Duty free or not?

you may request sender to declare it as gift to avoid custom charges.

Thanks for all the answers.I went to Bax Global and did a quote request. they list shipping fees and service charges seperatly and total charges. I assume that there are no hidden charges. Thanks again Gary

I at one point, a couple of years ago, purchased something, can't remember what it was, from an individual in Germany. He shipped the item to me via Fed-Ex, Fed-Ex sent me an import duty bill for something like $30.

I once bought speakers from a individual in Singapore. Cost $1350. Import tax or what ever they want to call it ran $74 and I was billed directly from DHL. S.O.B.s charged a $5 fee to collect the tax!

This might vary from country to courtry though.

Yes you have to pay coming into the USA also. It is not a great deal of money. I think it is about $18-20 for around $700 worth of gear. You pay the shipping company, then I am not sure what they do with it, I assume it goes to the gov't.

Sometimes I have been charged a brokerage fee by UPS, sometimes not. I have never paid the fee and they have never come looking.

There are always customs or brokerage fees; I have not paid any duty on electronics(don't think there is any) but here in Canada, we do have to pay taxes on the purchase. Taxes are usually based on the insured value, but being in the States, you may not have to. This should be easy to find online; just to a google search and have a look...
Sorry I'm not much help.