DUTY in Canada: Shipping Hard Drive

[burnalot]

Hey!

I need to ship a backup copy of all of my university stuff on Hard drive to Canada for safe keeping.
4 TB worth, to be precise.

I was quoted 2,300 B at DHL and 1,400 B at Purolator.

But then someone brought to my attention I might have to pay DUTY on my own hard drive when it arrives in Canada.

Does anyone know HOW they would do this? Estimate a percentage on the value of a 4 year old hard drive, something that was not even actually purchased in Thailand?
Any "tricks" to circumvent paying for something that I already own?!

Cheers,
and thank you in advance for your advice!

[CNXBKKMAN]

How much is the hard drive worth? Not much really. Who would want to buy a scondhand 4 year old hard drive? I would be worried it's had heavy use and is not reliable so I wouldn't even buy it for 500 baht. So for example if you described it as personal goods valued at 500 baht how much tax could you possibly pay on that if the customs decided to apply tax. Very little. 

[TheSiemReaper]

Pay $60 for Amazon's unlimited Cloud Storage program. Transfer all files to the cloud. Access them from anywhere. Forget harddrive. Costs less than posting too. 

[burnalot]

Hey The SiemReaper:

 

Good advice! I have been looking around for cloud storage. Problem is, most companies eventually go belly up due to copyright infringement.

That is not likely to happen to Google. I shall investigate. None of my data is copywritten music, nor movies, so I should be safe. 

 

CNXBKKMAN: Also good advice. I valued the drive at $50.

 

So whatever they charge me at the border, so be it.

I hate this whole system, and I know I might have to somehow prove where all of my music gear was also purchased.

For example a guitar cable: Do they really expect me to produce a receipt for a high quality, reliable guitar cable that has been in 10 different countries with me in the last 15 years?

Good grief.

 

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

 

 

 

[scottiejohn]

Is a 4 year old HDD really a good choice for a back up.  Normally you run the old drive and save the back up to the new drive.