Advice on selling electronics in BA

[DontMindMe]

Would love to hear from some of you who have done this. I ran a search but didn't get a lot of details. In the last peanut butter thread, steveinbsas recommended selling things on this site and not on Mercado Libre. AlfajorEfi wrote that bringing back a Wii or PS3 would be a good bet because even if I get "caught" I won't have to pay taxes. Here is the link:

http://baexpats.org/expat-life/17987-peanut-butter-prices-probably-going-rise-3.html (see pages 2 and 3)

So my questions are:

1. Which items would be the most profitable to bring back, and how much should I charge? Are there certain items that get taxed while others don't? I am prepared to spend around U.S. $500-700 if I can be close to 100% sure I will be able to sell the item(s) and make a decent amount of money. I'm thinking an iPad and an iPod. One poster (Joe something, was it?) had listed things on this site for 10% less than the listed price on Mercado Libre. Is this standard?

2. How should I bring the items with me? Obviously if I have an iPad I will be carrying it on the plane. But do I have to take it out of the box or otherwise make it look used to avoid paying taxes? The plan is to pretend everything is mine, so what's the best way to do this? I'm already bringing back an AC adaptor and a digital recorder for my boyfriend, but leaving my laptop and iPod at home in the U.S. So while I won't have a ton of electronics I will have four or five new items, depending on what I buy. Will someone still buy something from me even if the box is open, etc? I of course plan to keep the purchase receipt, but should I also take photos of the unopened item?

Any advice at all is very much appreciated, so thanks in advance! I come back next week and need to get going on this if I'm going to do it.

 

[kre8ivelyXposed]

I would only buy things to bring back for resale if you have people already lined up NOW who you know will purchase the items from you. You can not just blindly sell on Mercado Libre without having a "seller's reputation" really. Most people buying on Mercado Libre are looking for sellers who have a good reputation. Occassional sellers have less luck.

If you arrive into Ezeiza airport and your bag on the scanner (all bags are scanned) obviously has more than one laptop, one camera and one or two cell phones, you will likely be stopped and searched. If you have anything in the box they will definitely tax you. Boxes indicate "resale" and that is what customs is looking for along with quantity. You will not have good luck selling anything without the box. If you have four or five new items as you indicate and they are in a box and without concrete buyers lined up, you will very likely have trouble getting past customs and/or reselling the items. While customs is a bit more lenient with foreign passport holders, they are not stupid.

 

[DontMindMe]

Thanks! I should have specified that I would be using my boyfriend's Mercado Libre account. He's sold amps and a guitar before, and has bought things on the site as well, so I don't think that would be a problem.

I won't have duplicates of any items in my carry on, because I'm leaving my personal electronics in the U.S. since I'll be back there next year. So my only personal electronics item will be the little basic Nokia cell phone I've had for two years.

For my boyfriend's two items (they're small) I guess I'll take them out of the boxes and put stickers on them or something to make them look used. Let's say I cut the other stuff down to one item--an iPad--and leave it in the box. Since I don't have anything else, could they really claim that I am trying to resell it and tax me? Even if it's the only electronics item I have on me that is in the computer family? I'm young and a permatourist and could say it's a gift or something. I fear I am overthinking this...

 

[AlfajorEfi]

Some ideas:
One WII or PS3
one ipad or iphone
A good camera like NIkon DSLR D3000

Anything that is easy to sell for double what you pay is good. Anything popular, that is easy to pack, except for game consule you shpuld unpack and have the box seperately.
I have brought back many things and kept or sold them.
Anything from nespresso machines to WII video camera and lat week my husband brought 3 iphone 4s from europe, all in his pocket.
Never had a problem. My husband buys stuff every month.

 

[zingara]

Shouldn't this OP's thread be titled HOW to SMUGGLE?

 

[AlfajorEfi]

Shouldn't this OP's thread be titled HOW to SMUGGLE?

How? No
What? Yes

 

[DontMindMe]

What to smuggle, how to smuggle it--You say tomato, I say I'll take both types of advice, thanks.

 

[bebero]

i love how he's asking how to do something illegal and no one cares.

 

[elhombresinnombre]

i love how he's asking how to do something illegal and no one cares.

I tried caring, once, but nobody seemed that interested.http://baexpats.org/expat-life/15258-mule-pool.html

 

[tom borland]

what worked for me in getting stuff through, is I had people set up ahead of time who would buy ipods, an ipad, etc. I came through with 3 ipods, but preloaded some music on each one. I also kept my jacket on and had everything in the pockets of my jacket when I walked through customs. They never seem to ask you to take it off and run it through the xray with your bags