The Energon Pub

megatran wrote:

Emerje wrote:

megatran wrote:

Emerje wrote:How do you all in other countries handle your duties?

Emerje

How does Australia handle things currently? Australia Post has (temporarily) stopped shipments above US$100 to the US. Haha.

No, I mean when you import something from outside the country, do you pay a lump sum or percentage duty?

Emerje

We have a 10% GST (goods & service tax) on goods & services in Oz. The same applies to imports.

Some overseas retailers try to pull a shifty & add the 10% GST to shipping cost too!

That sure sounds nice. I'd much rather pay and extra $2.50 on a $25 figure from Japan than $80. It isn't really fair that companies pay 15% while individuals (in this instance) pay 300%.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

megatran wrote:

Emerje wrote:

megatran wrote:

Emerje wrote:How do you all in other countries handle your duties?

Emerje

How does Australia handle things currently? Australia Post has (temporarily) stopped shipments above US$100 to the US. Haha.

No, I mean when you import something from outside the country, do you pay a lump sum or percentage duty?

Emerje

We have a 10% GST (goods & service tax) on goods & services in Oz. The same applies to imports.

Some overseas retailers try to pull a shifty & add the 10% GST to shipping cost too!

That sure sounds nice. I'd much rather pay and extra $2.50 on a $25 figure from Japan than $80. It isn't really fair that companies pay 15% while individuals (in this instance) pay 300%.

Emerje

Well, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense charging fixed $80 no matter the value of the import goods.

megatran wrote:

Emerje wrote:

megatran wrote:

Emerje wrote:

megatran wrote:

Emerje wrote:How do you all in other countries handle your duties?

Emerje

How does Australia handle things currently? Australia Post has (temporarily) stopped shipments above US$100 to the US. Haha.

No, I mean when you import something from outside the country, do you pay a lump sum or percentage duty?

Emerje

We have a 10% GST (goods & service tax) on goods & services in Oz. The same applies to imports.

Some overseas retailers try to pull a shifty & add the 10% GST to shipping cost too!

That sure sounds nice. I'd much rather pay and extra $2.50 on a $25 figure from Japan than $80. It isn't really fair that companies pay 15% while individuals (in this instance) pay 300%.

Emerje

Well, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense charging fixed $80 no matter the value of the import goods.

It's a deterrent to force us to buy from US stores instead of overseas. And if US stores don't sell something that's not their problem, it's ours. And it's not just Transformers fans or anime figure fans that are taking it hard, there's a whole set of model builders and precision crafters that get their tools and materials from Japan that are taking a hit here.

And yet, for some things it's still cheaper to pay the extra $80 than to pay the domestic price, like ML Ultra Magnus who I'll be shipping with other stuff. Buying in bulk is going to be more important than ever, no more buying from Amazon Japan and their refusal to bundle pre-orders.

Emerje

There's rumor swirling around that Hasbro US Transformers prices will increase further in 2026.

william-james88 wrote:Holy crap, this situation has really gotten out of hand with your imports.

Yeah, it's making eBay pretty annoying. I think I'm finding a good deal, only to find out it's from overseas (so at least another $80 on top) and I can't even get it shipped if I wanted to!

Emerje

Out of curiosity, are prices also seeing big increases for discount stores that sell excess unwanted Transformers stock? For example, Dollar Tree, Ollie's, etc.

megatran wrote:Out of curiosity, are prices also seeing big increases for discount stores that sell excess unwanted Transformers stock? For example, Dollar Tree, Ollie's, etc.

Ones selling excess stock aren't seeing much change as far as I know since they just negotiate whatever price and it's as random as ever. Dollar Tree doesn't typically sell excess stock (it's not unheard of, it just isn't what they normally do), but they haven't been a real dollar store since the pandemic, they even recently started installing price checkers. Pre-tariffs the majority of things sold at $1.25, post tariff the average is $1.50 plus they have a selection of things as high as $10. Similarly, Five Below hasn't sold everything in the store under $5 for some time (people have recently been finding Core class figures there).

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

megatran wrote:Out of curiosity, are prices also seeing big increases for discount stores that sell excess unwanted Transformers stock? For example, Dollar Tree, Ollie's, etc.

Ones selling excess stock aren't seeing much change as far as I know since they just negotiate whatever price and it's as random as ever. Dollar Tree doesn't typically sell excess stock (it's not unheard of, it just isn't what they normally do), but they haven't been a real dollar store since the pandemic, they even recently started installing price checkers. Pre-tariffs the majority of things sold at $1.25, post tariff the average is $1.50 plus they have a selection of things as high as $10. Similarly, Five Below hasn't sold everything in the store under $5 for some time (people have recently been finding Core class figures there).

Emerje

You can tell im not from the US. Thanks for the details.

So now I'm very confused. Had to pay my first tariff on a figure from Japan, a $50 Nendoroid from the Good Smile Company global website out of Japan, figure is made in China. I was not charged $80, 10% or 15%. I was charged $27.90, a $12.90 "government charge" and a $15 "brokerage charge" which I guess is charged by UPS. There's no explanation for how they came to these numbers, I just have to assume they're right. Even stranger is the email they sent me and the UPS tracking page both said $30.90, but the text they sent me and the billing page said $27.90. No idea where the $3 disappeared to. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Emerje

My 40A Lio Convoy was sitting around hostage at HLJ, so I went ahead and re-ordered the other September releases there and shipped them. I also went ahead and jumped on the latest Fan Book + figure on Amazon JP since availability of those can get spotty. All the fees were charged upfront on both orders, so figured I would share what costs are looking like for anyone curious.

HLJ order - Both ML Arcees, MP Rattrap, 40A Lio Convoy and silver Monster Hunter Prime

• Items cost total: ¥47,750 (~$325)
• Shipping fee: ¥10,000 (~$68)
• Dumbass tax (tarriffs): ¥13,129 (~$89)
• DHL's excuse for more profit because dumbass tax (brokerage/handling fee): ¥3,490 (~$24)
• Totally unexplainable amounts that I suspect is HLJ being total scumbags or screwing up the shipping invoice and charging more anyway: ~$40, almost all of it on the second transaction for shipping the private warehouse
• Total: ¥74,369, ~$545 is the total damage actually charged

Amazon Japan order - TF Fan Book 2025 with Silver Tank Megatron

• Items cost total: ¥1,931 (~$13)
• Shipping fee + DHL handling fee (this isn't broken out anymore after the fact): ¥4,253 (~$29)
• Dumbass tax (tarriffs): ¥392 (~$3)
• Total: ¥6,576, ~$45 is the total damage actually charged

So in conclusion,

• The actual tarrif being calculated is somewhere between 20 and 30%, no idea how the specifics are being determined.
• On smaller orders this is all pretty manageable as these were not super-practical with shipping costs beforehand anyway.
• Stop using HLJ! I don't know where the scam is, but there's mystery money going somewhere. All my POs are canceled and I'll probably never use them again after this. My impatience probably cost me a good bit more here (edited: removed hyperbole.) Waiting for BBTS or someone like that would have been cheaper at the cost of a significantly longer wait and uncertainty around final surcharges.
• Unless you can't get it from a US-based site, it's probably just straight-up not worth it to bother importing this stuff anymore, unless you're impatient. The tarriffs and brokerage fees on this scale destroy the actual item savings very quickly.

F you, HLJ. The taxes are dumb but the scammy stuff going on there for the mystery amount added on the shipping transaction is no better.