Importing CD's

[NED]

I will be retiring and moving to Bali early next year, and along with my wife and dog :D , I will be bringing approx 400-500 music CD's (a lifelong collection of some rare stuff).

I have heard that this may attract import duty, especially if goods are less than 12 months old. Of course it is hard to prove how long you have had the cd's.

Has anyone had any experience with this issue?

Ned

[JabberWokker]

Hi NED,

If it is going to cost a small fortune or is too awkward to begin with there is an alternative. You could think about storing them onto a CD server e.g. http://www.avland.co.uk/yamaha/cdrhd1500/index.htm I have the earlier model and it is very good but have recently moved over to using WMA lossless on a Media PC with a higher end sound card. Don’t think of this like mp3 because it is not, you are getting the exact duplication and you can store in the original format as well – it can satisfy the most demanding audiophile. No need to get your CDs back out again, it’s the future and is great.

[Ipanema]

I will be retiring and moving to Bali early next year, and along with my wife and dog :D , Ned

Hi Ned,

I see you will be moving to Bali soon with wife and dog. My interest is in the dog. I have two that if I moved to Bali for any lengthy time would want to take them. But if I have to go back to Australia they can't come back into Australia unless you go through this hughe rigmarol in taking them to an approved country for 6 months etc etc.

Just wondering.

Thanks

Tina

[NED]

Thanks Jabberwokker for your suggestion. I have considered this but I guess I'm old-fashioned and prefer to have the tangible aspect of the CD in my hand and on the shelf. A bit like books on a bookshelf!

If the worst comes to the worst I guess I'll just have to pay tax :evil: or maybe slip a few rupiahs to the customs officer.


Tina, our dog is quite old (12), so we won't have the problem of ever bringing him back to Australia, but that is a dilemma for you.

Ned

[Sanurian]

Hi Ned

I can imagine your concerns about bringing 400-500 music CDs into Bali. You may or may not not get hassled to pay duty.
Jabber's suggestion is sound enough (pardon the pun), however those Yamaha devices seem a little pricey to me.

Given that computer hard-disk drives are so cheap these days, I would be inclined to buy a 60-80GB drive and store the music on it. Sure, it will take a fair amount of time to copy all your CDs to it, but in the end you wind up with one hard-disk with the lot. When you're in Bali, you could then re-burn each CD as and when you want to. And when you're finished, you'd still have a good hard-disk drive at your disposal. After all, you've still got at least twelve months to do this. Think about it.
:)

[tintin]

Hi NED,

You seem to be worrying (justifiably so) about how to get through Indo. Customs with your large quantity of CDs, but you do not about your dog. Have rules regarding importing cats or dogs in Bali changed, and is it now OK to import them?

When, some 10 years ago, holding a KMES visa, I was going to move permanently to Bali, my dilemma was my cat. Officially, it was just not possible. So our plan was to have my wife fly from the US, via the European route, with NorthWest Orient and KLM. Both airlines were the only airlines that would accept ”kitty” in the passengers’ cabin (It was out of the question to have the cat traveling “below” for such along flight). The KLM flight stopped in Jakarta and in Surabaya. My wife with the cat would have then disembarked in SUB, where I would have picked them up, and driven back to Bali with no problem. In case the Customs in SUB would have asked questions, like “where are you going to stay with your cat?” we had the address of the son of a colleague of mine, who was living legally at the time in SUB, working for a US company. Of course, our overall plans changed, and we never had to implement this “cat smuggling” scheme.

Regarding the proposed schemes to handle your large quantity of CD through Indonesian Customs, I would agree that using a extra hard drive would be the cheapest and safest way, with the advantage that you would now have a perfect “back-up” of all you favorites. A multi-CD player, proposed by JabberWokker would also probably work, and it’s relatively cheap. My wife recently sold one eBay, a Sony, with a capacity of 200 CDs, for US$30. + $15., shipping.

But your quandary is that you are

old-fashioned and prefer to have the tangible aspect of the CD in my hand and on the shelf. A bit like books on a bookshelf!

, which I understand very well, being the same myself.

[Roy]

Ned, one possibility is to use the services of a customs broker at this end to handle the import of your CD’s. I can highly recommend one company that is very professional in this regard, and that is CAS Cargo. They have a great web site, URL is below. I would not suggest just showing up at the airport with that many CDs. No matter what you claim, the customs officers at the airport are going to assume that just by the sheer number of CDs you are trying to bring in, that business is involved.

You would be far better off to ship these to CAS Cargo in advance of your arrival in Bali and let them handle the customs transaction in their usual professional manner.

Daniel, that was a great scheme you had cooked up for the cat. Very cleaver and fun to read.

http://www.cascargobali.com/

[NED]

Thanks for all your replies and advice.

I will transfer all cds to HD as a backup in case of disasters :cry:

Tintin, no problems importing a dog from Australia to Bali as long as all vaccinations are current and checked by a vet 24 hours prior to travel. I was intrigued that you say 'kitty' could travel in the cabin. I've not heard of this before. I wish we could do the same from Australia. It is only approx 5 hrs from here to Bali, so a lot shorter than for you.

Thanks also yet again to you Roy for your advice and knowledge. I will definately contact CAS Cargo. They look very professional.

Ned

[Sanurian]

One last suggestion, Ned

After you've copied all your music to a HD, I'd take all the original covers/booklets/etc from your CDs and bring them with you...
In the end, you'll have the CDs looking like the originals, on your bookshelf.

Can't help you with the original printed CD labels themselves...unless you scan your favourite ones and re-print them later
(plus stick them on the disks, of course). That's probably more effort than its worth.
:lol:

[mimpimanis]

I shipped a few hundred CDs into Bali, no problem.

They were part of a larger shipment of pretty much all my personal belongings. I descibed everything as used & for personal use.

Duty on the CDs was not an issue but the fact that they should be censored was (even though they were all audio)

A bit ashamed to admit it but one of the rare occasions we paid a bribe. Rp50,000. was enough to let them through.