Customs rarely fall for the it's a gift option it is fraudulent most of the time, around 95% of chinese ebayers automatically tick that box. Even when genuine it is a battle that mostly you will lose.

With huge numbers of parcels coming into the country customs can't inspect every parcel so sometimes a higher value item might slip through.

For Ireland photography equipment under 150 euro including postage doesn't attract duty, however it is liable for VAT and if that needs collecting there is a 15 euro fee for collecting it.

Free postage can be a problem if the postage cost is not mentioned on the invoice, the shipping cost gets made up and that can be a significant figure and added to your bill.

If you buy from an American company make sure they have postage costs as a separate line item. They might sell you a guitar for $900 and free shipping to the UK but they still pay for shipping it might be $50 but if it doesnt say $850 for the guitar and $50 for the shipping. You could be required to pay duty for a $900 for the guitar plus an estimated shipping cost of $100 or more

In Ireland 22 euro is the magic number for ordering from outside europe. Below 22 euro the vat gets waived as being uneconomic to collect.

Getting 10 packets from the same chinese company in the same shipping container is liable to be noticed and get taxed. Even worse the previous shipments that were not picked up on may be noticed as well.

Incidentally when a small packet gets shipped from china it goes in a shipping container along with 1000's of other packets and the cost is shared across all those packets. When it gets to Port it is delivered free by the local postal service, it is a reciprocal arrangement between postal services and the difference gets paid out at some point. Which is why it can be cheaper to buy from china than drive to the shops.

For Europeans there is no VAT between European countries as tax is paid in the country of origin, for second hand goods between private sellers that is no tax. The channel islands are outside europe for tax purposes but ideal for ordering DVD's and CD's since they are low value items and the shipping is cheap / free and shipping times are fast (overnight to the UK and then onward with the royal mail).

which is why if you buy from tesco's online they tend to ship from Guernsey.

Anyway more to the point for a European buying from an American seller has to be an absolute bargain because after import duty and Vat you may well be better off buying within Europe.

One last tip if you buy through Amazon check the other European Amazon websites you can often find the same seller same item at a much better price. Get the google translate plugin for chrome if you don't speak the language, sometimes Amazon will translate too.

For me it is better to buy from a EuroZone country and not get hit for exchange rates. My Bank charges 1.75% to deal in sterling 0% for euro's and Amazon and Paypal tend to exchange currency at a slightly worse rate.

Britain being outside the eurozone makes me less likely to buy from there plus the postage costs tend to be high. Buying from Germany is generally good, deutche post is cheaper to Ireland than Royal Mail from the UK to Ireland (usually goods from Germany tend to go to the UK then on to Ireland). If the UK was to exit Europe it will only get more expensive to buy across borders it already costs us both more to trade with UK using sterling and a fluctuating exchange rate.