Silly plan to avoid international duty and taxes ... didn't work

I try not to write about my buyers and their specifics because I feel that people deserve a right to privacy but this one is just too much NOT to share. I'll make sure that I don't write anything expressly identifiable.
A few weeks back I get a question from a potential buyer on ebay who lives in Europe asking me would I be willing to mark the item as a gift. I take my business seriously and really don't need the trouble, so my policy is to always fill out forms honestly and I stated this to the potential buyer. (I'll include my thoughts on this subject in another post....I could go on and on)
so anyway, buyer responds back asking me to mark that he paid less for the item and more for shipping to equal the same total. I responded again that I fill out the paperwork honestly.
The next email was asking me if I would be willing to sell him the shirt for $29.99 and the buttons for $29.99. After a couple of emails back and forth to clarify, I finally agreed. He sent me a best offer for the shirt minus the buttons and even paid with two seperate paypal transactions.
I think it is completely ridiculous, but yes, I cut the buttons off of a brand new shirt and sold them to him for $29.99 and then sold him a shirt, button-less, for $29.99.
He paid for shipping separately too, and I sent them out separately with invoices for what was inside.
The shipping he paid extra in order to do this was $12.50. I don't know what the duty and taxes and all that are, but I just can't imagine them being more than $12.50 for a $60 shirt. Plus the extra trouble of having to sew the buttons back on too. And, the risk of one of the packages getting lost.
I expressly told him that he would be nullifying our return policy because the shirt would be considered 'altered' when I took the buttons off. He agreed and also agreed that this was completely his gamble.
End result?
Customs is holding the button-less shirt! The buttons, which were sent via USPS first class international have arrived but the button-less shirt, which was sent via USPS Priority (also his instructions to send by two different methods) is held up at customs.
This just makes me chuckle.