[RichardS]

I've had things shipped to Australia from Italy, Germany, UK, Ireland and USA. I've kept it under $AUS1000, which is the trigger point for taxes here, and haven't had to pay anything. I've had UPS shipped stuff from Italy and USA with no problems at all.

[Arpe]

We pay no duty on this sort of stuff, but if the value is over $NZ400, we pay 12.5% tax.

[lithos]

I've kept it under $AUS1000, which is the trigger point for taxes here.

Don't worry. Dymocks, Angus & Robertson, Borders, Harper Collins, Pan MacMillan, Simon & Schuster, Random House, Penguin, et al are working on bringing that down to $20.

You know. To protect their huge markup of imprinted, imported boo- sorry. My mistake. No, it's most definitely not to protect their exorbitantly priced, cheaply imprinted, imported books. Not at all. No, sir.

It's to protect Australia's litera- heh. Ha! Hahahahahaha! I'm sorry, I'll try to...I'll try to say it with a straight face. Ahem. Here we go. Ok? I'm ready.

To protect Australia's literary culture.

There, Lith! That wasn't so hard, was it- oh god, who am I kidding?

Hahahaahahahahahaaa! Bwa-hahahahahahah-ah-ha-haaaaa! Maaaa-hahahahahahahahhahhahaha- oh dear, I think I wet myself.

[Douglas_of_Sweden]

25000 Euros to get scientific equipment into Brazil (from Sweden) for a field campaign in the Amazonas...there was a camera somewhere among the aerosol and turbulence instruments. In addition they sat at the gear for a month or so.

[Cosmo]

BHphoto to England. Pentax FA Limited 77mm f/1.8. 480 pounds. 100 pounds customs.

[jhaji]

How can you trust the USPS, it's run by the government.

I love USPS. I think they are far superior to UPS and FedEx. Priority Mail gets to most locations within the US in 2 days and costs less than UPS ground. USPS Express Mail International is great.

I realize that's not the vein you wrote in, but I couldn't help hijacking it.

But while we are talking about government-run mail service, if I had to nominate a bad apple, it would have to be Royal Mail. Took a 1st Class Mail package more than 5 weeks to get to the UK while another one sent 2 days earlier got there in 7 days. And here is the unkindest cut of them all... it gets to Italy in less than that.

[Actually, I think it was that Damn 17 year old Brit kid trying to wring a freebie out of me. As soon as I emailed Royal Mail and HM Revenue & Customs with the Customs form number, the kid claimed that he got word from the PO that the package was at the PO and he owed 10 quid in duties for a lens that had a declared value of $25. I got responses from both agencies.]