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Thread: Can a parcel containing a Fountain pen weight 50 grams?

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    Default Can a parcel containing a Fountain pen weight 50 grams?

    Hi everyone,
    I'm a FP enthusiast residing in S.Korea, and yes this is my first post.
    Also I am a native Korean who has received education in English in NZ, so please do excuse me if I articulate/word poorly.
    My main writer is Pelikan M805, with Red Aurora 88 demonstrator as a "show-off" pen.
    But even after spending about $1.5k on 5 pens, I couldn't find my "grail" pen and thus I've been on a lookout for about a month.
    Ultimately, I have purchased a Parker 51 in well-preserved condition -At least it seemed to be, for $147 just today after making sure
    that the seller actually HAD the product physically since $147 is quite a large sum of money to just throw down the drain
    and I've heard from other forum(FPN) that the only other shop(heritagecollectables uk) which stocked the particular variation
    (Rolled silver cap, aerometric, UK made) is a fraud that frequently doesn't ship the product or sends goods with wrong description.
    In addition- the seller took more than a month to refund the money to the customers who had to "blackmail" them about taking legal action.
    Good thing I've done some research.

    To cut to the chase, I have received an email today telling me the pen has been shipped, but it turns out the shipping weight is 50 grams!
    This is my first and (likely to be) last purchase of P51, so I'm very worried of receiving an empty package after waiting a dozen days.
    I've done some googling and it turns out that parker 51 that's uninked is 17 grams.But the thing is, even a cardboard box
    that big weights ALSO about/over 50grams according to my experience. And what worries me more is that the seller didn't mark the item as sold, so I might as well be getting an empty box
    Am I getting scammed? any advice/comments on this situation will be very appreciated. To be honest, if anyone could measure the weight of an empty box about that size(15*10*10cm I'd say from judging by eye) that would get rid of my anxiety and I'll be very grateful :)

    Last edited by Mikekwon; May 18th, 2019 at 05:15 AM.

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    Default Re: Can a parcel containing a Fountain pen weight 50 grams?

    Bet you get your pen this time.

  3. The Following User Says Thank You to jar For This Useful Post:

    Chrissy (May 18th, 2019)

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    Default Re: Can a parcel containing a Fountain pen weight 50 grams?

    Me too.
    Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens

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    Default Re: Can a parcel containing a Fountain pen weight 50 grams?

    I can tell you that declaration is filled out by the sender and can write on it whatever. I almost never weight the contents, but say they weight such and such via the rule of thumb. It’s entirely possible that weight is made up for filling out the declaration sake, not the actual weight.

    This exact same declaration is used throughout entirety of EU.

    Did you weight the packet, by the way?

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    Default Re: Can a parcel containing a Fountain pen weight 50 grams?

    The weight on that customs form is the weight of the item (total is weight of all the items) not including the packaging used to actually send them. So they've rounded the pen weight to 50g - that's no problem.

    ETA for clarity, maybe: A customs form isn't a shipping label - for customs they only care about the contents of the box, not the box itself.
    Last edited by Voiren; May 18th, 2019 at 07:09 AM.

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    Default Re: Can a parcel containing a Fountain pen weight 50 grams?

    Quote Originally Posted by adhoc View Post
    I can tell you that declaration is filled out by the sender and can write on it whatever. I almost never weight the contents, but say they weight such and such via the rule of thumb. It’s entirely possible that weight is made up for filling out the declaration sake, not the actual weight.

    This exact same declaration is used throughout entirety of EU.

    Did you weight the packet, by the way?
    I'm not sure if I understood your question entirely, but I'm playing the buyer's role here, hence I will be receiving the parcel in around 10 days.
    So tl;dr there's no way for me to know the actual weight since I don't have it physically.
    EDIT: I did, theoritically, weighted the packet(box) by researching
    about the corroded cardboard papers, I assumed that the box of E flute, which is 250~350gsm, thus the box that's 18*12*7 should give me around..
    Well I got lazy, and searched up how much do small flat rate box used by USPS weights. Turns out it weigh 2ozs=57grams which only added to my anxiety of
    getting an empty box full of nothing.


    The seller even modified the item's dc value to 100SGD to help me bypass trouble with customs, so your comment sounds highly valid.
    In Korea, or I believe most countries should have scales in post offices since a parcel's shipping cost is estimated using the total weight of the product= the sum of the box weight and that of actual product. But well.. I've just realized that you CAN declare lower weight and pay the courier the shipping cost for actual weight (Not to an extent that would be too obvious, though) since it's not like individual items will be weighted during import/export process. The seller paid 9SGD-> about 7 dollars according to the receipt he attached, so I believe I can rest easy, since Singpost doesn't charge 7dollars to ship "50 grams".

    I don't see the point in faking the weight, but to make a guess it could be just that the seller got lazy and thought of random number that would make sense. Thanks for the reply, that gives me relief.
    Last edited by Mikekwon; May 18th, 2019 at 08:06 AM.

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    Default Re: Can a parcel containing a Fountain pen weight 50 grams?

    Quote Originally Posted by Voiren View Post
    The weight on that customs form is the weight of the item (total is weight of all the items) not including the packaging used to actually send them. So they've rounded the pen weight to 50g - that's no problem.

    ETA for clarity, maybe: A customs form isn't a shipping label - for customs they only care about the contents of the box, not the box itself.
    That does make sense, I was getting a tad bit worried about the pen being damaged during the shipping since I thought the box was 33 grams and the pen being 17 grams - imagine the pen you paid $150 forr(And it's a rare parker 51) being thrown around, colliding inside the box, that would easily give me nightmares.
    To make an educated guess, now I believe that the 50g means either a fake weight made up to get around customs, or the weight of items in the box,
    it does make sense if the pen was 17g, and the small 1 pen Parker box was 20grams, and 10grams of air cushions. Thanks for the input, I wouldn't have guessed of this being the case and instead would've stayed worried about getting scammed if I didn't know that as a seller they could do these.
    Last edited by Mikekwon; May 18th, 2019 at 07:52 AM.

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    Default Re: Can a parcel containing a Fountain pen weight 50 grams?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mikekwon View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by adhoc View Post
    I can tell you that declaration is filled out by the sender and can write on it whatever. I almost never weight the contents, but say they weight such and such via the rule of thumb. It’s entirely possible that weight is made up for filling out the declaration sake, not the actual weight.

    This exact same declaration is used throughout entirety of EU.

    Did you weight the packet, by the way?
    I'm not sure if I understood your question entirely, but I'm playing the buyer's role here, hence I will be receiving the parcel in around 10 days.
    So tl;dr there's no way for me to know the actual weight since I don't have it physically.
    EDIT: I did, theoritically, weighted the packet(box) by researching
    about the corroded cardboard papers, I assumed that the box of E flute, which is 250~350gsm, thus the box that's 18*12*7 should give me around..
    Well I got lazy, and searched up how much do small flat rate box used by USPS weights. Turns out it weigh 2ozs=57grams which only added to my anxiety of
    getting an empty box full of nothing.


    The seller even modified the item's dc value to 100SGD to help me bypass trouble with customs, so your comment sounds highly valid.
    In Korea, or I believe most countries should have scales in post offices since a parcel's shipping cost is estimated using the total weight of the product= the sum of the box weight and that of actual product. But well.. I've just realized that you CAN declare lower weight and pay the courier the shipping cost for actual weight (Not to an extent that would be too obvious, though) since it's not like individual items will be weighted during import/export process. The seller paid 9SGD-> about 7 dollars according to the receipt he attached, so I believe I can rest easy, since Singpost doesn't charge 7dollars to ship "50 grams".

    I don't see the point in faking the weight, but to make a guess it could be just that the seller got lazy and thought of random number that would make sense. Thanks for the reply, that gives me relief.
    I can only tell you how it is in Europe. The package is weighted before you pay the shipping, and then shipping is based off of that. What you see there is a customs declaration form. You can write on it whatever you want. The point is, if the data doesn't match, you are legally accountable for it (you can see the sender had to sign the form). Of course nobody cares if you write in the correct weight, they will get on your ass if you write you're sending a pen and it's really a bomb or something.

    The weight there is for the pen only - NOT the box and packaging. This form is not used to calculate shipping. He's not faking the weight, he just couldn't bother to weight the pen and just wrote something in the ball park.

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    Default Re: Can a parcel containing a Fountain pen weight 50 grams?

    Quote Originally Posted by adhoc View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Mikekwon View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by adhoc View Post
    I can tell you that declaration is filled out by the sender and can write on it whatever. I almost never weight the contents, but say they weight such and such via the rule of thumb. It’s entirely possible that weight is made up for filling out the declaration sake, not the actual weight.

    This exact same declaration is used throughout entirety of EU.

    Did you weight the packet, by the way?
    I'm not sure if I understood your question entirely, but I'm playing the buyer's role here, hence I will be receiving the parcel in around 10 days.
    So tl;dr there's no way for me to know the actual weight since I don't have it physically.
    EDIT: I did, theoritically, weighted the packet(box) by researching
    about the corroded cardboard papers, I assumed that the box of E flute, which is 250~350gsm, thus the box that's 18*12*7 should give me around..
    Well I got lazy, and searched up how much do small flat rate box used by USPS weights. Turns out it weigh 2ozs=57grams which only added to my anxiety of
    getting an empty box full of nothing.


    The seller even modified the item's dc value to 100SGD to help me bypass trouble with customs, so your comment sounds highly valid.
    In Korea, or I believe most countries should have scales in post offices since a parcel's shipping cost is estimated using the total weight of the product= the sum of the box weight and that of actual product. But well.. I've just realized that you CAN declare lower weight and pay the courier the shipping cost for actual weight (Not to an extent that would be too obvious, though) since it's not like individual items will be weighted during import/export process. The seller paid 9SGD-> about 7 dollars according to the receipt he attached, so I believe I can rest easy, since Singpost doesn't charge 7dollars to ship "50 grams".

    I don't see the point in faking the weight, but to make a guess it could be just that the seller got lazy and thought of random number that would make sense. Thanks for the reply, that gives me relief.
    I can only tell you how it is in Europe. The package is weighted before you pay the shipping, and then shipping is based off of that. What you see there is a customs declaration form. You can write on it whatever you want. The point is, if the data doesn't match, you are legally accountable for it (you can see the sender had to sign the form). Of course nobody cares if you write in the correct weight, they will get on your ass if you write you're sending a pen and it's really a bomb or something.

    The weight there is for the pen only - NOT the box and packaging. This form is not used to calculate shipping. He's not faking the weight, he just couldn't bother to weight the pen and just wrote something in the ball park.
    Right, I understood that from the response of the other member who replied. That does make sense, thanks. At least I know they won't get on my ass..(unless they find out I've been undervaluing goods... frequently ) xD I'm used to seeing to "shipping stickers" that you get from the postage companies, that glossy paper you take the glue seal at the back off
    and stick it on the parcel, with shipping barcode on it. At least that was on the front when I received items from Korea, not the customs form.
    So yup all this has just been a big misunderstanding, thank you for confirming that that is "customs form", so it has nothing to do with weight, but
    rather the value and the nature of the item.

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