In what more-or-less constitutes another stage in an ongoing saga, US and International Amazon has
resumed shipping its products to Australian customers this morning. This is quite good news for Australian online collectors, but given the time since the last development, a small amount of background may not go amiss.
In mid-2017, the Australian government announced its intent to apply GST on imports of all value, even below $1000 (the previous minimum to apply tax). In response some large international retailers, eBay and Amazon included,
threatened to stop shipping items from their international branches to Australia. Though the change was
subsequently postponed for a year, in mid-2018 it came into effect - and while eBay simply added GST for Australian buyers, Amazon followed through and prevented Australian customers from purchasing products from anywhere outside Australia.
Now it seems that decision has finally been reversed, allowing Australians to once again purchase and ship items from outside Australia. Though currently this is only possible on items sold directly by Amazon - third party sellers outside Australia still can't be bought from - this is great news for Australian collectors getting fed up with Amazon Australia's highly limited selection of Transformers, among other products.
If you're an Australian collector, how will this change influence your buying? Will it attract you back to buying from Amazon, or is it too late for you? Let us know on the
Energon Pub Forums, and as always, stay tuned to Seibertron.com!
