QUOTE(coatsy @ Jun 22 2008, 05:06 PM)
Thanks for clearing that up for me guys
As for duty, I thought i didnt need to pay duty on personal items over a year old? or something *blinks* I'd hate to not be able to get adequate insurance just because i put too low a value on the items?
You don't have to pay any duty at all if the goods have been yours and have been available for your personal use for 1 year. I shipped a lot of books and listed their values roughly. eg 6 @ $7, 5 @ $20 and make guesses to the values. My inventory listed what was in each numbered box. I wasn't going to waste time checking to see what each item had cost me. The inventory is much more useful if any boxes go missing as you need to know the contents of each box to claim on the insurance.
I rounded up values as I went along, firstly to make the addition easier and also to make sure my insurance was a little over just in case. It is important to list boxes separately for insurance because if you don't and only one box is damaged or lost them you will get an average value for the contents. Some of my boxes had very gigh value items and others were of only sentimental value.
A copy of the inventory list is useful to bring with you as well. When my boxes arrived I was able to sort them using the list and know which ones I needed to open to get the things I wanted.