Bargain or will customs hit me?

TVDX

I was loooking at some electronic equipment on a website in the US.
It's a jumbo lot described as a "king size package" with one electronic item and lots of other accessories.
Does anyone know what the customs charge would be if they hit it or if it would even be hit with a value of around 999 dollars?.
Is there any special way to mark it so they won't catch it that I could instruct the seller to do?.
Any experiences with ordering stuff like this from the US and customs?.

citizen_p

tell him to mark it as a gift maybe...

fdevine

With a value of around €/$1000 there is very little chance of you not being done for VAT/duty.

If it was being sent via USPS (regular post) then there would be every chance.

Items more fragile and/or more valuable are generally only sent by courier.

As well as the An Post mail centres, all courier warehouses have their own customs desk. Whereas An Post will check a certain amount (more than likely randomly) the courier company will check everything.

On a $400 small package I have been done for VAT, duty and 'administration fees'.

TVDX

Thanks for both your responses.
I guess I should ask him to secure it well and send it via USPS.
Maybe if I split it into two smaller packages as well??.

fdevine

Worthwhile if they are prepared to split the bundle up.

Also worthwhile if they are prepared to mark the more expensive items as 'REPAIR' or 'TRADE SAMPLE'

Can also help if you can have it sent to a work address. I've never been done using the office for delivery.

slave1

if it gets pulled you'll need to provide the invoice to customs, when bringing in expensive stuff I always order two lots, one the expensive gear and one the cheap stuff, one order did get pulled by customs so I simply sent them the "cheap" invoice and they released my €800 camcorder without any fees:cool:

TVDX

Good stuff there guys, it all helps.