How will the recently implemented tariffs affect your doll collecting?

If a tariff is set up by January and you've paid a doll by then, you'll most certainly have to pay when the item enters US customs, according to the value that is declared - that's assuming this will work the same as VAT in Europe.

 

Thank you for asking this. I was wondering how those of us in the US are going to deal with the added costs to our hobby. I have one layaway that I'm sure I'm going to see an extra charge on now. It's going to be a lot of waiting and seeing what happens, and it might be better to order now if we can.

 

I'm pretty sure Alice will declare a lower value if you ask them to, but you'll probably need to reach out to specifically ask for it. On the plus side, if you ordered it in August, there's a likelihood it will be ready to ship before there's been time for any major changes like tarriffs to take effect. They won't be passed instantly in January. That said, I'm also looking at placing orders ASAP for things because of the likelihood of dealing with tarriffs or other customs issues getting things, especially things from China.

For the faceup, I'd think that would depend how it's marked on the customs sheet the artist fills out to send it back to you. I know when we send things overseas from the US, we can mark it as a gift and up to a certain value, it's not supposed to incur customs fees for the recipient. But to be on the safe side, might be worth it to just deal with as much overseas purchasing and receiving now as you can :/

 

@krystina I have absolutely no idea, it could be that this will be an added tax to industrial scale imports and you will never see anything happen when it comes to dolls (do assume that general life costs will go up if imports from China will get additional taxes). I'm going to be rather cynical here and assume that everyone but the big corpos (e.g. Amazon, Aliexpress) will be targeted because that's what always happens which is the opposite of what should be done.
It could also be that US will keep tax-free import goods (like "toys") regardless of this maneuver, so dolls will be unaffected. In my country we have a very useful index that lists every single type of good and whatever taxes apply to it, perhaps you have a similar index for the US as well? If you have anything like that, any changes would be listed.

My only input is that it's most likely going to be calculated at customs. I'm also going to assume that if they're serious about getting that money they might be more thorough with verification. You've got to wait till when the changes will be applied and budget for the worst case scenario.

 

Tariffs generally apply to anything that comes into the country. The biggest problem is going to be sending your doll to China and then getting it back again. It will be a package coming in from China, so chances are it may count as an "import" even if the doll is yours, unless there's some kind of provision.
Marking the package down helps (the doll head value could be $0 because technically the doll is yours so you're not buying it), but insurance of the package is tied to the listed value, so that's a risk.

I had something like this happen to a cross stitch "Round Robin" when it was sent around the world. If you're not familiar with them: you start a project and send it on to somebody, who works on it and then sends it on, etc. until it gets back to you in the end. Anyhow, the person who had the bad luck to be the first address in our country from the US had to pay import duties on every project coming in, even though it was not her property. Of course we all chipped in, but it was a hassle.

 

I think the import duties exemption on "toys" contributed to the BJD hobby getting so popular in the USA in the first place. It's a big deal.
I don't want to think catastrophically but given how difficult and stressful it is to buy dolls in Europe because of customs and taxes, it's possible that the US market for BJDs will shrink quite a lot if these new taxes will come into effect, especially for Korean and Japanese makers.

 

Looks like "toys" are now going to be on the list of goods with increased tarriffs, assuming this passes :/ 10-20% for things from outside China and at least 70% on things coming from China. Most of the charts I'm seeing list the % increase when buying from a retailer here, so it's possible, given that we currently don't pay customs on packages that are valued at less than $1000 regardless of what they are or where they're from, that it might not affect individuals receiving packages from overseas too much unless you're going to be receiving very expensive dolls. But it could affect our dealers like Denver Doll and BJDivas pretty hard, so their prices could possibly go up in accordance, especially Denver Doll, since they're the dealer for Fairyland and Resinsoul, and a lot of Fairyland's dolls are pretty close to or exceed that 1k cutoff already.

 

I will have to cut back on buying dolls alongside doll clothes.

 

I've already had to cut back on buying dolls in the last few years. Thankfully, I only have a handful that are left on my wish list. I am hoping to get them ordered before any tariffs kick in, if this goes through, for U.S. citizens. I am thinking it might take awhile for it to take affect.

It is a proposed 10% tariff rate from China, and I do love the Chinese doll companies the best. I am not going to stop buying the dolls that I want, but it might take me a bit more to save up for them. I don't currently want anything that is time limited, I can wait on sales, and that can help make up for the 10% tariff rate.

While it might take me a little longer to collect the dolls that I want, it is not going to stop me from getting them.

 

i was thinking that I would give me problems, but maybe not so much?.

Im based in Northern Europe. I will have to set on hold for buy from Denver ( luckily have no order there now). witch is quite sad, I have bought in stock doll from them that I wanted but could not find any other places.

But I have received two smaller packages from legenddoll here in January. Normally I will have to pay tax, import tax and handling fees and so on.. I have paid nothing this time for both packages. Confused i contacted my post office, they said all was fine. So maybe my country all ready have some new deals going on or maybe it truly was a mistake... xD.
- I do not have any other packages coming, so I don't know what to expect at the moment.

But yes, It will chance my spending habit, for now.
I have bought from a lot of companies from a lot of deferent country over the last 2-3 years. I will have to be more selective and have to know where it will be sending form. hopefully it will be normal soon again.

 

I’m not sure. I don’t tend to order much from China, but I do like having the option. Realistically, my next 4 years should be spent saving up and getting ready to/moving out. Dolls will not be the only thing that goes up and so purchasing them will go farther down the priority list. I’m more worried about food, medicine and medical supplies, and other household goods.
I intend to let myself get one doll for the next few years if I work the extra shifts for it, but that would be from Japan. No tariffs there.

 

Tarriffs that might affect dolls specifically I don't think will impact my decisions much, since I didn't plan on buying very many anyway and I make most clothes, shoes, etc for mine, but with the tarriffs being imposed on everything else, that will affect my ability to buy anything fun, dolls and doll related things included, simply since everything for the cost of living is now going to skyrocket :/ Food especially is a big concern, since it's not just the tarriffs that will affect those costs but also the ICE raids, since most farms employ migrant workers to work fields and pick crops. Groceries are already so expensive so I have a feeling that's where the biggest hike in my expenses is going to be, meaning less to put aside for dolls

 

I'm on the same page as quilleth, there are a lot of factors at play and none of them are good. I actually ordered some doll clothes/small items in December because I was worried. Probably not the best use of money, necessarily, but a lot of my doll's shoes had gone bad in storage while I wasn't in the hobby actively, and I wanted to still be able to "play" with them. So maybe if you usually focus on buying dolls, think about other ways you can interact with the hobby... meetups, taking photos, making items, practicing faceups, looking in thrift stores for fun props, I think there are a lot of possibilities. Just my suggestion, but I think hobbies are important to your mental health!

I have a small/lower value package in transit from China (my fault being slow deciding, not the seller). I'm in communities with people who sell at artist alleys, and they pointed out that in addition to increased costs, we will definitely see shipping times become longer, since it will take far more time for packages to clear customs. Smaller packages (under $800) used to just breeze through more or less and not require agents to check them, but that exemption has been removed. So we shall see what actually happens. I'm happy to update on how that goes if it's useful.

 

I am not good with this sort of thing at all. Can someone explain to me what the tarrif is, and what changed? I get it's connected to items coming into the country and paying for the privilege of it, but what IS it?

 

It's essentially an additional tax put on goods coming into the country, so the cost of any goods imported from the countries set (in this case most recently for the US, Canada, Mexico, and China) will increase for consumers. The percentages, specifically for goods coming from Canada and Mexico, have been set quite high compared to what they have been, which is problematic because we import a lot of daily goods from both of them, and many also come from China, which had tarriffs set at a slightly lower percentage. Countries affected have also announced retaliatory tarriffs in response, which means goods the US usually exports, will have less demand or won't sell, losing companies money, and in return, probably costing jobs so the companies can save money.

 

Yep, like Quilleth said. On top of how that affects companies and therefore the economy in general, the extra wrinkle now is it will affect items individuals are "importing," too, without the "de minimis" exemption. So say you buy a doll from a shop in China for $500 USD. If it was under $800, that used to not be affected by tariffs. Now it won't pass customs inspection without that tariff (it's a tax, that's simpler) being paid. I wish I could say exactly what this will be like here, but I don't think anyone really knows yet (even though people outside the US do have to pay these costs in many cases!).

 

From the videos I’ve seen, places like Denver Doll will get a bill when the items arrive at the docks. After they pay the bill, they can continue with the import. They can then decide if they’re going to pass on the costs to their buyers.

Some places like Walmart and Amazon in anticipation of tariffs, ordered a lot of goods from China in advance and have warehoused them so we only pay for the warehouse cost. I don’t know if Denver Doll did anything like that. They are a small business though and a lot of small businesses can’t afford even that.

For now, I think it only impacts China, Mexico and Canada. So Korean dolls might be ok.