Bring My Hi-End Loudspeakers From Home

[GreenSnapper]

At my home country, I have some nice Italian made hi-end speakers. Originally I paid around 3000€ for a pair. They are about 10 years old and have a few scratches.

They are not so big and fit into a single box of approx. 20 kg.

So I thought I might just bring them with me when I travel home next time. Would fit into my accompanied luggage, travelling business class.

But I worry about customs rip-off at Suvannaphum. Yes, I may be lucky and they would not care. But if they look up the (new) value, they might charge customs/VAT on it?

What do you guys think? Better leave them at home and buy some stuff here locally?

[astral]

Other will no doubt comment on the duty side,

but I would be worried about the baggage handling causing damage..............

[stgrhe]

I brought my Velodyne DD10 sub-woofer in a large suitcase without any problem. This unit is quite heavy and has a built-in PWM-amplifier. I also brought in my multi-player, Denon A-11, also a fairly heavy beast originally purchased in Singapore years ago.

[rak sa_ngop]

I just succesfully brought in my 10 year-old Yamaha amplifier which weighed 12kg net and 15 kg after packing into a suitcase with lots of padding (blankets etc).

I think you have a 1 in 10 chance or better of being stopped, and even then they tend to only random check 1 bag/suitcase.

Obviously it's best not to leave the equipment in an original supplier box, but then you have to risk some damage. Yesterday when I arrived from London, the luggage was offloaded so quickly that few people had passed through immigration (even with short queues) to grab their bags. The luggage beltway was so full of bags that new bags dropping from the chute were being forceably 'ground' into the existing bags.

Interesting to watch when it's not your bags!

[craigt3365]

I've brought quite a bit of stereo stuff and PC stuff lately. Brought in a high end speaker selector with impedance matching. Around $250 in the US. Also had in the same gaggle of suitcases a bunch of PC stuff. Everything was xrayed. The agent asked what I had in the bag. Wifey said stereo. He said, OH...OK, continue on. We had 6 suitcases full of stuff...nothing in original boxes.

[snarky66]

Agree with the above. Do carry them as checked baggage. Meantime have a shop make up an invoice for used speakers at $800 or $1000, something low but not too low. The items will attract a duty of 30% and VAT 7% in the unlikely event they stop you & ask you to open the bag.