Shipping Questions

[Pappy]

I’m getting closer…I have paid my last month’s rent in America and my first month’s rent in Costa Rica. The plane tickets are purchased, and everything I own has been donated, sold or trashed. I will arrive at the end of May.

The most difficult for me was letting go of my books, which I donated to a university book fair. Sixteen cases of ‘em. I felt like I was selling old friends or members of my family into slavery.

Which leads to my question.

There are some books I just can’t let go. Six 20 pound boxes. I have checked the international shippers, which would charge me an arm and a leg. The Miami-based forwarders I checked charge around $35 a pound.

The U. S. Post Office, however, has a thing called an “M-bag,” that costs only a little over $1 per pound, as long as they are only books, and the overall weight is under 66 pounds. They go by surface, of course, so it will be a while before they get there. The postmaster couldn’t give me a firm time frame.

I have addressed them to myself at the Costa Rican address.

My specific questions are: Will the books be delivered to my door, or will I have to go someplace to pick them up? Will this be the Correo, or Customs at the airport? If that’s the case, how will I be notified of their arrival? And will there likely be Customs hassles?

Thanks in advance…

[Russ]

Congratulations!  All the best to you as you begin your new lifestyle in the tropics.

In my experience the mail customs has gotten much easier in the last 5 years.  There is a very good chance that this bag will come directly to you.  If not, you will get a notice that you have a package, then you go to the post office in Zapote.   When it is not holiday season I have not found the lines to be very long any more, although there still is quite a procedure. 

If memory server, you go to one window and give them the notification and your passport, the person who the package is addressed to must pick it up in person, or have a power of attorney made if it is another person.  Then you wait while the package is removed from the postal service warehouse and transferred to the customs side of the building.  The customs officer calls you and then you watch as they open the package. 

They confiscate any illegal items (burned CDs with music, food items, medicine) and also determine what duty you owe, if any.  Then you have to go to the bank and pay any duties, the BCR around the corner is where you pay it, otherwise you pay any storage fees due at the regular cashier.

In the case of books there shouldn't be any duty or any hassle.