Two separate but related questions on buying games from overseas.
Firstly: I’m thinking of buying my parents the chocolate-themed edition of Azul for Christmas, which would require me to order it from somewhere in the EU. Has anyone used either Playin or Philibert (both in France, I think)? Am I also setting myself for all kinds of customs-related nonsense? I could just buy them regular Azul 
Secondly: My BGG secret Santa lives in the Netherlands, and I’m considering sending them an apparently hard-to-find expansion for one of their games. It seems fairly easy to find in the UK, or I’ve found a shop in Belgium that has it (Crowdfinder). Would sending something from the UK likely cause the recipient any issues? And does anyone know anything about the Belgian shop?
Thanks!
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I have bought from EU shops after the you-know and there’s no customs charge unless you buy loads of games. Even 3 is alright. Philibert is great. Bought from them before.
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Inwards: customs shakedown is at the whim of the people on duty that day. All the shippers will charge you both the duty and an £8 per package “administration fee” that you didn’t agree to and have no choice about.
Outwards: make sure you fill in a customs declaration form. Decks of cards are commodity code 9504 4000; boardgames in general are 9504 9080.
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Excuse the slight thread hijacking, but that version of Azul looks ideal as a gift for someone I know. I checked a few UK sites where it’s either not listed or shown as a pre-order without an arrival date. The Philibert site states that their stock is in French. Is there any information about the availability of the English language edition? or is the French one also likely to have English rules?
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I have bought games from crowdfinder.be several times they are really quite good. Just buy something in stock—stuff on preorder can sometimes take a good long while to arrive—also their pricing is all over the place some games are incredibly cheap and some games rather expensive. Spelspul.nl is also a good one that I have frequented.
On my side I have not had trouble posting presents to the UK—DHL makes it really easy because they provide online forms to help with the customs declarations. So that is mostly my suggestion: make sure you fill out the customs declaration properly or send it from a shop that does so.
I have also received packages from the UK. With the customs stuff it is always possible that delays happen.
PS: I would assist in posting something from here but DHL is really quite expensive for private customers sending packages. I need to check but I seem to remember something around 15€ 13.5€ without tracking(!) for an Azul sized box to UK so you are probably better off with ordering from a shop directly (if not let me know, it‘s not like sending on a box is complicated) I have not used the French shops… (yet).
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You can probably print the English rules from BGG
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I’ve bought stuff from Philibert in France (importing to the UK). Never had any issues with customs. From recollection, they’re pretty good at listing whether stuff is in English, French or multilingual on their website as well.
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My wife bought me Beyond the Sun from a shop in the Netherlands, but they wouldn’t ship to the UK. She had to send it to our friends in France to send on.
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