Quote:
Originally Posted by Frankster
Every other US seller I had dealt with quoted what I had paid for it and not the market value of it.
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Legally; it is supposed to be the value of the item. Of course the arguement could be made that the true value was what you paid for it. But because eBay is an auction site; it is often taken that the item was sold for lower that what its real value was.
The bottom line was you asked the seller to do something illegal; and he refused. Now some might see this illegal act as being parallel to going 10 km/h over the speed limit; but the law is the law.
What I do; is if the item is under $20 I ask the seller to please put the final auction price as the value; so that I don't get dinged with customs. If the item is ~$30- then I might say something like "If I could ask a favor, could you please be sure to not put a customs value higher than what I paid for the item? We get dinged by customs on anything over $20, and I just don't want to have to pay too much for customs."
At that point I have told him that putting a value of <$20 helps me out, but doesn't ask him to do something that may be beyond his moral compas.