Tracking toy tariffs

I decided to cut my Mafex Rogue preorder at HLJ from 2 to 1 and order one at BBTS. HLJ posted a no DHL warning on April 21. I'm hedging my bets in case customs is a shitshow when she arrives in the US. I think BBTS usually has Mafex within a week Japan and hope they will continue to get their stock smoothly. Don't F-around with Rogue.
 
I've still got two waves of JoyToy TMNT on order with LT Cave, and no real word on what their plans are for US customers. Am I just gonna get slapped with a $100 customs fee when/if they make it here? I think one is scheduled to release in China in May, the other I don't recall. Such good times in this hobby.
 
Saw this on Blusky. Number 4 seems relevant to our discussion, BUT HEY LOOK AT NUMBER 7.
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I don't even look forward to new announcements/reveals anymore, because I worry about how much they're gonna cost by the time they're released. The joy fades. In fact, I almost hope not to like anything I see at this point.
 
Was checking my cart on AliExpress; half of the items changed from in-stock to "Item cannot be shipped to your address," another 25% now are asking ~150% on top of the original price to cover fees, and the other 25% are still around the same price as before.

Like a $38 toy with $14 shipping now has a $59 "Estimated Charges" on top of that. A doll reviewer in Europe paid 10Euro each for what would cost me ~$25 each.
 
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Saw this on Blusky. Number 4 seems relevant to our discussion, BUT HEY LOOK AT NUMBER 7.
bafkreiamth43nt732hcprrskjdjttwx6d7r2fygh7v65urs3nxzijhhir4@jpeg
So I write part time/freelance about patient and hospital safety and I really hoped I would never have to spend years writing about PPE shortages again after the absolute horror show of 2020, but here we go again. This post just made my stomach tie itself into knots.
 
So I write part time/freelance about patient and hospital safety and I really hoped I would never have to spend years writing about PPE shortages again after the absolute horror show of 2020, but here we go again. This post just made my stomach tie itself into knots.
And the real cherry on top is then it was a pandemic. Like, pandemic response could have been way WAY better, and again I'm reminded of the conservative "well, maybe old people can just die, the economy must go on" crowd, but it was a legitimately unusual circumstance.

This time? Totally self-inflicted. Stupid people playing stupid games to dick measure and get themselves rich. Unless you worked in product shipping, I doubt any American even thought about tariffs before six weeks ago. They got their cheap goods and were happy. And everyone bought the line that we were somehow getting screwed. Well, buckle up, America, you're about to see what being screwed really feels like.

I vacillate hard between being incandescently angry about it, and just flat do-nothing-depressed. It's really hard to just go to work and pretend nothing is going on when everyone can see the wave coming.
 
I think it has to get bad, really bad, before it can get better.

On a positive note my Trump-voting (but not MAGA) mother told me yesterday in all seriousness that she thinks JD Vance may be the Anti-Christ.
Almost once a day I think about this Douglas Adams quote:

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

Just... why do we *always* have to do it the hard way?
 
Was checking my cart on AliExpress; half of the items changed from in-stock to "Item cannot be shipped to your address," another 25% now are asking ~150% on top of the original price to cover fees, and the other 25% are still around the same price as before.

Like a $38 toy with $14 shipping now has a $59 "Estimated Charges" on top of that. A doll reviewer in Europe paid 10Euro each for what would cost me ~$25 each.
I had a Goku 3rd party head set PO'd on AliExpress. When I click the listing through my order page, it shows it's no longer shipped to my country. I think it should have been sent out by now, so I'm a little worried.
 
Yep. That's exactly what I was afraid of. I wonder how many are still blaming the sellers for the prices going up though.
 
You have the dinosaurs in office like McConnell who'll pull the "in my day, we played with wooden nickels and had a rousing good time!" as he gleefully rips toys from kids' hands and burns them in front of them.
I seriously doubt turtle Mitch could even pull a tissue out of a child's hands, let alone a toy. He MIGHT be able to muster the strength to grab a dollar bill if it was being held, because greed, but otherwise I doubt that creature has any kind of grip strength at it's age.

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On the import order front. I just had Mafex Superboy hit my private warehouse at HLJ, and the ONLY shipping option to me was ESL for $30 something.
 
And the real cherry on top is then it was a pandemic. Like, pandemic response could have been way WAY better, and again I'm reminded of the conservative "well, maybe old people can just die, the economy must go on" crowd, but it was a legitimately unusual circumstance.

This time? Totally self-inflicted. Stupid people playing stupid games to dick measure and get themselves rich. Unless you worked in product shipping, I doubt any American even thought about tariffs before six weeks ago. They got their cheap goods and were happy. And everyone bought the line that we were somehow getting screwed. Well, buckle up, America, you're about to see what being screwed really feels like.

I vacillate hard between being incandescently angry about it, and just flat do-nothing-depressed. It's really hard to just go to work and pretend nothing is going on when everyone can see the wave coming.
Yep. I wasn't there in the trenches with the PPE shortage but I talked every week with people who were, and there were avoidable problems - skimping on ordering, just not being ready AT ALL for a crisis, lots of fuckups, but even the most cynical folks were like "but this is a global pandemic and it was inevitably going to test every single part of our process" and of course we'd find problems. People were (and are) so mad (nurses wearing trash bags when the PPE ran out!) but it wasn't intended... it was a consequence of a terrible thing happening and organizations being caught with their pants down. This is outright sabotage. ESPECIALLY because so many of those organizations I talked to improved their PPE supply chain issues so it wouldn't happen again, but if you cut of the ENTIRE supply chain out of spite...
 
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