Art,

I think it depends on who you talk with on the subject. The folks at Fish and
Wild Life (F&WL) will quote regulations that have nothing to do with gifts,
value, for scientific study etc. Only over eight shells, is by law,
considered for commercial purposes for any shipment received at any US port
of entry and you need a license or risk losing the entire shipment. In all
case where shells are shipped into the country they are to be inspected to
insure compliance with F&WL regulations. This inspection cost $55 plus $20
for the paper work at all major US ports of entry. It is $95 plus $20 for the
paper work if it is US port that has not been designated a major port.

Now with that all said, it seem that the US postal service is just using
customs and that so far F&WL has been kept out of the picture. As long as
that happens, you should be able to receive shells sent through the mail
without any problems. My concern is that F&WL is trying to force the US
Postal system to comply with their regulations that would apply to shells
being brought into the country by any means. As far as I know there is no
problem yet with sending anything out of the country.

As one F&WL official told me, "We have to make sure that commercial shell
products aren't included and that endangered species are not being shipped."
With that said, they are still charging me a total of $115 on a package that
they never opened (by their own admission) because the invoice had been faxed
to them from the Philippines. An invoice made out by my supplier and never
verified. Tell me there isn't politics involved somewhere here. Hope this
helped.

Best wishes,

Frank