Meanwhile billionaires dont pay shit.

Not that he's not reselling them, but paying a 9% tax for every single item you posses beyond $500 in value every time you cross the border is just absurd. Remind me to never take my laptop, phone, or a decent camera anywhere near Singapore.

All that aside, I thought the idea of customs and import duties was versus new items, not things that can be picked-up at a second-hand store or pawn shop. If he provided itemized receipts, would they even believe him if the prices weren't high-enough? ... or were "too old"?

That value is aftermarket resale. The cost of the cards is about 3.50, this seems bullshit, unless they guy had them insured.

Who determined that value?

To be fair, I wouldn't have thought to declare Pokemon cards either... But OTOH, if he was carrying $30K in CASH...

Singapore doesn't fuck around, which my cousin found out the hard way when he had to leave Australia after a year of travelling/working and he just took the cheapest flight (pretty much the only one he could afford) out of the country, which went to Singapore. Of course he had no clue about Singapore and when he arrived without a visum, they took him into custody and interrogated him for over 12 hours. After they put him on a plane home (in Europe). In the end he rode the cheapest flight out of Australia all the way home, so that did work out for him.

It’s cardboard. It has the value of hard paper.

Edit: oh I see some graded ones in there