Importing from Canada -> US, duties?

[elray]

When buying a Thinkpad ($300) from an Ebay seller in Canada, sent via "Canadian International Parcel Surface", should I expect any taxes, duties, or shenanigans with customs?

[ajkula66]

Not in my experience.

Obviously, YMMV.

[TuuS]

Any such devices imported for personal use, not for resale should be free of any fees. Some states do require you pay a sales tax, but reporting it is usually voluntary, meaning you're required to pay, but there is no mechnism in place to collect it so it's a sort of "honor system". Frankly, I've never heard of people actually paying under these circumstances and since my state has no sales tax at all, it wouldn't apply it me.

I do believe there is a value limit on free imports though, I don't recall what that limit is, but it's more then you'd typically pay for any computer, but not enough to cover a new automobile (for example). You can check the us customs website for more details, I have looked it up in the past when I was importing thinkpads from china and shipping them back to china for a software company because I could buy them for about half what they cost in china. It didn't cost me anything to import them and they averaged about $1500 each.