V-Flyer

After reading that i can bring in upto £390 worth of goods before i pay duty i was wondering how do customs know you have items worth more than this, or is it a matter of they randomly pick a bag to search ?

Im wanting to pick up an iPad while im out in Florida but this will take me close to the limit and im sure there will be other things i want to buy, t-shirts, shorts and maybe a pair of trainers. Would i be riding my luck if i didn't declare this when coming back through Manchester ?

I would recommend removing the packaging, charging the device and registering it with your iTunes. I'm guessing you will want to be using it for the flight home if your stuck with Odyessy or Nova

There are two ways to reply to this:

1. Customs won't look at you, don't worry one iota.
2. If you are worrying don't forget that clothes don't attract duty (although adult shoes do I believe). Just aim for below or close to and you'll be OK even if by the chance of a lightning strike you do get stopped!

Lastly, just register sync it before you fly (you can do this to the iTunes UK store even abroad), personalize it a bit, dump all the packaging etc.

I bought one in new York last December and as others have suggested I just registered it and took it out of packaging prior to coming home, should they stop you at customs, they've no way of proving it is new and that it wasn't yours already, just make sure you don't have the receipt in your wallet, apple will email your receipt to you so you can just dispose of the paper copy!!!

But the chances of customs even stopping you, slim too none!

I'm ashamed of the lot of you, depriving that nice Mr Osborne of much needed revenue. I can just picture him now, sitting at No.11, heating a tin of beans over a candle for his supper, and with barely 2 pennies to rub together...

Not as if I'd do anything like that

Thanks for the fast response everyone. Im not flying till September but is it still a game of turn up at the apple sotre before it opens to "hopefully" pick one up ? Or has this slacked off more now ?

That doesn't happen now.. But by then the iPad 3 will be out... But even then imagine it'll have been out for awhile so should be ok!

ratechaser wrote:I'm ashamed of the lot of you, depriving that nice Mr Osborne of much needed revenue. I can just picture him now, sitting at No.11, heating a tin of beans over a candle for his supper, and with barely 2 pennies to rub together...

Oh really, that t**t (as the usually winsome and delecticious Lady Honey of the Lamb might say)! Bet you he would try to catch you too .

slinky09 wrote:There are two ways to reply to this:

1. Customs won't look at you, don't worry one iota.
2. If you are worrying don't forget that clothes don't attract duty (although adult shoes do I believe). Just aim for below or close to and you'll be OK even if by the chance of a lightning strike you do get stopped!

Clothes don't attract duty? Is that right, I always assumed everything did! Happy to be wrong though

Never catch me doing anything like this

slinky09 wrote:

ratechaser wrote:I'm ashamed of the lot of you, depriving that nice Mr Osborne of much needed revenue. I can just picture him now, sitting at No.11, heating a tin of beans over a candle for his supper, and with barely 2 pennies to rub together...

Oh really, that t**t (as the usually winsome and delecticious Lady Honey of the Lamb might say)! Bet you he would try to catch you too .

He catches me every month... I have the pay slips to prove it...

Perhaps Madam Lamb needs to wash her mouth out in the sheep dip. The single malt variant of course...

catsilversword wrote:

slinky09 wrote:There are two ways to reply to this:

1. Customs won't look at you, don't worry one iota.
2. If you are worrying don't forget that clothes don't attract duty (although adult shoes do I believe). Just aim for below or close to and you'll be OK even if by the chance of a lightning strike you do get stopped!

Clothes don't attract duty? Is that right, I always assumed everything did! Happy to be wrong though

Don't confuse customs duty with VAT

There is a wealth of info on the HMRC website including duty free limits and customs andf excise which I really CBAs to link too.

US 16GB Ipad $499

Say £321 plus sales tax - depends on the US State.

UK refurbished Ipad 16GB £339.

I think I would buy in the UK and have it on the flight out.

Personally would much prefer a new and non refurbished iPad, also I believe the OP isn't going until September time, IPad 3 will be out at what prices we don't yet know and I would imagine there will not be any refurbished examples to be had at that time

Im not after the iPad 3 as i think it would blow out my budget and im happy getting the 2nd one. Refurb ? No thankyou.

If the rumours of a March 7th launch are correct, and the Apple rumour machine usually are on dates, if not product, by the time September comes I doubt you'll see many iPad 2's in stock.

If that's the case then how much do we expect an ipad 3 to cost based on ipad 2 when it first came out ?

Afaik there has been no reduction in cost at all from release to now on iPad 2

The iPad 64GB WiFi was £599 on release, the iPad2 is £559 for the same GB ... Will iPad3 be less? Who knows!

Have to say I heard the rumour that the iPad 3 was gonnabe quite different from the 2 and that it wasn't going to be a replacement but more of an upgrade, so that the 2 & 3 will be sold alongside each other with the 2 holding its current cost and the 3 being more expensive, but as ever until it announced officially it's just a rumour of which there's plenty!!

Trevski220 wrote:Have to say I heard the rumour that the iPad 3 was gonnabe quite different from the 2 and that it wasn't going to be a replacement but more of an upgrade, so that the 2 & 3 will be sold alongside each other with the 2 holding its current cost and the 3 being more expensive, but as ever until it announced officially it's just a rumour of which there's plenty!!

All the leaks show it pretty much the same size, slight differences, retina display, bigger cameras, more powerful processers ... I think the rumours of a big and little iPad are more likely.

There's always a rumour fest when it comes to anything "Apple". One minute, it's rumoured to be called the ipad 2s, then the ipad 3. The Launch day was rumoured to be coinciding with the late Steve Job's Birthday, which i believe is today, etc, etc.

Sharp have been given the contract for the new High-res screens, which are believed to be giving the new ipad 3 a little more bulk, but again, this is only rumours.

Back to the original question- as long as you don't take the mickey bliss, and bring back loads of stuff, it shouldn't really be an issue. I've been flying Man-Mco pretty much every year, sometimes twice per year since 1992, and i've been stopped a grand total of zero times. There's always a 1st i know, but i doubt the bucket and spade brigade will attract that much scrutiny.