Hi! I’m going to travel from the US to Sweden with around 50-100 cards, depending on how much the rest of my luggage is.
I will have to take the cards with me on the carry-on luggage as they are high-value cards. Unfortunately, I won’t take my boxes with me at this moment.
Has anyone traveled with this many graded cards before internationally?
Could there be a problem? Do I need to declare any value?
Much appreciated, Oliver.
You would need to declare value on anything you cross the border with that you didn´t bring with you beforehand and that surpasses your national treshold.
Many people don´t (want to) do it, but when you get caught you can get in serious trouble.
I am certainly no expert in this, but if you are just travelling there I would not see the need, but if you are staying there longer or even moving there I would say you should. The country probably has a certain threshold for staying in the country for when you should report it. Of course if you go there to sell the cards you would probably also need to pay other taxes.
I have actually travelled with graded cards and even sealed boxes to the EU. It has never been a problem. I wouldn’t go that far ahead and declare things and stuff and make it more complicated. I have taken it as carry-on as well as in luggage. Never been stopped or questioned by anyone. If someone asks you tell them it’s kids toys (which it actually is).
Just adding my 10cents, but I don’t think customs officers would place appreciable value on cards even though you could sell them for high value. Think about the amount of kids that travel in and out of the EU with their pokemon cards - none of them ever declare. Why should you now?
In my experience, they are on the lookout for cash or sealed contraband like cigarettes or alcohol purchased at duty-free that exceeds the accepted limit.
I had this experience myself and I’ve heard it mentioned by others as well but I have a 75% hit rate (3/4) on deeper inspection of my carry on when it has a bundle of graded cards in it (back and forth to worlds in '18 and '19). The slabs of plastic seemingly present through their scanners as suspicious and needing further inspection often. It always just resulted in them unpacking my bag a bit further and sometimes asking some questions but it’s never amounted to anything as I’ve been travelling domestic. I’d look into the laws that Sweden has on imports and what is required to declare to customs value wise. They do have a 25% VAT rate so presumably if you were travelling to sell these cards then there would be a legal obligation to pay that VAT. Tax evasion seems to be a favorite topic here. What you ultimately decide to do is your choice and at your own risk, but I’d advise anyone going into it to at least be aware of the implications (you may want to pretend like you weren’t all along though if you run into trouble as ignorance may be seen as favorable to negligence).
On a slightly related note, has anyone travelled back to their country and opted to declare the cards? Was it just a case of showing a PayPal transaction or something to verify value?
I plan on flying to the USA to pick up some cards and come back to the U.K., would be good to do this legally.
You get caught? There are Pokemon collectors working in customs? Hahaha they have no clue how much a card is worth. Cards have that pro, money wash, same as art
Edit: Customs one time openened a package of mine with a graded card to check declared value and they couldn’t even properly google the PSA label, it depends on the country but in general they dont care
Papa’s right - not too many people are moving cash through cards! haha
In all seriousness, it definitely depends on what you’re trying to do with the cards - if it’s just holding onto them, you will be fine, but if you’re planning on selling them, you may want to be a little more careful, especially with the amount of cash you may have on the way out.
Not sure where you live but in Europe customs is very well aware of valuable collectibles including Pokémon cards. They might not be able to explicitly identify them but they make you show receipts or other track records, when you can’t provide those they will research on their own.
I am aware customs in Europe asks to show receips, that’s why I said it depends onthe country but in the end you could do a fake receip and it’s all good
It sounds like your home is in Sweden, and you’re just flying into the US to pick up cards from PWCC or maybe a private transaction, then flying back home with them. If that is the case, customs will want to know if you’re importing any goods back home and their declared values.
I mean that also violates the law. In the end, it’s just the question if you want to import them legally or if you want to take on the risk.
Yes ofc, that’s why op should do a quick reseach on that specific country customs, talk to collectors there and then act accordingly. But in general they dont care, and if cards are raw, you are good to go
you have to be very naive if you think the custom agents have no clue of the value of these cards. These people are not cretins, they are aware of the value of these cards, there is a high chance they either collected themselves as kids, they have kids that collect, or they just read a news article that talked of a record sales price. More importantly if a grown man is telling them these nice looking PSA cards have no value, they will ask you to provide them evidence, or they check themselves on ebay.
Anybody familiar with travelling from EU with raw cards in order to hand deliver to PSA/BGS?
The way back would be with graded cards and a PSA/BGS receipt at best, how would you go about that?
Hey everyone, I haven’t been able to respond until now due to a personal issue.
But just to clarify, I’m moving back home to Sweden from the US through France. I’m bringing all my belongings with me and that includes around 100 PSA cards in my carry-on. Would that be too much and should I try to just take a few this time? (I have family left in the US.)