I recently "imported" a fairly rare Technics Cassette deck from the USA, received yesterday. It's a Technics RS M51, and was the missing piece from a hifi my father used to own.
I have a brother in Michigan, so I bought a mint example on ebay USA for about $60 including domestic shipping, with a view to him posting it on to me in the UK.
It was packed fairly well so my brother took it straight to the UPS depot to post it to me here in the UK. I wanted the cheapest rate possible, and timescales didn't matter.
The BEST price they could do was $118
, this is for uninsured and untracked, ETA around 1 week, and with the possibility of customs charges on top. It arrived 11 days later, in generally good order, but with some dings to the corners of the metal front plate.
The assistant at the depot told my brother since Brexit the cost of shipping to and from the UK has been driven up, possibly due to problems in UK customs.
Thankfully I was at least spared customs fees this time
Having sent things to and from the USA several times in the last 10 years, the price was a lot more than I expected. The package wasn't huge by any means, and was much lighter than you'd expect. The lightest of any Technics components I own. If I'd known the cost I might not have bought it - I wont be doing this again any time soon!
My mother would also regularly send parcels to my brothers family in the USA, but stopped some time ago due to the huge increases in costs and increased lead times. I'm less clear on the reasons for that, but I'd imagine it could due to situations at Customs, and Covid pandemic.
My advice on importing would be unless its something VERY special, dont bother.
Best Wishes
Adam