What's to prevent me from having a relative send me a new computer from the States?

your tags had all your answers. make sure to get insurance and to declare the contents and price. You might want to look into what the tax burden will be.

Also, not sure what the support contract looks like. In NZ, there may be gov’t mandates on the warantee that apple needs to provide. Stateside, you get a whopping 90 days warantee unless you pay another 300 bucks to extend it to 2 years.. you may have your legislators to thank for requiring that.

In short: when you factor in shipping, shipping insurance, tarrifs and warantee (check with your local laws) and also the fact that a us bought machine may not have a warantee down there… will you really be saving enough to make it worth your while?

edit:more personable

i love the usa (and i dont live there) more than anyone i know. they get the MOST CHOICES, the most stores and the cheapest EVERYTHING all the time. and they dont even appreciate it most of the time. even their postage is cheapest. and they have TARGET. sigh.

however yes the THREE biggies i think of right away:

ITEM ONE
import taxes for you (in canada we are taxed on ANY ITEM that costs more than $20 as merchandise or $60 as a gift. yes i live in the third world)

ITEM TWO
ho is to say it wont break or malfunction during MORE shipping. and i doubt a warranty would cover it as a lot of documents say NOT EXPORTABLE OUTSIDE USA etc

ITEM THREE
yes your local mac place will likely NOT support a warranty etc for a product that is NOT allowed to be exported

to determine whether import duty is applicable to imported goods, Customs considers the following:
http://www.customs.govt.nz/importers/Commercial+Importers/Duties+and+Levies.htm

RE: Warranty. You could get your relative to purchase AppleCare which works internationally (I’ve used successfully it in a few places very far from home). They don’t verify who bought it, just that the machine is registered under AppleCare. Its worth the price.

My wife had the (brilliant, I thought) idea of having her mother bring it over when she comes to visit (claiming it’s her personal machine, if asked). That plus the international AppleCare and I should save myself $700+ USD. Thanks, everyone!

Sweet! enjoy the new computer.

Are the electrical requirements the same down under?
Here in the “States” were on 60 cycles…
Europe is different…
Not sure about Kiwi-land…
Ka pai

Wall sockets are 240 volts here (as opposed to 120 in the States), but Apple had the foresight to make their power adapters adaptive to the differences. So, you just snap on a different plug and it works like a charm!