hi, i have a question for canadian collectors, is it legal to ship handcuffs from canada to countries that allow legal ownership of them?. i have a few pairs that i want to list on ebay, but i am not sure if i need some form of license to send them to countries other than canada/united states. does anyone have experiance with this?. thanks, chris.

I have sent cuffs and leg irons all over the world and never had any problems..i know the US thought up a new law but we dont have this in canada..but if you send me some pics of what you have i might be intrested in buying what you have...

read your ebay user/seller agreement..

it is the sellers responsibility to know all laws and regulations with
regard to export.

a good example in todays news.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351922,00.html

This story could just as easily be a ebay seller mailing a pair of handcuffs to
an international destination only later to find themselves being exported to some
foreign jail because they violated an international law or UN treaty...

it's your call.

You can't be serious. There is no way a foreign government can touch a US citizen on US soil for sending handcuffs to their country. The US law has no criminal penalty. It is a civil violation, which means a fine and no jail time.

After 23 years of collecting i have had no problems ....but if i decide to export rifle shells i will take your advice......

thanks guys, (n gals?), for the info so far, my thoughts on the subject mirror yours, but what im really asking for is whether anyone, ie canadian, knows for sure if there are any export restrictions on this type of collectable, i have phoned the canadian customs people, (press one for english!), and a very nice man tells me their phone system has been having technical "issues", please go to website...tried this but i cant find a definite answer to my question on there anywhere....i was hoping for a list of "banned" items or something....maybe mr santini would know, (im not being sarcastic, i respect his opinion, please dont use this as another excuse for a pointless, he said, she said, session!)....thanks again, chris.

it is a good thing that you are respecting santinis opinion and not his knowledge. now that is my opinion

People have been selling and exporting handcuffs from Canada to the USA and other destinations for years with no problems re: the law.

Canadian Ebay sellers, antique dealers, and even companies here in this country that sell law enforcement equipment.

You should encounter no problems at all.

Steve Santini

Chris,

To relax you further on this matter, I just shipped a very large crate containing over 60 handcuffs, leg irons, other diverse restraints, and Medieval instruments of torture and punishment to a large museum that is soon to open in the USA.

To avoid any of the usual grabage that gets slung by the "no names" that lurk here I will refrain from mentioning this museum by name at this time.

In order to ship this crate I had to of course fill out all of the brokerage documents, descriptions for the Dept. of Homeland Security (including countries of origin and manufacture for each and every item in the crate), and customs documents.

It may interest you to know that this crate, which was very large and in the end weighed over 350 lbs made it to it's destination without any "red flags" or trouble at all.

It may also interest you to know that this crate also contained a number of authentic torture devices and also a few antique edged weapons.

The reason this was permitted and all went through with no trouble at all is that all required paperwork was filled out and the proper channels were followed.

The only slightly more complicated issue that was observed and addressed by myself was that some of the fabric restraints in the crate needed to have more detailed paperwork due to export/import laws governing textiles and the countries in which said items were manufactured.

Aside from this requirement the only other thing of import seemed to be whether any of the items were made in, or had origin in, countries that are currently not in good standing with the USA.

That being said, as you are probably not shipping a 350 lb crate filled with restraints and as it is not likely that any cuffs you are selling were made in Iraq or North Korea you should be more than fine.

Good luck with your auctions.

Steve Santini

thank you steve, you have been dealing in this field longer than i, (and longer than the no names, im sure), i have posted restraints to europe before, (to one famous author/collector in particular), without any snags, i was just put on edge with a comment from an ebay member. by no means are any of my cuffs that i have for sale old or unusual, maybe more unusual in europe because of the draconian US export laws, so i thought i would "cast my net" a bit wider and hopefully help out a european collector or two!. thanks again for the information, chris.

You are welcome Chris.

The thing with what many people say on Ebay and in other places is that it must be taken with a grain of salt.

People hear one person say something and they take it as gospel without checking things out on thier own and they tell someone else and they too believe what is said, and so on.

Happens all the time and all over the place.

Unless anyone has firsthand experience anything offered as a "proven" formula can be suspect.

Glad to have been of help.

Steve Santini