Hello, everyone.

A simple matter: want to buy a present. Category - leather goods. Quantity 3 pcs. Source E-bay. Not for business, not for resale. Tried <http://www.customs.go.th , no sensible concrete info. Seen examples of how all charges are calculated. Basically the cost to me will be tripled. Instead of $500 I will have to fork out about $1,500. Any tips, advice, comments? Thanks:D

It can be a crap shoot as to what Thai customs may charge. From reading other TV posts what the value on the customs slip seems to be a major driver as to whether you get charged a lot or a small amount. Yes, I guess I'm saying if you can get the Ebay seller to put a low price on the customs slip that would improve your changes of not getting hit with high customs charge. And maybe just the best thing to do is to buy the leather goods in Thailand. Good luck.

Not sure if you read my posts then...

Everywhere in the world the customs duties are calculated by the CIF value of the goods and not by its purchase price. As for leather goods, I would need to know a bit more specific what kind of goods those are. Undervaluing an invoice is a customs offense and can lead to high customs fines.

From a customs perspective it doesn't matter whether you import for own use or commercially. Stuff coming into a country is subject to duties.