pcfarrar

Royal Mail and Parcelforce both x-ray parcels. Not sure if they do every one but they have automated rapid scanning machines.

Ian Bottomley predicted years ago that collecting was ultimately doomed in the UK. With a Labour "woke to the max" government likely coming later in the year it's only going to accelerate the demise.

That’s not really an issue, the bigger problem is restoration. Sending swords to Japan has now become a lot harder.

Guess it's a return to militaria fairs for buying/selling swords in the UK.

The Labour Party want to ban swords completely so we’ve got that to look forward to soon too.

For anyone in the UK the Royal Mail are banning all bladed items from April 22nd 2024. This Includes sharp scissors "You must not send any item that has a blade, in particular, ‘Bladed Articles’ as defined by the Criminal Justice Act 1988 or ‘Bladed Products’ as defined by the Offensive Weapons Act 2019. Such items include, but are not limited to, any knife blade, any kitchen knife (regardless of size or design), bread knives, knives that can be used for hobbies and trades (regardless of whether they are marketed as knives, for instance, utility knives and snap-off cutters), gardening and farming tools that have a blade, any trade tool that could commonly be described as a knife, butcher’s knives (including meat cleavers), cutlery knives, scissors with sharp edges, sporting equipment with a blade, replica and antique knives (including those used for re-enactment purposes), handmade and bespoke knives, open razors (where the blade is exposed), any axe, any sword, survival knives, or machete"

I've got a Jakushi tsuba signed " Kizaemon Jakushi" presumably the 2nd generation. NBTHK for some reason didn't see the feint signature and papered it to Nanban.

He had one of the largest collections in the UK. Including some very good swords. The numbers quoted are accurate from what I’ve heard. Auction will be later in the year apparently.

That's not correct unfortunately. The EU is now treated the same as non EU countries (we aren't in the single market or customs union) so buying a sword from someone in the EU is the same as from Japan/USA etc. Anyone in the UK will need to pay the 5% VAT for an antique over 100 years old. There is also now the new pre-paid VAT scheme that dealers in the EU and elsewhere in the world will need to sign up for to ship to the UK. This has some significant monthly costs and requires the business to send the VAT payments to the UK. I believe the EU is starting a similar scheme soon.

I've had 5% on gendaito / shinsakuto you need to mark it as a collectable with the correct code.

I don't think UK customs ever read the documentation in the package or stuck to the side. Every shipment I've ever had the document pouch has been untouched. They only seem interested in the customs description and value on the shipping label.

Use USPS Priority Mail, a friend shipped one from the US to UK a few weeks ago and it arrived in less than a week.

We haven't been able to bid on most sword auctions since eBay UK put the block on 10 years ago. There have been loopholes for swords listed in different categories but it looks like eBay have finally closed those now.

Thought I might as well update this old post. I submitted it for shinsa in Japan as I didn't want to have the mei removed without confirmation it was definitely gimei, it failed but was advised to have it removed and resubmit. So after having the mei removed, I resubmitted and it came back as Sandai Soshu Tsunahiro.