Hi,

I want to buy an HP in the UK and have it shipped to the US (value approx USD 400).

I have previously had a bad experience where a friend sent me a gift and I had to pay duty (not so bad) and a hefty processing fee (very bad).

Can I avoid duty/fees? According to the website below, the maximum limit for a gift is $100:

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/ukcust1.html

Is this enforced? What if it is marked as a purchase?

Can anyone relate their experiences buying HPs overseas?

Thank you

I bought almost 50% of my HP calculators overseas. According to delivery times, quite many of them did see customs. There were stickers on the parcels, so customs has seen them, too. No trouble with any duties so far :-) hope it will go on this way!

However, there are two important points to take into account:

1. the items reached less than half the price you mentioned and
2. my overseas is your home.

It sometimes depends on which side you stand - or as some say: "Everybody is a foreigner - almost everywhere." Sorry this won't help you as expected, but I simply couldn't resist ;-)

Edited: 21 Dec 2006, 4:59 p.m.

I have never had to pay duty on anything purchased overseas (including some $2000 HP9100's).