How will the recently implemented tariffs affect your doll collecting?

Alice's Collection's team made an updated Tariff's notice o their front page, copying and pasting it here:


Notice for Alice's Collections US customers:

May. 7th, 2025

Dear customers from the USA,

We're so grateful, that none of you are giving us any pressure during this special time, we've only received support & trust, you guys are truly amazing and loving!

We'll resume sending shipments to the USA soon, during this special period (an actual economic war time) we have to do changes on shipping to adapt, our priority sequence is:
safty > least tariff possible (or none) > cost control > shipping time
We'll always put the safety of your shipments at our top concern, so we'll still choose shipping service from the best shipping companies, and we'll choose shipping options/routes that will cost the least possible tariff (or none) for you, and we have to consider the cost raise for us so that we can continue to serve the US BJD community, shipping time might be a sacrifice but as stated earlier we'll still choose the best shipping companies so that you don't need to worry about the safety of the shipments.

The original shipping options to the USA that we used are either still suspended or require tariff pre-paid. According to the new U.S. tariff policy, tariff rate is 145% or no less than USD100 per shipment, please feel free to contact us if you prefer the original shipping options and would like to pre-pay the tariff.

Thank you so much again for your patience and support.

In the end, peace and love will always prevail.

Hugs & take care,
AC Team

 

I wrote the Alice's Team that I would rather wait another year to get my dolls from them than to incur costs for Alice's, and /or for myself, that have been slapped in place to basically fill the gap of the tax cuts the orange ********* wants to give his billionaire buddies. Everyone's mileage may vary of course, but I just mainly do NOT want to give the orange the satisfaction on making a dime on any Tariffs, even! Hurry up, Nov. 2026!!!!!

 

Being in Canada, I don't plan on ordering from DenverDoll any time soon. I'll probably avoid buying anything shipped from the US for the foreseeable future.

 

I have Reuters.
https://www.reuters.com/business/au...ion-ends-questions-remain-over-us-2025-05-02/
The relevant passage

"Under CBP's latest guidance, opens new tab, shipments from China and Hong Kong regardless of size will now be subject to Trump's new tariffs of 145% plus any prior duties, except for products such as smartphones which were excluded last month. These will largely be handled by express shippers such as FedEx (FDX.N), opens new tab, United Parcel Service (UPS.N), opens new tab or DHL (DHLn.DE), opens new tab, which have their own cargo handling facilities."

Although a passage in that article is confusing as it refers to the de minimus packages specifically and says 120%.

The confusion may lie in what specifically is in the de minimus package. Toys were previously completely excluded from tariffs. Now they are subject not only to the new tariff but any other tariffs added on to the category. So dolls may "only" be the 120% but other items may have add-ons of 20% more.

I'm following the topic in a reddit thread devoted to these new tariffs populated specifically by business owners, and one poor guy (who "showed the reciepts") importing a bunch of straw hats was hit with 173%. 120% plus an additional 53% in several more tariffs he was never subject to before, and one that he was.

This passage from CNN might also explain the disparity between your information and mine.

"Goods from China and Hong Kong shipped via UPS, DHL and FedEx are subject to a baseline 145% tariff, plus any additional product-specific tariffs. Goods shipped through USPS will be subject to a baseline 120% tariff or a flat $100 fee per postal item. Come June 1, the flat fee will increase to $200." https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/economy/de-minimis-packages-tariff

What I can't seem to find is information on which you are going to be hit with: 120% (145%) or $100 ($200) whichever is higher or lower. Logic and precedence would argue for "whichever is lower" but this administration is driven by greed, and it would not surprise me to discover it is $100 or 120%, whichever is higher. Got to squeeze the last drop of juice out of the fruit, you know.

 

Really? Hopefully that’s not just temporary… We need a little good news lol.

 

Yes. But I keep doing this:

I was admiring the organza bags that I recently received with jewelry purchases from etsy. I was all: We're not going to be seeing any more of those either because they all come in from China. I like those little bags to store doll things in.

 

Update: I reached out to several Chinese doll companies/dealers and offered to prepay tariffs.

Ringdoll responded: they said that DHL is expecting the doll companies to prepay tariffs on our behalf. Ringdoll's freight forwarding company is refusing to accept shipments to the US. They are now trying to work with other shipping companies.

I told Ringdoll that if tariffs need to be prepaid, I will pay them. I refuse to expect a doll company, who works on pretty thin margins, to eat the costs caused by our government. To me, it doesn't seem right or fair.

 

I don't blame you at all. I'm currently not shipping outside the US just because I don't want my buyers to have to deal with this BS, and I don't want to risk their package getting hopelessly lost or damaged in the mess that is our postal system and customs. I hate it, it's definitely hurting secondhand sales.

 

The latest news: an 80 percent tariff seems "totally reasonable," per our president.

 

So he’s considering lowering it? It’s not great but this might mean it could get lower. If we’re lucky…

 

definitely better than 120% or 145% like still ridiculously high and unnecessary, but slightly less absurd

 

Man, it's bad when it's "only" 80% and I'm already prepared to feel a bit relieved if that actually sticks. I hold out a small bit of hope that it will continue to go down as negotiations happen... and I also hope that none of the companies I have outstanding orders with will finish their work until there's a change in the tariffs. The dealers are willing to hold stuff for me, but I can't imagine they will have the space to do that indefinitely, so I'm really hoping it won't be necessary for them to do so in the first place.

 

Well, I had been hoping to order some clothes for my S16 girl but now I'm scared. I was going to order from Legend Doll but I don't know if I'll slapped with a huge additional charge at customs or not. And I'm really sad to see Alice's Collections having to add tariffs to orders. They were another go-to for clothes.

 

I'll just be sitting on my hands.

 

Omg I think all the numbers are really what's driving me nuts. I have dyscalcula so it's especially difficult to get my head around all this.

I currently have a body that hasn't moved since reaching the US (about 5 days ago), but I've yet to be notified of any kind of fees. It's probably very backlogged. But I will update when/if I get a bill.

Yeah I think maybe I will watch some soothing sewing videos..

 

Looks like we're getting a bit of a reprieve after all, if I've read the article on Reuters correctly! Starting on the 14th, the tariff will be lowered to 30% for 90 days (now, what happens after that is a mystery, so I hope most of my dolls will show up in that window). That's actually manageable, even if the dolls are declared at full value. Still stings a bit, but it's not going to have me posting the "I'll never financially recover from this" gif

I miiiight go ahead and push a Resinsoul order for my floating head, because that's one of the few that stands a chance of actually being completed well within that window if I do it right now.

 

Ooh that would be great compared to the 120-145% nonsense. Do you have a link to the article you got that from?

 

Yep! Here it is: [Article]
Since a specific time frame was given, hopefully that means we have as close as we'll get to a "guarantee" that it won't spike any higher overnight, but... I'm prepared for anything at this point

 

Thanks! If it is 90 days, I'm hoping my two outstanding orders arrive in that time frame, though there's still the de minimis fee to contend with ><