Thinking of ordering something off ebay from Japan. Guy uses DHL. I'm up country about 50ks from main city. Wud it be likely they deliver to door? I don't mind driving 50ks to big city to pick up if they have a depot but don't want to go to Bkk. It's a guitar 2nd hand. Wud it likely get held up in customs or do I pay duty if marked a gift?

They will deliver to you but be aware you will likely get stung on "charges". DHL are well known for their crazy "charges".

DHL are expensive, but reliable. and efficient. Max 4 days from NZ to Phuket.

You will be in for a big surprise when you get the notification for the charges. If you order by DHL or any other courier and you live up county no problem regarding location and delivery, problem is when the item lands at Bangkok it will be checked by customs and then they will send you a notification of the charges. Best to have a word with a shipping agent and then decide how to proceed.

You can have the sender write gift, no commercial valve, but this will make no difference to the charges.

I am talking from experience as I learned the hard way.

DHL has always tried to charge me an extra fee of about $45 or 1300 THB approx for "quarantine" or customs fees. In Australia all parcels that go through quarantine will have a sticker or notification from them on it and I called DHL to notify them of their "mistake" and without admitting anything they just said that they'd "waive the fee." Happened every time. I figure that they get away with this at the bigger businesses where a receptionist just signs and gives the cheque. They must be making a mint of all the extra fees.

Over here I just don't use DHL since I don't feel like dealing with the hassle over the phone here and in a language that is not my native tongue too. To be fair FedEX tries to add fees here for me in Thailand too but never in Australia.

You will be in for a big surprise when you get the notification for the charges. If you order by DHL or any other courier and you live up county no problem regarding location and delivery, problem is when the item lands at Bangkok it will be checked by customs and then they will send you a notification of the charges. Best to have a word with a shipping agent and then decide how to proceed.

You can have the sender write gift, no commercial valve, but this will make no difference to the charges.

I am talking from experience as I learned the hard way.

The item is around $500 US and is so much cheaper than buying here I am prepared to pay (but would rather not of course)

20-30% duty if nesecary. Is it likely to be worse than that?

You will be in for a big surprise when you get the notification for the charges. If you order by DHL or any other courier and you live up county no problem regarding location and delivery, problem is when the item lands at Bangkok it will be checked by customs and then they will send you a notification of the charges. Best to have a word with a shipping agent and then decide how to proceed.

You can have the sender write gift, no commercial valve, but this will make no difference to the charges.

I am talking from experience as I learned the hard way.

The item is around $500 US and is so much cheaper than buying here I am prepared to pay (but would rather not of course)

20-30% duty if nesecary. Is it likely to be worse than that?

I collect vintage diver watches and purchase a few from the Jap Yahoo site, I use an agent in Japan to obtain the watch on my behalf. They make the purchase and the item is sent to them, I then give instructions what cost I wish on the customs declaration and have it sent by EMS.

When the item arrives in Thailand EMS goes to a different sorting section, and they seem to pick items at random on what they scan and what is stated on the customs declaration. If you have them write used guitar value $125 you will have to pay some duty but its better to give them something to keep them happy. If you write the value as $20 they will hit the duty as they see fit.

There is a big difference when dealing with Courier customs and EMS customs. EMS has full tracking and if you get hit with some duty you pay that amount at your local post office and collect your item. If its courier customs the item will not move from Bangkok till all has been sorted, they also charge you for storage per day.