Bringing Iphone 4S Into Thailand

[wcw]

I am able to get unlocked iPhone 4S devices for a good price, I was wondering would it be feasible or legal to bring lets say 10 of them with me on my next trip and sell them to a vendor at MBK or similar? Or do you know if this would be an issue with the customs people?

[Shurup]

Apple stores in Canada sell unlocked iPhones 4S and the out the door price incl tax is about $710 (about 21.500 THB) for a 16 GB version. In Thailand they sold at 28,000 baht (however I checked at one store only). Some profit surely can be made IF you can bring them in, check with the vendors first and see how much they are willing to pay buying bulk from you.

However I almost guarrantee you will have problems with customs bringing that many phones into the country. Declaring - big tax more than likely, little or no profit for you - more than likely. Not declaring - big troubles if they decided to check you and they were sending quite a few people through the X-Ray at the green channel the last time I arrived (end of November).

[raro]

//moved to the Apple forum.

[hughden]

The 16GB iPhone is 20,900 baht from the Thailand Apple store, and a few hundred baht more from the phone companies such as DTAC and AIS.

[bubba]

Of course it would be an issue with Thai Customs - you are importing a product of significant value and you have to declare them. Your personal duty-free exemption is 10,000 baht. If you don't declare ten iPhones with a value of greater than 200,000 baht and they are discovered in your baggage, have a quick guess what will happen to you and your iPhones. Also, I recall that Thailand have some sort of arcane communications laws that require certification of imported mobile phones, so even if you declare them and agree to pay the tax, you may not be able to bring them in.

[ha55ha]

lol, you'd get charged a lot at customs if they noticed you had 10 un-opened iPhone 4s's

[ha55ha]

Apple stores in Canada sell unlocked iPhones 4S and the out the door price incl tax is about $710 (about 21.500 THB) for a 16 GB version. In Thailand they sold at 28,000 baht (however I checked at one store only). Some profit surely can be made IF you can bring them in, check with the vendors first and see how much they are willing to pay buying bulk from you.

However I almost guarrantee you will have problems with customs bringing that many phones into the country. Declaring - big tax more than likely, little or no profit for you - more than likely. Not declaring - big troubles if they decided to check you and they were sending quite a few people through the X-Ray at the green channel the last time I arrived (end of November).

28k baht was the un-official price the shopping malls phone stalls were selling at. As hughden pointed out apple/truemove/dtac etc are now selling the 16gig model at around 21k, which is cheaper than most countries.

Edited December 27, 2011 by ha55ha

[bubba]

lol, you'd get charged a lot at customs if they noticed you had 10 un-opened iPhone 4s's

Yes, and if you went through the green line and didn't declare them, it's referred to as "smuggling" and you would probably lose the lot as well. That would be the case in any country, not just Thailand.

[watcharacters]

The 16GB iPhone is 20,900 baht from the Thailand Apple store, and a few hundred baht more from the phone companies such as DTAC and AIS.

DTAC wanted BT. 22,450 today for the 16BG