Wacom Intuos 4 M from Ebay or the dollar exchange rate at 120 hryvnia per dollar at customs

Far more than once bought all sorts of things on Ebay, as being in the United States, and in Ukraine already.
In November last year, the question arose about buying a tablet. Interested in 3rd or 4th Intuos 5th format. Analysis of prices in the Ukrainian and Russian markets showed at least 700 ever American for new 4s, how much the three cost, to be honest, I don’t remember. Now the situation has changed for the better, today I saw for $ 615 on Yandex.Market, I didn’t look any cheaper, I just wanted to compare the orders.
We decided that dofiga somehow and looked at Ebay. Within an hour, we found 4k for $ 309 + 60 delivery to us. Delivery type - Priority Mail International Parcels.
So, on November 18, I pay Paypal tablet + shipping, waiting to be sent.

November 22 after the 4th letter to the seller, I get a tracking number. I go to the site usps'a, drive it in and see that the tablet got to them in tenacious little hands 21.11. Yeah, next day shipment , of course ...

The next day, the arrival status appears. Um, okay, wait.
And then silence. Complete and deaf. I called support 5 times, trying to figure out where the tablet was? The only answer that I achieved, it seems, just at the fifth call, was: "It is necessary for the sender to contact our office in order for us to start the investigation."
Sailed. I start thinking that it would be easier to overpay 2 times and buy it here.
I am writing a message to the seller, simultaneously thinking about where he will send me, and something twitched me once again to check the status of the parcel. ABOUT! The case got off the ground:
International Dispatch, December 05, 2009, 10:19 am, ISC LOS ANGELES CA (USPS)

Ok, wait for the fly. In this place you can completely copy the story from the last paragraph, because for a long time nothing changed completely in the same way. 11 days this time passed to the cherished
Arrived Abroad, December 16, 2009, 3:57 pm, UKRAINE
The next week I did not even bother, remembering how much the goods hang at customs. And yes, indeed:
Out of Foreign Customs, December 23, 2009, 5:33 pm, UKRAINE
')
Then he traveled to Kiev for another 5 days (and this was just fast, because at that time in our country there were severe snowfalls and the movement was almost paralyzed). Finally, on the 28th, as if it were a gift for the New Year to the designer, we receive a notification from the post office that the package has arrived. I literally jumped to the ceiling :) But then my ardor cooled the postscript n / p 1058.23 . The bad idea of ​​decoding n / a as a cash on delivery , snug into my head, was, of course, true.
We go to the post office. There we stand in line for half an hour, listening to customers' calls to operators and vice versa, listening to stories about the computer that was stuck once again, which is why we can’t deliver the package, in general, we have fun (I haven’t been to the post office a long time ago).

Our turn comes. We find out that yes, this is a cash on delivery and together with the postage, we have to pay almost 1,200 hryvnia (5,000 rubles at the time, 150 dollars). Allegedly, the amount accrued customs. Please wait, on the website we find the phone of the customs, we call there and after 4 redirects we dial the necessary department. On the other side, the girl finds information about our package and reports that we have exceeded by 7 euros the value of the goods not subject to customs duty (200 euros), as a result we were charged 400+ hryvnia duty and 500+ VAT. Shock There are no other words. Previously, I did not encounter such a problem, because I didn’t buy anything especially expensive with delivery, but here I didn’t even say anything to the sender, being sure that the duty is charged on the difference between the cost of goods and 200 euros, as in Russia (correct me if I am mistaken about Russia).
Mega-impregnation, we still pay the fee and collect the long-awaited device. Finita la comedia.

Final package tracking:

• Delivered Abroad, December 28, 2009, 8:00 pm, UKRAINE
• Out of Foreign Customs, December 23, 2009, 5:33 pm, UKRAINE
• Arrived Abroad, December 16, 2009, 3:57 pm, UKRAINE
• International Dispatch, December 05, 2009, 10:19 am, ISC LOS ANGELES CA (USPS)
• Arrival
• Acceptance, November 21, 2009, 12:16 pm, LOS ANGELES, CA 90038

Total:
$ 309 tablet + $ 60 shipping + $ 150 customs clearance and postage = $ 519.
$ 100 cheaper than now and 200 than at the time of order. Of the minuses a month of waiting and neponyatki with customs. But in the American model there is a mouse)) In European they are not.

Conclusions: be careful when buying, games with Ukrainian customs are expensive.

And yes, still buy abroad, if even with such fees it is cheaper ...