purchasing a guitar in the USA (I'm in Canada)

[Olin]

I also did this pretty early in the morning on a Tuesday, which may very well have had an effect on the mood of the border officer.

Sounds like he made the mistake of being too honest and actually telling them what he was doing instead of lying about getting American snacks.

[D.o.S.]

This was like 15 years ago but basically I think he said he came over for band practice (they checked his gear heading in) and then he came back without the cab and they got suspicious.

[retinal orbita]

I think it really comes down to the particular agent you get. Some might be busy looking at their cop Instagram feed while others might be really rigorous, or even just having a bad day and decide to give you a hard time.

Bongzilla crossed back into the US, smoked all their dope like 1 km from the border and the guard was like “boys! Do it early enough you can let the van air out next time!!” - I recall they even got a picture with the border guard.

[retinal orbita]

Fun fact: I bought a cab from a dude in Canada (as in he came across the border with it, sold it, and drove back, since the midpoint between us was somewhere in the states) and he got grilled massively when he came back, pulled into a room with border patrol and everything. They called me and got all huffy about what we had just done.

[popvulture]

I'd imagine you could just have it in your car as mentioned above and just take all the wrappings etc off... plus you could also say you were taking it to a tech for some repairs, maybe? Not sure how they could really prove that you didn't own it before crossing into the US.

[popvulture]

Also since you've been talking about this forever , I'm really curious about what you're buying!

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

I think it really comes down to the particular agent you get. Some might be busy looking at their cop Instagram feed while others might be really rigorous, or even just having a bad day and decide to give you a hard time.

Yeah, this. From pretty much everything I've heard about various border scenarios, the border guard's mood is the biggest thing. A lot of the time they seem inclined to just wave you though — though it seems they randomly mess with/shake down people every so often just to keep everyone on edge.