Tracking toy tariffs

Like all of us, 1/12 Boba Fett has issues.

Sometimes HLJ will give mafex an origin of China and other times Japan. Sometimes the differences are on the same invoice.

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I received a Premium Bandai shipment last week that arrived tariff free. The figure was manufactured in Vietnam, so Bandai presumably owed 20% on the item to the US which would have been $18 if assessed at MSRP. I suspect it was less than that, but all things considered, I'm happy they didn't try to recoup any of that since the item was paid for back in February. Of course, we're just paying for it with anything that goes up for sale now vs then.
 
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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They are not the same.

It's a Brokerage Fee for the paperwork.
 
Alright, I'm pissed enough to push back on this one. Any advice is welcome.

UPS always hits the brokerage fees as we've discussed. Last week I got a request for $80. Normally mine are 30-50 for bulky boxes or like a Storm Collectible. 80 is unusual. I don't recognize the sender, but I had a few imports and art things floating out there, so maybe it's something pricy.

Get it today after a misadventure of deliveries and pick up coordination. They sent it to the least convenient local agent for me, not my usual. Despite me requesting that one.

Aaand it's just three keychains I had gotten off an artist on Etsy.

Envelope as big as my hand.

Here's the trick. No paperwork. Usually there's paperwork breaking it down. Nothing outside in the bag.

I don't see 80 here. Ends up the seller is in Maine, so Maine to Toronto...

Anyone pushed back on these before?
 
Interesting video from Toy Snowman about shipping to the US again. Of particular interest is this Zonos company. Sounds like it could be a big winner in the de minimis game. Looks like, for Toy Snowman at least, it is a 30% hit on shipments.

 
Seems clear this mess won't get worked out for a while so I'm cancelling all of the Japenese orders I can. The one I dunno what I'll do about is the new Figuarts Yoda that's scheduled to come out this month. The American retailers don't have him so there's no alternative option for him. 🤮
 
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altcunningham said:
Do some retailers punish you for canceling?
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Some do, some don't. I cancelled a few HLJ orders without issue earlier. AmiAmi says on their news announcement about suspension of shipping to the US that it's fine so it seems like they understand although I haven't tried it yet. My Yoda order is with them and I don't want to cancel it since I can't get it anywhere except the Japanese retailers.

Nin-nin-game says they make you pay something like a 10% penalty for cancelling, but I cancelled a month or two ago with them and they just immediately refunded the order with no penalty.

Hobby Search won't even let me cancel any of my current pre-orders. I think they only allow cancellation within a time limit of whenever you ordered that's at most a week. I don't even see an announcement for what they're doing about shipping during this mess.
 
Nin-nin-game has just tonight resumed shipping with the duties calculated and shown at checkout, and when I test items the shipping is so far much cheaper than HLJ as long as you buy at least 2 to 3 items. Examples:
  • One item at ¥9,890 = ¥7,705 shipping
  • Two items at ¥22,780 = ¥11,689 shipping
  • Three items at ¥36,310 = ¥17,921 shipping
  • Four items at ¥47,992 = ¥21,315 shipping
  • Five items at ¥57,734 = ¥25,888 shipping
FYI the items I added one by one above were Mafex Guruhiru Deadpool, Figuarts Beetlejuice, Revoltech Agent Venom, Mafex Sony Amazing Spider-Man, and Mafex Hush Riddler. Adding those same items (or equivalent items since some are sold out) at BBTS totals up to $592 shipped as compared to $565, so even with the duties and extra fees going import at nin-nin is slightly cheaper in this example.

It looks like the first item is the most costing 70% of the price of the figure, and each extra item adds about 40% of its price in shipping to the total. It's not clear in the example above that it gets any cheaper the more items you add, but since the first costs the most you still do want to get as many into one order as you can to defray that initial cost as much as possible.

This should all get cheaper as time goes on and the shippers get better at this and competition drives all of their prices down, but it's still going to be more expensive than before. Probably best to wait at least another few months to let the shippers get these costs down.
 
I saw on a facebook group where someone said they received a UPS invoice over 2 weeks after receiving a package (or perhaps DHL...doesn't matter), I think it was for $30 or something. My question is, sometimes these guys will deliver to the wrong address or a porch pirate will get it before you see it...what happens in those situations?

Furthermore, what keeps anyone from just saying they never received it? I suppose if you signed for it then that's that, but I don't even remember the last time I signed for a package at my door. I know they can put you on a list and refuse to bring packages to you if you don't pay, but in the case of legitimate theft or wrong delivery, I just don't see how they can reasonably punish someone for refusing to pay for something they didn't receive. Seems like it would be a very he said / she said situation.

I received a package at my post office today from Gundamit, it sat in customs for a lot longer than usual but was eventually released to USPS. When it arrived at my post office, I asked the lady if I owed anything on it and she smirked and said "no, why?" So I dunno what the fuck is going on with anything anymore 🤣
 
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