Toys and Tariffs (US customers)

[Primeval12]

Hello,

So I am in the US and was considering ordering a few figurines from AliExpress and was wondering if any US people had trouble with the new tariffs that are in place. I am wondering specifically how they are collected, how much to expect, and if they affect purchasing figurines at all since it's a small amount.

DISCLAIMER:
This thread is also NOT a place to discuss political opinions about the tariffs. I am just wondering the specific effects towards the hobby for US customers. I will not be engaging in any political debates or discussions.

[bmathison1972]

I recently got my first CollectA order from Minizoo. The figures were made in China but shipped from Australia and I didn't have to pay anything on my end. I did a second CollectA order that is in customs now; let's see if that one goes smoothly as well.

I have not ordered anything directly from China, yet.

EDIT: I also preordered the Eofauna Columbian mammoth from BBTS. I got an email that they expecting it soon and it will be shipped soon. Not sure where it was produced or any tariffs may be added(?)

[Primeval12]

Minizoo looks like the way to go for CollectA right now. Australia is exempt from the tariffs from what i can tell.

[Joliezac]

I was going to order the new Eofauna from Everything Dinosaur but I'm waiting for the Papo Suchomimus. I can give an update when I order if there are extra charges added due to tariffs.

[DinoToyForum]

Is it worth merging this topic with the previous similar discussion here: https://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=11811.0  ?

[Primeval12]

Potentially, Or just make one thread to cover all issues relating to US imports in this time.

[SBell]

Minizoo looks like the way to go for CollectA right now. Australia is exempt from the tariffs from what i can tell.

Tariffs are usually Country of Origin, so made in China (or Mexico or Canada depending on the day) would still theoretically be caught.
But there's usually personal exemption amounts too, so it may hinge on the total value.

Increased costs are more likely to hit the retailers and distributors (Safari and Happy Hen, for example) because they're importing materials made in China--and likely passing on the cost

[andrewsaurus rex]

As far as i know the tariffs are not effecting items arriving through the mail yet.  It will take the hiring of approx 22,000 new workers to be able to assess the international package volume coming into the US for tariffs.  That's why the program was scrapped after 2 days when it was first started a few weeks ago...it was impossible to implement.

But it will most likely come and tariffs will be assessed on the relevant countries, just not yet.  So long as the shipper puts HTS or HS coding and country of manufacture coding then the packages should get through no problem regardless of where they are shipped from.  If not, the package could well be sent back or destroyed.

BUT I CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH:  It does not matter where the item is shipped from,  IT MATTERS WHERE IT WAS MADE.  An item shipped from Australia, or anywhere, will be subject to applicable tariffs if it was made in China.

The value of the incoming item will determine if tariffs are charged.  But if the deminimus  (the threshold for charging tariffs) becomes 0, as planned, reduced from the current level of $800, it would mean everything made in China would be hit with a tariff, plus whatever administration fee the carrier will be charging. 

To my understanding, changing the deminimus takes an act of congress and can't be done by executive order....but i am not certain of that.

[DinoToyForum]

As far as i know the tariffs are not effecting items arriving through the mail yet.  It will take the hiring of approx 22,000 new workers to be able to assess the international package volume coming into the US for tariffs.  That's why the program was scrapped after 2 days when it was first started a few weeks ago...it was impossible to implement.

But it will most likely come and tariffs will be assessed on the relevant countries, just not yet.  So long as the shipper puts HTS or HS coding and country of manufacture coding then the packages should get through no problem regardless of where they are shipped from.  If not, the package could well be sent back or destroyed.

BUT I CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH:  It does not matter where the item is shipped from,  IT MATTERS WHERE IT WAS MADE.  An item shipped from Australia, or anywhere, will be subject to applicable tariffs if it was made in China.

The value of the incoming item will determine if tariffs are charged.  But if the deminimus  (the threshold for charging tariffs) becomes 0, as planned, reduced from the current level of $800, it would mean everything made in China would be hit with a tariff, plus whatever administration fee the carrier will be charging. 

To my understanding, changing the deminimus takes an act of congress and can't be done by executive order....but i am not certain of that.

Please don't make this any more political than it needs to be. Saying "The tariffs" works just as well, for our purposes, and is less provocative, than saying "Trump's tariffs". So I've edited it for you accordingly. I also rewrote another sentence in your post for similar reasons. This thread is to discuss the impacts on us as collectors, not to discuss politics, and I think we're all capable of differentiating between the two. 

[DinoToyForum]

Potentially, Or just make one thread to cover all issues relating to US imports in this time.

I'll leave them separate.

[andrewsaurus rex]

Sure thing.  Living in Canada i've been referring the tariffs as the T---- tariffs for a long time so it's just a habit.

[DinoToyForum]

Sure thing.  Living in Canada i've been referring the tariffs as the T---- tariffs for a long time so it's just a habit.

I understand.

[stargatedalek]

No offence, but I have to question how much efficacy a discussion of tariffs can have while dancing around the reasons they are happening, as those reasons are heavily tied to their implementation and enforcement. IE; a certain man is currently trying to implement the tariffs via a way tariffs are not generally handled, and there is a lot of ongoing legal discussion about whether that will be permitted by other branches of government. This context is important to understanding that any package entering the US that contains goods manufactured in a selection of other countries, could be at risk of dramatic tariffs regardless of what it is, how it was shipped, where it was shipped from, or its value. Which is highly unusual for international tariffs.

I understand and appreciate the intention of wanting to minimize political discussion as it can remind people of how bad things are right now for a lot of people and otherwise undermine the upbeat atmosphere of the forum, but there are situations where it starts to feel like stepping on egg shells or otherwise impeding the ability to openly discuss issues that for many of us are directly applicable to our access to collecting.

I would expect anyone opening a discussion about tariffs to be aware some political reference is just going to happen inherently. It's not like it's coming up in a discussion where it isn't providing important information to the direct topic at hand.

[thomasw100]

As far as i know the tariffs are not effecting items arriving through the mail yet.  It will take the hiring of approx 22,000 new workers to be able to assess the international package volume coming into the US for tariffs.  That's why the program was scrapped after 2 days when it was first started a few weeks ago...it was impossible to implement.

But it will most likely come and tariffs will be assessed on the relevant countries, just not yet.  So long as the shipper puts HTS or HS coding and country of manufacture coding then the packages should get through no problem regardless of where they are shipped from.  If not, the package could well be sent back or destroyed.

BUT I CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH:  It does not matter where the item is shipped from,  IT MATTERS WHERE IT WAS MADE.  An item shipped from Australia, or anywhere, will be subject to applicable tariffs if it was made in China.

The value of the incoming item will determine if tariffs are charged.  But if the deminimus  (the threshold for charging tariffs) becomes 0, as planned, reduced from the current level of $800, it would mean everything made in China would be hit with a tariff, plus whatever administration fee the carrier will be charging. 

To my understanding, changing the deminimus takes an act of congress and can't be done by executive order....but i am not certain of that.

The worst part of this tariff business is always the processing or handling fee or whatever it is called. Because this makes low value items excessively expensive. Unless you purchase through a distributor who can import in bulk quantities. This is why setting the deminimus to low value or even zero is really going to hit the end customer particularly hard. We have seen that when this value was lowered in the EU for applying value added tax. This is always an invitation for shipment companies like DHL etc. to make extra profit from the fees.

[DinoToyForum]

No offence, but I have to question how much efficacy a discussion of tariffs can have while dancing around the reasons they are happening, as those reasons are heavily tied to their implementation and enforcement. IE; a certain man is currently trying to implement the tariffs via a way tariffs are not generally handled, and there is a lot of ongoing legal discussion about whether that will be permitted by other branches of government. This context is important to understanding that any package entering the US that contains goods manufactured in a selection of other countries, could be at risk of dramatic tariffs regardless of what it is, how it was shipped, where it was shipped from, or its value. Which is highly unusual for international tariffs.

I understand and appreciate the intention of wanting to minimize political discussion as it can remind people of how bad things are right now for a lot of people and otherwise undermine the upbeat atmosphere of the forum, but there are situations where it starts to feel like stepping on egg shells or otherwise impeding the ability to openly discuss issues that for many of us are directly applicable to our access to collecting.

I would expect anyone opening a discussion about tariffs to be aware some political reference is just going to happen inherently. It's not like it's coming up in a discussion where it isn't providing important information to the direct topic at hand.

I'm sure everyone *knows* the political context already. And if someone doesn't (unlikely!) then they can get it from pretty much anywhere else. It serves no purpose to discuss the politics here. Sure, it's a fine line, but I think it's still an obvious line we can all easily avoid crossing.

[stargatedalek]

The worst part of this tariff business is always the processing or handling fee or whatever it is called. Because this makes low value items excessively expensive. Unless you purchase through a distributor who can import in bulk quantities. This is why setting the deminimus to low value or even zero is really going to hit the end customer particularly hard. We have seen that when this value was lowered in the EU for applying value added tax. This is always an invitation for shipment companies like DHL etc. to make extra profit from the fees.

I've been dealing with this exact scenario the past few weeks. A package I ordered from US ebay went through their "global shipping program" which charges extra fees and has previously always covered import charges (the only reason to ever tolerate it). Then I got a shady email from DHL (which I confirmed was real) demanding I pay them a $20 import fee (on $35 worth of items!) or they "couldn't protect me from import costs".

Naturally I tried to contact ebay, and after bouncing me between chatbots for 3 hours I reached someone who in only slightly nicer wording, told me to suck it up and pay because they silently changed how it works. Which completely defeats the entire purpose of that "service" existing. Now they just charge non-US customers extra fees for literally no benefit.

I told to DHL I wasn't paying them anything. And the item arrived with... no import fee. What a shock.

[bmathison1972]

No offence, but I have to question how much efficacy a discussion of tariffs can have while dancing around the reasons they are happening, as those reasons are heavily tied to their implementation and enforcement. IE; a certain man is currently trying to implement the tariffs via a way tariffs are not generally handled, and there is a lot of ongoing legal discussion about whether that will be permitted by other branches of government. This context is important to understanding that any package entering the US that contains goods manufactured in a selection of other countries, could be at risk of dramatic tariffs regardless of what it is, how it was shipped, where it was shipped from, or its value. Which is highly unusual for international tariffs.

I understand and appreciate the intention of wanting to minimize political discussion as it can remind people of how bad things are right now for a lot of people and otherwise undermine the upbeat atmosphere of the forum, but there are situations where it starts to feel like stepping on egg shells or otherwise impeding the ability to openly discuss issues that for many of us are directly applicable to our access to collecting.

I would expect anyone opening a discussion about tariffs to be aware some political reference is just going to happen inherently. It's not like it's coming up in a discussion where it isn't providing important information to the direct topic at hand.

I'm sure everyone *knows* the political context already. And if someone doesn't (unlikely!) then they can get it from pretty much anywhere else. It serves no purpose to discuss the politics here. Sure, it's a fine line, but I think it's still an obvious line we can all easily avoid crossing.

Agree 100%. My assumption was that this thread was started so people can share what kind of experiences they have encountered (or not) due to the tariffs, and not to discuss why they are in place or who initiated them.

[stargatedalek]

I'm sure everyone *knows* the political context already. And if someone doesn't (unlikely!) then they can get it from pretty much anywhere else. It serves no purpose to discuss the politics here. Sure, it's a fine line, but I think it's still an obvious line we can all easily avoid crossing.

Agree 100%. My assumption was that this thread was started so people can share what kind of experiences they have encountered (or not) due to the tariffs, and not to discuss why they are in place or who initiated them.

I don't think anyone disagrees with that. I'm just saying that some questions about them can't be answered without answering those other questions. And frankly, as someone from the country being targeted, not even being allowed to say who started them feels like a teacher telling us we aren't allowed to say whose bullying us.

[bmathison1972]

I am not sure if this is complete but looking at this list, toys aren't subject to tariffs between the US and Canada (but this may not be all-inclusive):

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/03/list-of-products-from-the-united-states-subject-to-25-per-cent-tariffs-effective-march-4-2025.html

[Primeval12]

I'm sure everyone *knows* the political context already. And if someone doesn't (unlikely!) then they can get it from pretty much anywhere else. It serves no purpose to discuss the politics here. Sure, it's a fine line, but I think it's still an obvious line we can all easily avoid crossing.

Agree 100%. My assumption was that this thread was started so people can share what kind of experiences they have encountered (or not) due to the tariffs, and not to discuss why they are in place or who initiated them.

I don't think anyone disagrees with that. I'm just saying that some questions about them can't be answered without answering those other questions. And frankly, as someone from the country being targeted, not even being allowed to say who started them feels like a teacher telling us we aren't allowed to say whose bullying us.

Like was stated earlier, I made this thread to gauge other's experience with tariffs when ordering figures from China. The intention is to learn what the best way to do this is. While I understand your want to discuss more of the issue, this forum simply doesn't feel like the correct space to do so.