Tracking toy tariffs

Goldbug said:

I try to keep it financial related here.
so...

Consumer confidence worsened slightly in August

The fresh reading followed a weak jobs report and sweeping new tariffs.

abcnews.go.com

Click to expand...

Thankfully we won't be getting any more weak jobs reports from that new lickspittle at the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

I've been using the BLS web site for over 25 years to see what salaries are for my profession in my metropolitan area, so the idea of them mucking with that data is HUGELY offensive.

Kaiju Daddy had a stream about some of the issues he had this week trying to ship to the US from Japan. He marked a package as a gift at the equivalent of $95 USD. Japan Post wouldn't accept it because they were worried about a fluctuation in the exchange rate before the package arrives in the US. As KD pointed out, it would be next to impossible to see a +$5 change in a matter of days. You can mark the package at a lower price, but then you risking losing out on the full value of the item if you need to collect the insurance for a lost or damaged package.

How much fentanyl can you ship in a reasonably sized box and declare it as a $100 gift

KD was also having difficulty finding an appropriately sized box for two Mafex. All the shipping boxes are too big and more likely to draw attention by customs.

I hope this post doesn't get taken out of context and used against me some day by the authorities.

The guy at the head of Customs responsible for collecting these tariffs is brand new and confirmed in June:


Guess who preceded him? Nobody since 2022. Why? Dunno, I couldn't find an explanation for why his position has been vacant for years, but I'm guessing it was politics since Congress has to confirm his position. His main ideology is closed borders, so I'm sure all of this tariff and duty collection stuff is completely new to him and likely an afterthought since his office is also responsible for border control.

So His Orangeness started this ball rolling with nobody leading the agency responsible for making it happen, and to implement it he hired someone with no experience or interest in Customs. Who could have known tariffs could be so complicated?

I think I need to unsubscribe from store emails.

Question for you guys in the US.

What do you think is a fair (for lack of a better term) de minimis value?

I mentioned this earlier but most countries don't have a duty free/tax free level anywhere near the $800US you guys have (had) under de minimis. Most split the duty and tax thresholds. Here in Canada, like a lot of countries, it isn't quite so black and white. There is a duty free threshold and a tax free threshold. Tax free is only $40Cdn and duty free is up to $150. Then of course there is a different amount if you are bringing back yourself from cross border shopping based on how long you were out of the country. So $800 is pretty excessive, but is the new $100 for gifts and non-commercial a fair amount?

Personally I wish Canada would up the tax free limit because $40Cdn is a pittance in today's world.

Taxes on amounts seems weird to me. Individuals and corporations are on different tax schedules. If I'm having something shipped to me as an individual keep the taxes low. If Amazon is having something shipped to them make it a huge percentage regardless of size.

Maybe $1000, because if I ship from a business, 30.3/7(a) is an exemption for low value shipments on US exports of $2500 or less, unless it's to certain problematic countries.

Wasn't de minimis $600 and then went to $800 before going down to zero? I'm not sure what the ideal de minimis value should be. Under $1k would be fine for my overseas (toy) buying.

Regarding the drug smuggling (nonsense) excuse for getting rid of de minimis, couldn't smugglers still just ship in drugs with other items (or by themselves)? Certainly a $80 duty fee per shipment of illegal drugs would be a pittance. Seems like a silly excuse to get rid of de minimis.

I'm thinking some kind of de minimis will come back in a few months after public uproar and businesses being affected. This administration loves create problems and then claim victory for finding a "solution" for said problems.

For now, I'm assuming none of us collectors will be buying import figures, except from American-based sellers. Those sellers will likely have to raise their prices. BBTS already charges a high premium for their import stuff. It'll probably go even higher as competition will shrink. Will American collectors start buying locally more? For instance, will sales for domestic brands/items go up, as collectors shift their energy away from imports?

I know my options for importing items has just rapidly shrunk. No more Aliexpress. No more Gundamit. No more Zenmarket. 5ktoys will be my salvation, but I can see them getting hammered into oblivion from this situation.

Again, I would like to stress that China and Hong Kong already had the de minimus exception removed back in May. If you haven't been paying more for your packages from the likes of 5K or LT Cave since then, you likely won't be now either. It's just everyone ELSE who has had their exception removed now too. I'm not even sure it will affect a place like BBTS that much on top of what's already happened. Presumably they are not importing their product in small batches of $800 or less, and will continue to simply pay the existing tariff fees on incoming product that they've already been paying the last few months.

True. Stores are probably receiving shipments larger than $800, so their duties won't change. Good point. Guess this will more likely affect individuals and small companies...you know...the ones who can take it.

Yup, tariffs are basically a regressive tax policy.

The packages from HK I got over the summer were delivered by a company outside the usual services like USPS, DHL, UPS, and FedEx. I can't remember their name. How did they bypass any issues? They were really efficient with an occasional delay at departure when they were probably waiting for the plane to fill.

I don't know how they are managing it, but I know LT Crate straight up claims to just be absorbing the duties themselves.

It's not that the new rate is $80 for any package under $800. The problem is that the USPS doesn't have the infrastructure to charge the actual rate for lower value packages. FedEx, UPS, some courier services, etc, already do. Foreign postal services work with USPS. With no guidelines established beforehand on how the removal of the de minimis is supposed to actually work, they have no choice but to suspend services to the US until everything is sorted.
The chaos is the point. The confusion is the point. People will be so relieved that they don't have to pay an $80 tax on their $50 purchase, that they will forget that they are still having to pay more than they did before. It's a tax increase on all of us to pay for tax cuts for the rich.(Not to mention that it drives more business to private shippers and further damages the USPS.)