Customs is the boring half of ACBUY shipping and the half where most first-time buyers overpay — or worse, lose their parcel. This guide is the plain rules, not the “how to lie on the declaration” folklore that gets people banned.
How ACBUY builds the declaration
By default ACBUY declares the actual invoice value, item name and HS code. You can propose a lower declared value in the shipping notes — ACBUY will honour it within reason, but the parcel still travels with the true weight and description. Under-declaration only helps up to the customs threshold; past that the tax officer inspects the parcel and enforces market value.
Country duty-free thresholds (2026)
- US: $800 per parcel (de minimis).
- EU: EUR 150 excluding VAT (VAT applies from EUR 0).
- UK: GBP 135.
- Canada: C$20 (the strictest).
- Australia: A$1000.
Structure your combined shipment to stay under your threshold when the maths works — but not by lying, just by splitting orders across two months if the shortlist is large.
HS code hygiene
Wrong HS code is the number-one cause of customs delays. Watches under HS 9102 get scrutinised more than the same watches under HS 9101. ACBUY defaults to the safer code most of the time; if your parcel is genuinely enthusiast-grade, the acbuy qc finder often has a note on which code the seller uses.
What actually causes seizure
Not “value too low”. Seizure happens when a parcel description directly claims a trademark. “Nike shoes” on a declaration for an unbranded replica gets pulled; “sportswear shoes” doesn’t. ACBUY handles this automatically for items sourced through the acbuy spreadsheet, but it’s useful to know why the workflow exists.
Insurance
Optional add-on at ~2 % of declared value. Worth it for orders over $300; skip it under $150. EMS-shipped parcels are auto-insured for the declared value.
If your parcel gets stopped
Reply to the customs email within 5 working days with the invoice from your ACBUY dashboard. 90 % of stops release within a week. The ACBUY guide homepage links the country-specific customs contacts for the top 10 destinations.