Post
by peter.coombe » Thu Aug 13, 2020 10:13 pm
I am not sure what you mean by "current thinking on Lacey Act compliance". The bottom line is you need to comply or risk getting the instrument confiscated. The painful part is the bit your US customer has to do, but it is not too onerous and so long as you use woods that have been legally logged you should be fine. I fill out the form for them with all the wood info, and they fill out and lodge the rest of the form. It is well worthwhile to make sure you don't use any shell inlay. If there is any shell then that will involve more pain than the Lacey Act requirements for your US customer.
I have only sent mandolins and mandolas to the USA, and they fit into the max package size of Australia Post. I used to use DHL, but they became ridiculously expensive so now use Aussie Post and so far so good. The last thing I sent to North America (to Canada) was a guitar that was too big for Aussie Post and I used Pack and Send who used DHL. It arrived safely and there were no problems after it left Bega, but I had some problems with pickup from Bega, and had to chase it up several times. That is fairly normal for remote rural areas. You shouldn't have that problem since you are in Canberra, and you might be able to drop it off with them.