Korean Job Discussion Forums

[piestrio]

I'm exploring getting a new laptop soon and I was wondering if I could buy it on-line and have to shipped to a US address and then have someone send it over?

What restrictions/risks are there? What kind of taxes and whatnot would I end up paying?

Thanks!

[shutterbugguy]

Our family of 4 shipped two computers including two large monitors (one 24" and one 28"), and our school helped with the customs paperwork. Ours were genuinely used, and we paid no duty for anything. We also had lots of clothes, teaching supplies, and other personal items (52 boxes in all), with good documentation on all the items. It made me wish I had shipped my other 21" monitor for dual-monitor on my desktop, because it is a Samsung that costs nearly 40% more to buy here, and it is gathering dust in the USA.

But shipping separately may be more subject to scrutiny. We shipped these in July, 2009, as 3 stretch-wrapped palettes, which cost about $1200 air-freight with the help of a local company in our hometown that daily does international shipping (so it was a great price for shipping 3 palettes).

We did have to pay about 100,000 KRW for customs processing at the airport, and about 300,000 KRW for local to the door shipping to Suwon from ICN airport freight. But again, that was for 52 boxes.