Tracking toy tariffs

TheSameIdiot said:
Why not make a buck or two while they're at it?
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The end answer becomes the competition of a free market, but right now it's not so free since many of the Japanese retailers are still waiting this whole thing out.

My question for now is how we identify these downstream prices being tacked on. Hobby-Genki is just letting the shipper determine it, and DHL did it to ManOfTheLamb so as far as we know the same will happen to any of us as well. The other shipper Hobby-Genki is currently using for US shipments is UPS--are they doing this as well? It's an open question I'm assuming we don't know right now, or maybe someone posted about them over the past few days, I forget now.

It's certainly possible that HLJ figured all of this out and is just collecting it all up front whereas Hobby-Genki is letting customers figure it out later. However, the price HLJ is collecting up front is over double what ManOfTheLamb had to pay so I'm not sure I appreciate however HLJ is coming up with these fees. :oops:
 
mrboshek said:
I read comments you can avoid the fees by "self clearing". I think that was the term they used. So, that's not something you can do online?
Give us $22.50 for that Mafex you bought nine months ago and these twins are your kids, please take them with you.

One of the guys on ACBA from last night's show said he got an EMS package and didn't pay anything on a $400 package. Is it possible he could get hit with Bill later on?
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The Self Clearing is what I described with going to an office and doing the paperwork yourself. Usually it's one specific office at an airport, I've never had the option to just do it at any store/pick up point. Never had an online option with DHL or UPS.

I went with a friend once just to hang out and it was a two hour DMV style wait with all the people (probably businesses) doing the process. I've only ever heard horror stories from casual shippers and consumers.
 
@altcunningham My DHL packages arrive at an airport about 50 minutes. Doesn't sound like it's worth the time or money saved.

@EnigmaticClarity I think the $39 from Hobby Genki is in addition to the shipping. That's about what I came up with when I added Mafex Hush at HLJ. He's 8800 yen. Their cart doesn't say explicitly, but they seem to be going with China's 30% tariff and then adding DHL's fee.

DHL shipping 5300 jpy = $35.89
Duties 2640 jpy = $17.88
Carrier fee 3300 jpy = $22.35
Total $76.10

Amiami hasn't sent any update on how they're handling shipping. I paid for Mafex Bane on the Saturday morning before all this went down. At the time, I selected EMS, so far I paid $118 for him.
 
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My HLJ pre-orders for Mafex AoA Cyclops and Wolverine will probably go through any day now so I've gotta decide ASAP whether to keep them. What's everyone's verdict--are you letting your September and October pre-orders go through or not?

Right now it seems like we have to cancel them. Who knows how long this will take to sort out. Or maybe one of the shippers like UPS or FedEx already have figured it out but none of us have used them yet to know. Luckily I don't expect those AoA X-Men figures to be hard to get so I don't feel bad cancelling them, but I'll be really torn if Mafex Rogue or some other high demand figure ships soon. I'm mostly glad she was delayed yet again until October, and if things are sorted by then I hope she delays yet again.
 
mrboshek said:
@EnigmaticClarity I think the $39 from Hobby Genki is in addition to the shipping. That's about what I came up with when I added Mafex Hush at HLJ. He's 8800 yen. Their cart doesn't say explicitly, but they seem to be going with China's 30% tariff and then adding DHL's fee.

DHL shipping 5300 jpy = $35.89
Duties 2640 jpy = $17.88
Carrier fee 3300 jpy = $22.35
Total $76.10
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Yea he said the $39 was separate.

What's that China tariff you're refering to? Tariffs only apply to the specific country you're shipping from, so when a Japanese retailer ships to America Chinese tariffs don't apply. Japan may tariff items coming from China, but who knows if they do. Even if they do I haven't heard of any changes to that recently so there should be no new charges for that.

Also in your three line items I get what duties are--that's the tariff--but carrier fee? Are they all charging something extra now? "Shipping" and "carrier fee" are logically the EXACT same thing, so why is HLJ double-charging? Are UPS, FedEx, and/or DHL double-charging like that themselves?
 
Goldbug said:
well they deserve all that karma heading their way for voting for him...
www.bbc.com

Farmers are being squeezed - it's testing their loyalty to Trump

Why so many corn belt Americans continue to back Trump, even while feeling economic pressure driven partly by his trade policy
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
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Let's hope they learn a lesson, but since most of them voted for Trump again after his first go hurt them I won't hold out much hope. They are probably just hoping for another bail out like last time so it doesn't hurt them, just others.
 
domu said:
Do you honestly believe we live under a free market?
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If you're aware of Japanese market laws that wouldn't allow one of the retailers to start getting more American business than the others if they're the first to start charging more reasonable shipping rates to the US than their competitors then please do share the details. I really want some of the pending Mafex releases so I'm trying to figure this out ASAP. Until I hear of such laws my guess is that once one or two of the shipping companies and subsequently the Japanese retailers get a handle on this then their markets will do what markets do and prices for all of them will come down pretty quickly.

But HLJ has always seemed content to be more expensive than the other retailers so unfortunately I'm guessing they'll be holding my Andrew Garfield hostage for quite a while. 😭 Luckily he seems to be a banger that's selling out fast so I'll probably just buy another and sell my HLJ copy off early next year.
 
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EnigmaticClarity said:
Yea he said the $39 was separate.

What's that China tariff you're refering to? Tariffs only apply to the specific country you're shipping from, so when a Japanese retailer ships to America Chinese tariffs don't apply. Japan may tariff items coming from China, but who knows if they do. Even if they do I haven't heard of any changes to that recently so there should be no new charges for that.

Also in your three line items I get what duties are--that's the tariff--but carrier fee? Are they all charging something extra now? "Shipping" and "carrier fee" are logically the EXACT same thing, so why is HLJ double-charging? Are UPS, FedEx, and/or DHL double-charging like that themselves?
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I thought they were going to apply a tariff of 15%, but HLJ must be going with the 30% that is applied to toys manufactured in China. When I get home from work, I have to see if I have any recent paperwork that's attached to the outside of HLJ boxes. I wonder if it indicates the figures were made in China.
I guess all the carriers charge an additional fee to process the imported package. It's something we were able to avoid because of de minimis.
 
mrboshek said:
I thought they were going to apply a tariff of 15%, but HLJ must be going with the 30% that is applied to toys manufactured in China. When I get home from work, I have to see if I have any recent paperwork that's attached to the outside of HLJ boxes. I wonder if it indicates the figures were made in China.
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Every figure I'm aware of from every toy company is made in China, and specifically the ones I know for sure are Mattel, Hasbro, Four Horsemen, Medicom, and Bandai. I haven't looked up Jada Toys or Storm Collectibles but I'm sure they use China as well since almost everyone does.

But tariffs are specific to shipping products from one country to another. Would we pay whatever tariffs Japan levies on imports from China? Yes; companies always pass on costs to the end consumer. But we've been paying those tariffs always and forever already, and as far as I know Japan hasn't raised their tariffs on Chinese imports recently.

The US doesn't levy tariffs for every border a product has passed across throughout its history. And in almost every case they don't even know what that history is, and parts from many products today are often created in half a dozen or more countries. The tariff is calculated using the country of origin or manufacturer for the package, and for Japanese import action figures that means the Japanese tariff rate of 15% is what directly applies. Bandai and Medicom are incorporated in Japan and do most of their business in Japan so Japan is what is considered the country of origin for their action figures. Do Bandai and Medicom assemble everything about the product in China and all that gets shipped to them in Japan is the box with the action figure completed inside of it? I have no idea, but if anyone does please do share. My guess is yes, everything about a Mafex figure is put together in China, but I have no actual knowledge of that. But far as US Customs knows this is a Japanese product because that's where those companies do business and that's where the figures are coming from so that's the tariff rate that gets applied.

This, by the way, is how some American companies were planning to circumvent the giant Chinese tariffs Trump was talking about many months ago. Companies were looking at ways to finish off their products in a country with a low tariff rate even if 99% of it was made in China. I'm sure the plan was that the products themselves would get assembled in China and they would package the product in whatever country had the lowest tariff rate with Mexico being the example of a workaround country that I heard cited most often with the term "Tijuana two-step" being used to describe this tariff evasion method. But since Trump backed off of those giant tariff rates I haven't heard of companies planning a two-step in recent months.
 
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I just went looking for what the tariff rate on Chinese imports by Japan is, and from what I can tell for toys it's 3%. Here's a link to the Japanese government website claiming that 3% rate:


That link should go directly to the section of a giant page of Japanese tariff rates, and toys is the fifth item on the list at that link. Japanese consumers end up paying that tariff and so do we, but it's so small that I doubt it even affects the price of the high-end import figures we tend to buy.

It's important to note that even though products are mostly manufactured in China that doesn't mean everything about the figure is a result of Chinese labor. Products made by both Japanese and American companies are almost entirely designed in their home countries. I've heard the names of some of Medicom's sculptors in Japan, but my memory for Japanese names is pretty short. Many of us know some of the Hasbro sculptors such as Dwight Stall on the Marvel Legends team. Four Horsemen's design team is pretty well known as well.
 
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I was randomly adding stuff to the HLJ cart to see the duties:
Mafex figure 30%
Good Smile PVC statue 30%
Beemax model F-1 car 10%
Hasegawa model plane 15%
Magazine 0%, but still have to pay carrier fee

I had a 1/12 scale soft goods Boba Fett delivered today from HK and paid OneSixthKit an extra $4.
 
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