By ex-wife who lives in Spain has all the photographs I took before the world went digital.

She would be happy to send them to me but I’m looking for a reliable/recommended shipping service.

She will only be sending me the negatives so they would quite clearly be “photographic negatives of no commercial value.”

 

I’m wondering if anybody has experience of this?

 

I’m thinking of DHL or similar international courier service.

 

Would it be likely to attract the attention of Thai customs?

If you use a courier and duty is applicable you GUARANTEE it will be applied.

Use one of the various free online sites and check, I dont think negatives as you describe are dutiable, but please check.

 

https://www.simplyduty.com/import-calculator/

My parents sent me all my negs from the UK "International Signed For" (I'm sure Spain has an equivalent) described as "photographic negatives of no commercial value". Sailed through with no issues whatever.

She could get a negative digitiser for not a lot of money and then send them to you online. Depends on how much she still loves you!

Crossy

 

Can you Remember the courier service?

11 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

She could get a negative digitiser for not a lot of money and then send them to you online. Depends on how much she still loves you!

Ha Ha. 

Not very much would be the answer.

That is exactly what I propose to do and I'd rather do it myself since she is not particularly gifted with regard to technology.

3 minutes ago, mrjohn said:

Crossy

Can you Remember the courier service?

 

Sorry I wasn't clear, it's a Royal Mail service like EMS. Spain certainly has an equivalent.

Send via Post Office. Tracked and To be signed for.

 

Sender can give you the tracking number and you can follow it's progress.

Depending on where you are in Thailand, just remember that all deliveries both post and courier are being disrupted because there are no domestic flights. Some minor disruption, some major.

Are you all sure?

I'm a bit wary of using the post office.

 

 

Don't use DHL or any courier. They will collude with customs to demand payments for tax duty agency and anything else they can dream up. And they will rip open your parcel to see if there is anything worth charging for. Just use Post Office track and trace. Very reliable in Thailand. Why not print them off for sending or even better scan the prints and send. If the negatives get damaged in transit you will loose everything

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why not getting the negatives professionally scanned in Spain or Europe and download a file. The should be numerous companies offering that service, and scanning is often better than paper copies.

 

In my European (Scandinavian) home country it costs for example equivalent to $0.66 or €0.55 for each scan delivered in the cloud when total scans are under 500, including adjustments (below image is from one of these companies home page, last two samle says "color adjustment" and "result")...

 

Quite Useless toy negative scanners (I've tried one) are sold on Lazada from about 1,500 baht to 3,000 baht; a working negative scanner costs from around 10,000 and up - 10,000 baht equals the price of 500 professional made scans delivered in the cloud...????