Tracking toy tariffs

Look on the bright side: as phones and laptops stop working and become financially impossible to replace due to tariffs, kids will revert back to the old ways of playing with toys. Toys also won't be affordable and by then the dollar will have totally collapsed and be worthless and we will be on a barter system. We will be able to trade all the figures you currently have for chickens and vegetables and such. We won't have our figures but we will live like kings in the Great Trumpression.

Jokes aside, I've mentioned my Trump loving (but not registered to vote) friend. We've been friends for 25 years and get along great. He is very kind and thoughtful and would be the very first to give away anything he owned to help me if I needed it, but he is also extremely uneducated (I'm going to use nice words since he is my friend). The key to the friendship is that we learned back in 2016 that it wasn't a good idea to discuss politics. For all I know he doesn't even like Trump anymore. I can't just cast people out of my life for that reason or I'd have just about no one. I'm extremely introverted and won't be making any new friends to replace them so I've got to hold on to what I've got.

I have dinner at my parents' a few times a week. If politics come up at any point I get up and go home. They have learned to keep their mouths shut about it if they want me around. Thankfully two of my best friends and most of my co-workers are not MAGA so I do have a bit of sanity surrounding me in my day-to-day life.
 
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From one onesixthkit's policies page:

"Customs and Import charges:
We are not responsible for any customs or import duties for destination countries. Please check with your country’s custom & import policy for any extra charges.
We are able to declare lower item value on the shipping label to aviod/lower down extra charges for you, please contact us before you place order if you need assistance."

I wonder if this will be helpful for preorders?
 
from what I can tell, our current American president does not want any trade deficits whatsoever (and I guess seems to think we will achieve max trade surpluses with every country?) and that he has been on one about this for literally decades

I don't know if making the US the goods-seller of the world is something worth striving for. though I am constantly reminded of something I once read: that politics is the way in which you distribute pain (paraphrasing, can't remember exactly where I read it, apologies). and as we all know, it's very clear who will be feeling the most pain once these import taxes kick in. like many of you, the state of my figure collecting over the next four years are far from my biggest concerns. (I just read that he's suggesting import taxes on pharmaceuticals. now that is going to kill people)
 
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mrboshek said:
From one onesixthkit's policies page:

"Customs and Import charges:
We are not responsible for any customs or import duties for destination countries. Please check with your country’s custom & import policy for any extra charges.
We are able to declare lower item value on the shipping label to aviod/lower down extra charges for you, please contact us before you place order if you need assistance."

I wonder if this will be helpful for preorders?
Click to expand...

I don't understand how they plan to tariff items under $800 at all that suddenly affects every foreign seller shipping to an individual US buyer. I assume that limit was in there so that tariffs didn't affect individual buyers, but now that it does who do they think will be valuing those items? And who exactly is supposed to collect the tariff? FedEx, UPS, DHL, and the USPS?

I can't tell if they thought this out at all. Anyone seen any of the valuation and collection details described anywhere? Are they just going to let the IRS collect it at the beginning of the next year like states collect use tax that almost nobody pays?
 
EnigmaticClarity said:
I don't understand how they plan to tariff items under $800 at all that suddenly affects every foreign seller shipping to an individual US buyer. I assume that limit was in there so that tariffs didn't affect individual buyers, but now that it does who do they think will be valuing those items? And who exactly is supposed to collect the tariff? FedEx, UPS, DHL, and the USPS?

I can't tell if they thought this out at all. Anyone seen any of the valuation and collection details described anywhere? Are they just going to let the IRS collect it at the beginning of the next year like states collect use tax that almost nobody pays?
Click to expand...
These are pretty much my questions. It seems like a potential headache. I read recently that the $800 is higher than what most countries allow and the Biden admin had plans to lower it considerably. I think this was in the plans whether or not Trump won. Iirc, the dollar amount was raised to $800 in the Obama era. I'm almost certain I've heard fellow collectors getting hit with fees when they order from outside their country or the courier won't release a package until a fee/tax is paid. I wonder if this will be a similar situation?

Keep the minimum over the average 1/6 figure price 😁
 
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mrboshek said:
I'm almost certain I've heard fellow collectors getting hit with fees when they order from outside their country or the courier won't release a package until a fee/tax is paid.
Click to expand...

Did you hear how that worked? Did the package recipient pay the shipper, or maybe they paid their government directly and the shipper could see when the recipient had paid?
 
I also suffer from MAGA parent syndrome. Like I'm not sure I want to visit this year because it's all my dad wants to talk about. But they're also getting to end of life. It's hard. I will say though that not all MAGA voters are evil or stupid. My parents are neither. They are, however, fearful. They've spent their lives motivated by fear that drove them to succeed so they think it's an acceptable way to live. Also, 10s of millions of people can't fall into evil or stupid. There's also uninformed, fearful, and in denial that the person running for the party they've spent their life aligned to and therefore is wrapped into their identity is not on their side. Overcoming identity is damn near impossible. I'm sure there are more options. End of the day we'll need some people that voted for Trump to turn on him if we want things to get better. I have hope. You can't recruit at rallies, but you can talk to people 1:1.
 
And now he's pausing all tariffs except for China - who will hold a grudge that will last an eternity, thanks, Prez. The chaos is the point though, isn't it. We'll never have peace of mind in our lifetimes until he's no longer allowed anywhere near a leadership position. Just perpetually pulling the rug out from under everyone all day every day. I'm exhausted.

I saw a poll today that 52% of Americans had "heard a lot about the tariffs." Where. What planet. What OTHER DIMENSION. Does the other 48% live? Even the outlets that are bad at covering news are talking about it.

I know the answer to my own question, by the way. I'm just venting, like how I know why 52% of people don't vote but I still go apoplectic every other year.
 
mrboshek said:
These are pretty much my questions. It seems like a potential headache. I read recently that the $800 is higher than what most countries allow and the Biden admin had plans to lower it considerably. I think this was in the plans whether or not Trump won. Iirc, the dollar amount was raised to $800 in the Obama era. I'm almost certain I've heard fellow collectors getting hit with fees when they order from outside their country or the courier won't release a package until a fee/tax is paid. I wonder if this will be a similar situation?

Keep the minimum over the average 1/6 figure price 😁
Click to expand...
The US $800 limit is pretty high.

Here in Canada it basically goes like this (for shipped items):

$20 & under is duty/tax free from all countries except the US and Mexico. After that duties/taxes apply.
$40 & under is duty/tax free from the US and Mexico.
$41 - $150 is duty free, but taxes apply. (US & Mexico)
$151 and up duties and taxes apply.

For cross border shopping (so in person shopping):

Under 24 hours no exemptions (full duty/taxes).
24-48 hours up to $200 no duties/taxes.
After 48 up to $800 no duties/taxes.
Each additional 48+ hour trip gives a preferential 7% duty rate for up to $300 over limit. After that full duty/taxes.

Now as I mentioned before people are reporting that they are getting hit with an additional 25% on top of the standard duties/taxes they are required to pay when coming back from cross border shopping. So yeah that $800 exemption is pretty high for shipped items.
 
What a mess. Sounds like China is too proud to make any good will gestures in fear of looking weak and Trump is too stubborn to act reasonable and offer negotiations in the meantime. Sounds like he and Xi just need a good old fashioned sit down to hash things out. Hope that happens soon. At least the other tariffs are calming down and negotiating can begin.
 
I don't quite understand how all this tariff works. I thought the US was indebt to China so how can the US impose so harsh tariff fees. I mean couldn't China just say okay US we want our money for carrying your debt for all these years.
 
jayjonah said:
I don't quite understand how all this tariff works. I thought the US was indebt to China so how can the US impose so harsh tariff fees. I mean couldn't China just say okay US we want our money for carrying your debt for all these years.
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I'm definitely not the most qualified person to answer this but I'll take a crack at it. Everything I say here is my best understanding, and I'm sure some things are wrong, so - grain of salt.

The US debt China owns is in the form of treasury bonds issued by the US Treasury Department so the federal government can borrow money. Essentially, you buy a bond for $x, the US government agrees to repay you $x+interest over some period of time (10 years or so). The bondholder can sell the bond to somebody else, but they can't really "cash it in" early - it just gets paid back on a regular schedule.

What China can do (and in fact I saw a headline they did this today) is stop buying US treasury bonds altogether. Traditionally they've been one of the absolute safest and stablest places for investors to park money. Lower returns than stocks, etc, but with basically no risk. That stability is being threatened with all of this nonsense, as "the full faith and credit of the United States" isn't looking so hot anymore. Bonds are one mechanism that let us get by with all of the deficit spending we do, and in turn we can continue to issue debt and not have to reckon with our imbalanced budget. Not being able to continue to accrue debt probably doesn't sound like a bad thing, and I'm certainly not opposed to trying to lower our debt and reduce the annual deficit (though I'm not sure it needs to get to net zero). But what is bad is if the ability to borrow is suddenly yanked away or severely reduced, which would throw the whole system into (even more) chaos.

Looking it up now and China only owns ~2.6% of US debt, so maybe the effect of them pulling out of buying treasury bonds isn't a big deal. That's definitely not something I'm qualified to guess on.
 
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