Duty payable on things coming in from overseas can seem quite random here - perhaps a small unofficial looking packet will be delivered with no charge, and then a slightly bigger thing in a box needs to be collected and paid for. I don't mind paying, but the delay can be annoying.
As for soldering, I haven't ventured into surface mount, other than a couple of capacitors, but many people have tackled it OK.
6502.org
The 6502 Microprocessor Resource