Tracking toy tariffs

Friend of mine was UPSing a figure to me from Milwaukee.

They said at the UPS store the clerk stiffened up when they wrote down Toy and China as country of manufacture and started giving them a hard time. Friend explained this was bought in the US, going to Canada, and the clerk was making some deal about tariffs and brokerage fees Because China.

Real men of genius
 
I'm going to cease buying any of my beloved DC Multiverse Platinum figures from CMD Store, Figureineforall and ToySnowman for the time being. This is just getting nutty. My credit union started adding international service fees to my transactions with these stores earlier this month for the first time as well. Very small, but still something new that adds additional cost.

This is certainly not Canada's fault nor these etailers' faults, but I am just going to have to keep my own purchases from within the US for now until sanity somehow prevails again. I can't do anything about what the US etailers charge for tariff fees though. The only way to avoid those is to stop buying altogether.
 
That’s probably a good idea. If I had known the shaded SHF Scarlet Spider would be available for essentially the same price as the import shops I would have held off, but I now have it fully prepaid and am at the mercy of the lunatic in office and the rapidly changing landscape of international package delivery. I’m kind of hoping that JoyToy doesn’t announce any new figures in its TMNT line so I don’t have to deal with the anxiety.
 
Aren't the JoyToy TMNTs already affected though? De minimus was taken away from China weeks ago I thought? And LT Cave hasn't been upping the charge on those so far. Unless they were dealing with it by channeling it through another country that is also going to have it taken away now? I was assuming they were bulk-shipping to the US (ie: in batches worth over $800) and paying the regular duties and then shipping to individuals from there, but I really don't know.
 
I’m not sure what they’re doing, but they seem to be finding ways around things. It sounds like the big change coming is the potential for the flat charge. I have no idea if that’s something in effect already for China.
 
The flat charge was always mentioned with the China stuff too. I assumed it was implemented at the time as well, but this shit is so scattershot that I wouldnt insist on it.
 
Amiami sent an invoice for Mafex Bane this morning. I paid immediately. If this were hlj with dhl and not amiami, I would have more confidence getting the package before the 29th. What kind of psycho makes a deadline on the 29th instead of the end of the month? I assume being in transit doesn't count.

Misfit said:
That’s probably a good idea. If I had known the shaded SHF Scarlet Spider would be available for essentially the same price as the import shops I would have held off, but I now have it fully prepaid and am at the mercy of the lunatic in office and the rapidly changing landscape of international package delivery. I’m kind of hoping that JoyToy doesn’t announce any new figures in its TMNT line so I don’t have to deal with the anxiety.
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Same here with Scarlet Spider. I wasn't expecting Hobby Genki to charge upfront. First time ordering from them, I may have chose the wrong option to pay later.

I cancelled all my preorders with HLJ. The only ones I really cared about were Mafex Punisher, Iceman, and Jubilee. So far I haven't been able to pull the trigger on Bobby and Frank's $135 price at BBTS.
 
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mrboshek said:
Same here with Scarlet Spider. I wasn't expecting Hobby Genki to charge upfront. First time ordering from them, I may have chose the wrong option to pay later.
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I had the same thing happen to me at HG. I don't mind paying up front, especially given how weak the yen is, but it caught me off guard.
 
AceofKnaves said:
Regulate them, then aggressively remove the systems that allow for billionaires to exist in the first place, *then* embarrass them.
Because anyone with enough soulless ambition to even *try* to be a billionaire should be mocked and shamed for the rest of their lives.
Yes, you too, Taylor Swift.
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I love Taylor dearly but this is a sacrifice I'm prepared to make for our future.

Damien said:
A half-dozen guys on a toy forum are literally more competent, prepared, innovative politicians than nearly the entirety of the Democratic party.
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Or we're just not being paid to lose by the same moneyed interests paying the Republicans to win.
 
Alright, might not be tarrif, but I'm a little confused and we all ship stuff, so...

Last week I had two people send me things to Canada from the States. They were due Friday and Saturday via UPS.

For one package I got a notification that I had to assign a broker.

The thing is, UPS always just was the broker. But now they message me through text and non-caller ID phone calls telling me that I need to email broker at UPS to confirm I would like to use them or I have to figure it out myself on the website.

I emailed but I also did end up calling their Canadian 800. Where I was told they can't do anything because the package was from the US. And to call the US. But the US told me no, the package is already in Alberta, you have to deal with Canada. The second time on Canada they told me they couldn't do anything. I just hung up on them and try it again and the third guy put it through no problem.

I cleared the first package and it arrived Friday as promised.

I did inquire on every single CSR person what the deal was because I've never had to do this before and they just go into a loop about America and international shipping, but they don't actually answer my question:
Is this something the sender should have been on?
Is this something the UPS store should have done?
It's just never been an issue. Just last month for my birthday, I had four separate packages come from family and none of this happened. For over a decade I have never had to do with this. It has always just been UPS hitting me at the door for some sort of broker fee.

But now I'm supposed to choose who bends me over.

The second package I never got any notifications on. This evening I get a call saying hey if you don't assign a broker, it's going to be returned by end of day Saturday. I said okay, you've never told me about this one. They copped attitude, but sent it through.

Then I got a second phone call an hour later. This guy told me I had to send an email. I said I just had this conversation and he said no, you have to email it doesn't matter. He could also not answer my question.

It's not a scam. I looked into it and then email address is real. And there is a menu on the app that is now showing (it didn't before) where I could choose a broker on the second package.

I suppose I'm asking... Is this new because of the tariffs? Is there something in the brokerage fees and international shipping that suddenly they have to be hands off and require my consent?
 
@altcunningham My understanding is that this is because they've recently gotten into trouble for NOT doing this for the last decade. Because their brokerage fees are not transparent, and not paid at time of shipment, it's actually not... entirely legal... for them to just show up at your house, tell you that they acted as your broker without your express consent, and then charge you literally whatever the fuck they want. I think they got screwed over when some people just took the package and closed the door and refused to pay and it was a whole thing. So now they're getting more aggressive about getting your express, undeniable consent to act as your broker.

Which, at the VERY least, they should have been doing all along.*

*Actually, what they should be doing is charging brokerage fees on receipt of the package because they know goddamn well where it's going.**

**Actually, actually, they shouldn't be charging brokerage fees at all because it's complete and utter horseshit and should be illegal.
 
cmoney said:
I never thought it wouldn't. I was very confused by all the talk, even amongst some of the more reasonable folks I read/listen to, about how things didn't seem to have gone the way they thought they would. We already knew that companies were front-loading inventory, that the tariff implementation had been delayed and scattershot, and that it would take time to percolate down even if none of that had been true. It was way too early to start thinking things might not be affected as heavily as initially expected. Not to mention that the longer they continue, the less companies will feel they can ride them out and absorb some of their costs like they're trying to right now.
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There’s a lot of idiocy out there. People seem to think because it didn’t hit in 60 days that it’s just not going to happen.
 
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