About 15 yrs. ago, a friend of mine asked me to list an Fisher 1260 metal detector for sale for him, on ebay. Since he didn't have a computer. I helped the guy out, and listed it on my Ebay account for him. And the winning bidder was some dude from Spain !
At first I was skeptical of sending over-seas. But ... since my listing hadn't specified "USA only", I was sort of stuck. So I figured out what over-seas shipping would be (not cheap!) figuring that would scare the buyer away. So I could sell to the next highest bidder here in the USA. But to no avail: The buyer from Spain gladly pre-paid the shipping, full-price, etc...
So I thought, Ok, what the heck, I don't mind shipping to Spain. Then my curiosity got the better of me. Why so hot and bothered to get this particular machine ? And after looking at the Europe laws link, how the heck can they even detect there in Spain, to begin with ? So the following email exchange took place:
buyer: The 1260 is a favorite model of hunters in my circle of friends. And since this model is out of production, and since it's hard to get USA goods here, we have no choice but to buy on the used market, and snatch these up when we see them.
Me: Ok, no problem. But just curious: Can you check this link (linking him to the laws-of-Europe link). How can you even detect anywhere there, in-lieu of this dire sounding material ? And I've even seen a UK md'r, who had just returned from a vacation to Spanish beach resort, get reprimanded when he posted a show & tell of some rings he'd found while there. He was told in no uncertain terms that Spain was a big no-no everywhere. (and this link was shown as proof) So how is it you can detect there ?
buyer: Look close. You'll see that this all applies to public lands and/or historical sites. So it does not apply to private land, which is outside the scope of laws governing the use of public land. So we can hunt on private farmers fields with permission no problem. And .... quite frankly, .... we're so far back in the forests normally, that there's no one around to care, in the first place.
The buyer and I then corresponded for awhile, and he sent me cool pix of the items, coins, etc.... they are accustomed to finding there.