How will the recently implemented tariffs affect your doll collecting?

We’re saying pre-paid on the forums but seeing how stores are dealing with this before the latest news. In actuality stores increase prices on goods to cover the fees as a business instead of passing it on to the customer. Stores do blanket price increases on all inventory and how much they increased is probably decided on how much they can cover tariffs without loosing money.

I don’t know if it means packages will get cleared while in transit. I know it happened before all this tariff mess but there still doesn’t seem a workflow has been made for customs and shipping carriers processing with the new rules and no de minimis. The backlogs are still there and possible but all things considered it hasn’t gotten as bad as it can get.

 

Has anyone heard of a confirmed case of someone getting taxed for importing a doll from Japan in the past few weeks? Considering a new doll, but the cost is already at the very top of my budget. If there's a few hundred dollars of taxes it will be out of the question.

 

If it ships immediately you might make it before the 3-month suspension ends, if i remember correctly. It was supposed to be for all tariffs except the ones from China.

 

Not dolls exactly, though you can track your BJD collection there too, but theres threads on MyFigureCollection forums where people are sharing their results for receiving their figures and tariff fees. It could be a good resource because I think customs codes tag it all as “toys” whether it’s a busty anime figure or a busty BJD

 

A newer announcement from ACBJD that they have began to ship to U.S. customers again. I am thankful for this as I have two dolls on order with them. It's says shipping and customs might take a bit longer. But, I'm okay with this. I am just relieved that I will get my dolls.

Copy/Pasted Announcement:

_____________________________________________________________________________________​

Notice for Alice's Collections US customers:

May. 14th, 2025

Dear customers from the USA,

We have resumed shipping to the USA a couple of days ago, as stated earlier we're sending via shipping routes that will occur none tariff (or as little as possible) for our US customers, shipping time could be longer than before due to changes of shipping routes as well as longer customs clearance time.

We sincerely appreciate your patience and support.

Best regards,
AC Team

____________________________________________________________________________________​

 

*fingers crossed* you get your dolls without getting slammed with additional fees!

 

Alice's Collections has been great about keeping us updated.

I don't quite get how using a different shipping route will help, since tariffs are based on the country of origin. But maybe they have something figured out.

 

This is such a relief. I'm about to finalize a layaway with them, and I was nervous about what my next step would be. I trust them a lot, but I didn't know they had any updates regarding shipping. Now I have to check the waiting time for Gem of Doll fullsets to see if I can take advantage of these 90 days.

 

I also don’t understand what “tax-free” ways they have and how they’re supposed to avoid taxes..

 

I cant find the article I saw but it’s by some loophole. One part is a some specific sea route and another is having the shipment go to a specific type of storage or warehouse when it’s gets to the US. There is probably other ways but that was referenced as the safest option. They are probably trying to keep the exact details as secret as possible to keep it safe to send things to customers that.

 

Someone explained it to me from the description from Space Studio's page, which lists DDP as their tax free option. DDP is Delivered Duty Paid, so the taxes are included in the shipping fee, as it was explained to me. I'm not sure how that might work with Alice's, since most of their dolls have had free shipping to the US in the past, but it's possible it might be a similar situation.

 

Thank you for the tip! I browsed the discussions but unfortunately it seems like a lot of the conversation was focused on the fact that the figures these folks are buying from Japanese companies are manufactured in China, and that is generally written on customs forms as country of origin, so ultimately it becomes a question of import taxes on Chinese goods.

However, I poked around some buying services chats. I still can't find anyone who has confirmed they bought a Japan-produced item and got taxed, but it seems there's a risk of at least 10% tax between 800-2500. (Take with a massive grain of salt)

I don't know if I want to risk it uhg...

 

They’re sprinkled in some of the discussions but finding the comments that state their packages customs form COO is listed with Japan even though it’s Maid in China is what to look at. Unless customs opens the package they wont dispute if what’s on the packing slip is correct to what’s inside a package. So far the handful I saw that received their packages and the COO was listed as Japan, regardless of where the product was made, no one over there has reported they’ve been charged yet. But they’re also under the 800 dollar limit/de minimis thats still applies to Japan.

For what it’s worth I recently bought something, not a BJD, from a Japanese seller and it’s actually made in Europe (second hand item). But my seller marked COO as Japan. It was over the $800 threshold and I did have to pay tariffs fees at the rate for Japan, and fedexs brokerage fees. Customs isnt checking every package because it will not be worth the headache so you’re probably safe.

If I were you I’d risk it if it’s under 800. If it’s over then only if I could afford it.

I’m not a betting person but I bet if they have a DDP option but shipping is free they either baked in shipping into the purchase price or for fulfilling pre-orders they’re absorbing the cost somehow. Maybe increased prices and/or shipping on newer orders? Free shipping is never free someone’s footing the bill somwhere. Like when you get junk mail and it says no postage necessary to mail stuff to them. They’ve already paid for it to make it free for you.

 

I know that my friends in Europe also said their tariffs are from random checks and that all the orders for Temu saved them. Too much volume to check a lot. I just hope the volume dropping spencifically from China doesn’t mean more customs checks now.

 

I just heard from a friend who bought doll stands from Ringdoll for $75. She got an online bill from DHL before delivery for $36!

My thoughts: I was told that EMS China had prepaid “taxes” that none of the express shipping allows. EMS stopped shipping from China so distributors switched to ship by ship with no “taxes” but slow. No idea what is meant by taxes. I think the ships end up delivering to the warehouses that I’ve seen for all the cheap Chinese goods that are repackaged. So the distributors see this as the answer. But of course this is all conjecture.

 

Just an update, I had my lace arrive yesterday that I prepaid tariffs on and did not receive an additional bill. So it seems that if you prepay the percentage, you will not get hit with the $100 as well. Of course, this was just my experience, but I hope it rings true for everyone who orders small items.

 

Just a note: I received a package from SWITCH earlier last week. It was marked as $100 in value. I don't remember them marking things at low prices for custom forms in the past but the package was actually around $600. It was not opened by custom and cleared with no problem.

I was NOT sure if de minimis was ONLY removed from China and Hong Kong because for some reason when I researched earlier this month it did not say that it was still in place for other countries (minus China and Hong Kong) but now that I've received 3 packages all shipped AFTER May 2nd (1 USPS from South Korea, 1 UPS from Europe, 1 USPS from Taiwan; all under $800 in value, all not opened by customs, no items were made in China or Hong Kong) and also by reading other collectors discussions on various forums, it seems it's still in place at the moment so if your package is under $800 and the item's COO is NOT China or Hong Kong, you are ok.

There is one thing I am confused about though, what if it's a gift? I don't mean purchases from overseas and have the merchants mark the package as gift (most of them will NOT do it) but personal packages from overseas? We still need to pay tariffs for that? I believe we do, right?

Google says:

• A "de minimis" exemption exists for goods under $800, but it doesn't apply to goods from China and Hong Kong as of May 2, 2025.
• Gifts valued at $100 or less can be sent duty-free to individuals in the U.S., provided the recipient doesn't receive more than $100 in gifts per day.
• The duty-free limit for gifts from insular possessions is $200.
• Multiple gifts can be shipped together if individually wrapped and labeled.
• etc etc etc

Postage is so expensive now it's not possible to send packages overseas and not spend more than $100 on postage for larger packages. And since the postage is expensive, it is NOT worth it to not pack as much as you can and ship in bulk even for gifts? Why would you want to ship items under $100 and still have to pay more than $100 on postage?

It seems DHL is the worst when it comes to collecting tariffs right now. People's been hit with ridiculous amounts even if the item's COO is NOT China or Hong Kong.

And shipping by ocean freight to avoid customs? Why would that NOT have tariffs enforced? They have to go through customs too. For example import cars are delivered by sea freight and they still have to pay tariffs. Port containers have greatly decreased in volume as we speak. I don't see how changing to sea freight would avoid tariffs.

 

Today I randomly got the doll body I mentioned before despite the tracking not updating. I was not billed at any point, and I don't know if it's a coincidence it suddenly moved after the 90 day suspension went into effect. But for now I'm just glad I wasn't charged anything. It does have Hong Kong as the country of origin, just for info sake. They also seem to have written "wallet" as the contents?? But I mean it's such a long box that wouldn't that be more sus? In any case, it doesn't even look like they inspected the box, but who knows.

I'll see what happens with the other orders I have

 

Alice's has shipped my blank Ghost Moth in regular white as of yesterday via a carrier called SF International. Everything crossed for no crazy tariffs and her safe arrival!!

from the SF website:

Ship Internationally with SF

SF provides comprehensive international shipment services, allowing customers to send their packages and documents across borders with ease.

Fingers crossed for that!

 

So I want to buy a new head from Rainman in South Korea. A preorder. He is unwilling to lower the value. The head is about $200. He can send as a gift if I choose with no tracking or insurance however the value is above $100. Any suggestions about what I should ask for?