Hi folks,
I'm looking to bring a new board into the country and have the option of having it delivered to my door, or to the nearest airport (Sydney) which would leave me to arrange customs clearance myself.
The latter option is a fair bit cheaper upfront (around $300), but I'm not sure what the clearance costs might add up to.
Is it expensive and/or a pain in the arse? Or is it just a matter of driving up, paying a small fee, signing something to say its not drugs, and away I go?
My experience on a personal and business level is to leave it to the pros. Customs tend to be even more diligent when someone is clearing goods through customs themselves rather than through a broker.
However $300 is a lot of moula and I would call customs and ask what is involved.
From past efforts it has taken me a good half day by the time you drive there fill in the forms, wait in a queue to be served and answer the 10 dozen questions they have. I did it many years ago and I can only guess it will be more complex now than then. You will need to find out the classification/entry number for windsurfer boards.(may be the same as surfboards)
There will be entry fees and may be customs duty to pay.
Check out Australian Customs on the web - they may have a few useful tips.
cost me $175.0 to have a board cleared through a freight forwarder(under instructions from customs as to how it was done) and then over to customs quarantine to be told to fork out $160.0 so they could have a look at it,however they waived this fee and said it wasnt necessary as the board had been checked on arrival.wasted half a day going here and there, so do your homework on the fees so you know how the system works cause i dont think they do!You pay duty on goods over $1000.
i got a carbonart pickup from airport it was a nightmare going through customs it ended up costing $150 just to get it from the plane to the freight holding bay then $150 for a s,a,c clearance i should have taken the door to door 
I would check at what value you start to pay duty.
I believe it is more than $1000 as previously stated by gunna.
I imported some goods last year and it was greater than $1000 before I had to pay.
AU customs value anything above $1000 AUD as high value and therefore will incur duty of 5% (typically) and then GST on COG and the cost of shipping. Get an agent to sort it out for you. Much less stress and then it just arrives.
Yo Qwerts give me a PM as I might be able to help you out with the customs issues for your new quatro
Kev
Just brough two longboards into the country.
The boards cost in total 500 US and the freight was 550 US. Even though the board were duds, i had no problems with customs, any larger freight company will take care of customs clearence and a SAC form as long as the value is less then 1000AUD, you can always get the peple at the other side to change the invoiuce value.
