Today I mailed some parcels off to the US. Normally I fill in a customs form with the contents and value, but today there was a new version of the form and a lot more detail required. The postal worker hounded me for answers. How many in in there? Are you sure? What kind of books? How much do they weigh?
I can do the items & their value ok - or pretty close in any case. But the weight? How should I know? Do you know how much a rubber stamp weighs? Me neither. I don't even know how much the package weighs in total. Is a Customs inspector going to pull each item out and weigh it to make sure I was correct? Gosh.
Even value is a little bit tricky. What is the value of a sample wedding dress made of gingham? How about the value of the sewing instructions and pattern for the dress? I said $20 and $0 but I might as well have said $100 and $500. They don't really have value as such and yet they are rather priceless.
The Japan Post has a page of instructions on filling in the new CN22 customs form. They don't tell you how to weigh your articles or warn that the postal employee isn't going to let you write in anything vague or that doesn't add up to the correct total weight.
More security theater to pass on hassle to the people. Grrrrr.
Shipping books at UPS yesterday I was asked for all three boxes "What is in here?" I was so tempted to say "Head of a Gorgon."