Are numitron illegal in UK ???

[Benoit Tourret]

I tried to buy some IV-16 in a foreign country, far over the channel.

here is the message I just received from ebay:

Hello Benoit,

The purchase you recently made under the International Delivery Service with xxxxxxxx could not be completed.

The object in question has been restricted. This may be due to import or delivery restrictions, or International Delivery Service eligibility requirements. The item will not be sent to you, nor will it be returned to the seller.

Don't worry. You will be fully refunded to the payment method used to purchase the item within 72 hours. We will make two separate refunds: the first for the price of the object and the second for the shipping and import costs. No further action is required on your part.

[Nicholas Stock]

That is bizarre. I just sent DTF104B numitrons all over the world, the UK included, so I can't think why they'd be restricted. Maybe someone used the wrong tariff code or description on the shipment? 

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[Audrey]

Perhaps you ordered from a sanctioned country

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[Nick Andrews]

Weird.  I know the USPS has gotten strict on customs forms.  I had sent an envelope to Netherlands with 4 old small radiation detectors, ironically going to a guy who works at Scionix where they were made.  I got it returned because I just wrote 'electronic parts' on the form.  The counter lady said likely because they are afraid of unmarked lithium batteries in packages causing fires.  At least teh didn't try to screw me on the $20 postage and this time I wrote 'photmultiplier tubes - defective, no lithium batteries inside!'

[Moses]

I've been shipping and selling tubes all over the world, on and off, for 22 years now. I'll tell you that even if you have ALL your paperwork in perfect order, someone's imagination (customs officials, tax, etc..) will go wild and they will either destroy the item in question or make you jump through hoops to get them.

I'll tell you a quick story. Sometime in the early 2000's I was in a former soviet block country, hunting for tubes in old factories and store houses. The folks who ended up with these places in the end were essentially scrap dealers and searching mainly for precious metals, which by the time I got there were pretty much all gone. I was the first one around there looking for tubes and word gets out around town that there is a foreigner looking for them. I arrived on day to this one factory.. which had a good deal of nixies I was told.. to my horror I found about half of what they had in a broken pile of glass on the floor. Come to find out, my inquiries in the town had caused a stir.. and at least this one warehouse destroyed about half their tubes and sent the metal for assay.. on the idea that would certainly find some sort of rare metal. They found no previous metals, and once they found out what I was willing to pay for the remaining tubes, equivalent to several years of normal wages, they were pretty upset with themselves.

That's my sad tube story! It was a good time otherwise!

Regards,

-Moses

[Nick Andrews]

Life hurts, being stupid hurts even more!

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[Nicholas Stock]

That's an amazing story Moses! I've had a lot of correspondence over the years with various sellers in Eastern Europe and Russia. Selling nixies at prices that we in the West think are reasonable is a huge some of money for some people.... 

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[Benoit Tourret]

Maybe uk sanctioned France when they heard what his president said about Taïwan ??

Or maybe a custom officier wants to build a nixie clock ??....

[Moses]

When in France..

[Audrey]

Karma for the tube destroyers

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[Mike Harrison]

There have been many reported cases of the Ebay shipping program destroying nixies and all sorts of
other tubes because they think they contain mercury, and can't be shipped by air.

Never, ever use Ebay's shipping service for any kind of tube.

[Nick Andrews]

So, so dumb.  Likely not enough mercury in the entire history of nixie production to be concerned about in one package even!  Like the hysterical nonsense of closing down a school because someone broke a fluorescent light bulb or one of those insipid coiled compact flo ones, with what, 1/20th of a drop of mercury in it, maybe?  People are nuts.

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[theold...@gmail.com]

Customs people are dumb people. They hear one story, and simplify it to apply to everything. Take for instance the 866 rectifier tube popular in ham transmitters. It is a mercury rectifier, and it actually contains so much mercury that it visibly beads on the glass when cold. So, it is confirmed, tubes contain mercury. Are there tubes without mercury? Who knows, but I am a diligent government employee, so nothing dangerous gets past me! All tubes are now condemned, and the world is now safe thanks to me. Don’t like it? File a complaint!

 

Wat is even worse, they don’t seem to have a universally used specification book, or if indeed one exists, not all of them seem to have one or where to find it. I usually mark tubes as old radio tubes, and (knock on wood….) have not had a problem to date.

 

Sad, but true.

 

Bill v.

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[Nicholas Stock]

Anybody who's looked recently at the harmonized tariff codes for export will realize that they're about 20 years out of date...... however, I can't blame customs officials for following the letter of the law, they're probably not given any discretion deliberately.

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[Nick Andrews]

Ha!  You should see some of the VA and military base specs we use on projects.  Editing them can be mind-numbing.

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[martin martin]

Nixie siting ! ( and a lot of them too)

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[Charles MacDonald]

On 2023-04-13 15:57, Benoit Tourret wrote:
> I tried to buy some IV-16 in a foreign country, far over the channel.
> here is the message I just received from ebay:
>
> Hello Benoit,
>
> The purchase you recently made under the International Delivery Service
> with xxxxxxxx could not be completed.
>
> The object in question has been restricted. This may be due to import or
> delivery restrictions, or International Delivery Service eligibility
> requirements. The item will not be sent to you, nor will it be returned
> to the seller.

I have heard of this happening before with CRTs sold on e-bay But of
course their is NO way to get a detailed answer from E-bay.

Ebay uses a couple of international shipping services, it used to be
Pitney Bowes, although some items I recently got from the States spent a
week traveling around Chigago before being remails by an outfit called
Ascntia which is apperntly part of SWISS post!

the shipping center receives the goods and shipps them in Bulk to the
destination country where they are cleared in Bulk and then delivered by
one of many Local courier companies. You might see if you can still
see the detailed tracking information to see where the shipment got
derailed, - ikly at the shipping cneter in the UK in this case.

I wonder if the parts were marked "Russia" and so were considered
subject to boycot?

I wonder if the seller got stiffed for the price of the goods and the
shipping to the reship center?

--
Charles MacDonald VA3CPY Stittsville Ontario
cm...@zeusprune.ca Just Beyond the Fringe
No Microsoft Products were used in sending this e-mail.

[Benoit Tourret]

OK, so I know no one will ever have these tubes. The seller changes the name of the tubes, (calling them a 7-segment device, that's perfectly true...) but I can't get them, ebay says it's not allowed to sell in France...
The seller is a little upset and gave it up. I can understand, he lost his property.
can someone from the UK buy me 8 x IV-16 from bluedhelec from Bristol, i pay for the transaction and reshipment to France with a regular carrier... with paypal.

[Benoit Tourret]

It is OK now, I got help, Thanks a lot !!!

[Benoit Tourret]

I just received My Numitron tubes from UK !!!

Special thanks you to mr x on this forum who did not hesitate to put his life in danger, to shelter objects prohibited by the excessive caution of certain large international groups and to take on his leisure time to send me these tubes.