fired reciprocating steam engine ships to modern,
diesel ocean liners that can get us overseas in a mater of days, from
propeller operated planes to jets that can take us anywhere in the
world in a mater of hours.  We have gone from out houses to indoor
plumbing, from the telegraph, to wireless.  The transatlantic cable has
allowed us the telephone to talk to anyone in the world in fractions of
a second, our mail has moved to the Internet.  With email we can now
communicate with anyone in the world.  Our great planet earth has
become a very small world indeed.  Global commerce has become much
easier.  Over the past millennium, we have moved from Christopher
Columbus looking for an easy way to find spices, to eBay.

And that brings up the question, "Should we citizens of the USA sell
to overseas customers?"  While it is everyone's prerogative, I feel we
should.  It helps foster better international relationships.  We get
better acquainted with different foreign cultures.  We develop new
friends.  It makes the World a better place.  We find new customers.
I am sure there are other great reasons too!

I primarily deal with music rolls for various machines.  I have had no
problems in dealing with customers overseas with my music roll sales.
Occasionally, I deal with items on EBay and I am a bit more cautious in
dealing with people I do not know.  But, I do check the box that I will
ship overseas.  I see no problem with it.  In fact my business card
says, "We service the World".  I was going to put "We service the
Universe", however the thought that some dark night there would be the
bright lights of a space ship sitting in my front yard, with an extra-
terrestrial at my front door requesting that I come with them to
service a pneumatic player unit 200,000,000 light years away, makes me
a bit nervous.  However it would be interesting to know what kind of
roll player they have and the music.

In selling music rolls overseas, I have made a great number of friends,
learned global commerce, found best ways of shipping, how to deal with
customs.  I have met many of my customers from around the world at many
of the music conventions, some have even visited me at my home.  I have
developed many great long lasting friendships from people from all
around the world.

Another thing I discovered is some of my best customers are my foreign
customers and I certainly will go the extra mile to make the sales
transaction go as smooth as possible, to find the best and most
economical way of shipping, and to find the easiest and least costly
way for them to pay for the music rolls.  I will be happy to share my
knowledge with anyone who wants to know how to make a foreign sale go
smoothly.

What are the reasons for not wanting to sell overseas?  Probably the
best answer would be the fact that some US citizens don't know how to
do it.  The first time I had to deal with an overseas customer I was
a bit apprehensive also.  But once I learned how to handle the packing,
the shipping, customs forms, and dealing with the finances, it has
become old hat.  It is not hard at all.  I will give you some of my
suggestions.  Sure, it may take a bit more of my time, but I feel it
is worth it.

Packaging

1.  For boxes, I go to my local food store and I have found that the
best boxes are the ones that the frozen food come in.  I always ask the
store if I can have the boxes, and they are always delighted in giving
them to me as they don't have to deal with the disposal of them.  It
helps the ecology to recycle them, too!  Since the boxes have all that
printing on the outside, I simply carefully separate the seam, turn the
box wrong side out so that the printing is inside, then reglue the
seam, and viola, I now have a great new box.  They are the perfect size
for packing music rolls.  Some of them are made of extra strong, heavy
duty, cardboard and are perfect for shipping rolls overseas.

2.  For sealing tape for the boxes I use the brown paper tape,
preferably with the threads in it.  When I first started shipping,
the post office told me that for overseas shipment, I was required to
use the brown paper tape to seal the boxes with, and that all openings
had to be sealed.  In other words put the paper tape all around the
flaps as well as the ends.  The primary reason, in addition to making
the package more stronger, was so they could stamp the postal stamp on
the paper tape for security reasons.  So that if the package had been
tampered with they would know.  I like that idea.  In fact I like using
this tape on some of my stateside shipments as well, due to the
strength of the tape and the fact that it makes the package stronger.

Customs forms

1.  There are two types of customs forms.  The long form which you fill
out in triplicate and a copy is placed inside your box.  This means
that the customs agent is going to want to open the box to see what is
inside.  The form I use is the simple green and white PS Form 2976 CN22
customs form which you paste on the outside of the box.  It is only
good for items valued under $400.  Since piano rolls are cheap, this
easy form is the way to go.  The disadvantage to this form is that
anyone can read what it inside the box.

Unless you are shipping a Rolex watch, I doubt there is anyone in the
world who would steal a piano roll.  So it makes perfectly good sense
to use the simple USPS Form 2976 CN22 customs form that you can get from
your post office.  The two advantages are that it is much easier to
fill out than the long form for us, and secondly since it describes
what is in the box, it makes it easier on the recipient as sometimes
the customs agent just passes it through without even bothering to
charge the recipient any customs duty.  If you are shipping something
you sold on EBay that has some value, of course I would use the long
customs form and put it inside the box.

2.  Over the years, in discussing with my foreign customers what to put
on the customs declaration form, we have come up with the following
statement and it seems to work very well.  I use the statement "Used -
Second Hand - Paper - Sheet Music - Player Piano Rolls" .  Most of my
customers say this gets the rolls to them quicker and sometimes the
customs collector does not even bother with the duty.  In fact the
customer who requested that I place the word "paper" said that in the
rolls he just received they placed the roll in the mail box and did not
even charge the value added tax (VAT) of $30, so the wording does make
a difference.

3.  To fill out the rest of the form, I do not bother listing the
value of each roll, I simply just put a total amount.  Mark the
appropriate box (gift), (merchandise), or (commercial sample), and sign
the bottom.  For the white side make up a second addressee's label and
paste one under addressee, plus one of your own labels, then sign and
date that side.  Simple!

Shipping

1.  Shipping items from EBay can be rather expensive.  However if the
buyer in a foreign country is willing to pay the shipping, I see no
reason not to do it.

2.  I understand that QRS Music Company was instrumental in securing
us the "Book Rate" for music rolls.  I think that Karl Ellison has
adequately described both the use of "Surface Book Rate" as well as
the "M Bag" for international shipping.  So I won't say much more.

I have noticed that several people say that the post office won't give
them this rate.  The post office should, and if they refuse, stand your
ground and insist that they look at their postal regulation manual as
it does in fact specify that player piano rolls can be shipped via Book
Rate.  The advantage of course to using "Surface Book Rates" are the
low cost of shipping.  The two disadvantages are the length of time to
ship and the fact that the package cannot be insured.  So there is some
risk.  In all the years I have used these methods, I have never had any
package not get to its destination.

3.  Over the years for in-country, it used to take about two weeks for
these rolls to get to their destination and about twelve weeks for the
rolls to get to international destinations.  This past year, I have
been in contact with my customers and, for within the country, rolls
have been getting delivered in less than a week.  For overseas
shipments, they have been arriving in about eight weeks.  A vast
improvement.

Handling the finances

1.  There are many ways of getting paid.  For very small purchases,
some overseas customers may elect just to send you a few dollars.
There is some risk in this.  If it is well wrapped and placed in two
envelopes it may arrive.  Also the buyer can have the letter sent via
registered mail, which means that the envelope is kept under lock and
key until delivered and must be signed for.

2.  International money orders are somewhat expensive and sometimes
take a customer a long time to obtain one.  One of my customers, from
Austria, somehow gets a US postal money order.  I am not sure how he
does it but this is something worthwhile to look into.

3.  Everyone has wondered about accepting foreign checks.  Anyone
can and get the checks cashed very easily.  There is a company called
Ruesch International who specialize in international financial
services, and they will accept your foreign checks and convert them
into US funds and send you a check.  Their fee is very reasonable.
Visit their web page at http://www.Ruesch.com/ or call them at
1-800-424-2923.  They are very nice to deal with and it does save your
foreign customer the expense and time of acquiring an international
money order.

4.  Ask your banker if they will accept foreign personal checks.
Outside of a bank robbery, the only thing that will scare the wits out
of a banker more is the mere thought that a customer might consider
removing his deposits and taking his money to another bank.  You can
use this for leverage in negotiations.  I used Ruesch International
check fee rates in negotiating with my banker.  He said they would cash
foreign check for me but their rates were higher.  I mentioned that
another financial institution that I did not have any accounts with
was willing to give me a better rate, and you would be amazed at how
quickly his rates came down.  Try it with your banker.  While my bank
charges a bit more than Ruesch, it is more convenient for me just to
cash all the checks at my bank, plus it does not take as long to get
them deposited into my account.


Well I believe I have covered just about everything I can think of
in dealing with foreign customers.  I hope the information is helpful
to you all and that you find more worldwide wonderful friends and
customers.  Don't be afraid of selling something to a foreign country;
after all, how would you like it if you saw something advertised on
EBay overseas that you always wanted your entire life and the seller
would not sell to anyone in the USA.  Think about it.  If anyone needs
additional help in foreign shipments, I will be glad to help you
through the hurdles of international commerce.

If anyone wants to know what fees I charge for cashing checks, or
know what I charge for shipping music rolls, simply visit my web page
[URL below].  This helps all my customers by telling them right up
front, what check cashing fees are and shipping costs are going to be.
Sometimes it does not cost me this much and sometimes it costs me more,
but over all the charges balance out.  I have a lot of very satisfied
customers.

I hope this is beneficial to all sellers and buyers, and I hope you all
have a great Y2K and have not had any problems with your computers.

Larry Norman
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~rollertunes