The dreaded C word CUSTOMS!!!!

Does america charge custom fees??? I bought my only doll from junkyspot (american company) so I haven't had to deal with it yet! (sorry if it's a dumb questions...i'm kind of a newb)

 

No, the US doesn't charge customs fees on dolls (they're classed as "toys" and under one of the customs exemptions here), so you won't have to worry about anything like this. Occasionally, they'll get hung up in customs, rather than being quickly processed through, but I've never had one opened and, with the exception of a recent one that wasn't sent via EMS, they don't even get stuck for more than a couple of days most of the time (though the experience may vary depending on which customs location serves your area).

 

thank you!!!!!

 

Man, I knew customs fees were bad in some countries, but I had no idea they were THIS bad! What a scam! @__@;;;
You guys in the previously stated countries have my sympathies (especially you, Germans)!

 

I think I paid around 118 Euros in customs fees etc. for my two Yo-Midis I got from Volks earlier this year - each. It was kinda funny, though. The guy who handled my package (the first of the two Midis, the other arrived two weeks later) was really stunned how expensive a doll could be and asked me something like three times whether I was really okay with the fees and really wanted to pay them. *lol* Yah, dude, I do. I'm that crazy.

I don't mind the fees as much as I do mind that it takes me two and a half hours minimum to get out to customs and back (might not sound like such an awful lot of time for someone from the U.S. or Canada but Germany's a small country and usually, we can get to places faster). The only alternative to picking up the parcel myself is to send them my papers via mail (or screens via e-mail) and wait for at least another two weeks to get my parcel delivered by DHL. Cos, you know, the parcel arrives in Frankfurt/Main, then is sent to Munich via some place called Stauffenberg. Then, once they got my papers, they send it all back to Frankfurt (via Stauffenberg) where they calculate how much I'll have to pay and from whence it's once more sent to Munich. First time I saw that on the tracking I was like *facepalm* ...

Also, sometimes my stuff gets "stuck" at customs in Frankfurt. That's when you can hear me ranting I'd probably get it faster when I went to Frankfurt ON FOOT. :p

 

A way to bring custom costs down is stating them as dolls, aka toys. Last time I ordered dolls directly from a company (in 2012 I think?) I had to pay a 12% fee.

 

I totally agree. I would cave rather than put up a fight. Only time I was prepared to argue down my fees was when I really didn't agree with them (and luckily, the officers understood pretty quickly) - this was not for a doll though, in that case, I bought concert tickets for Japan via Y!Auction, and had them sent to me before I started my trip... And paying fees for something that gets "delivered" in Japan?? No bloody way.
We too have nice and not so nice officers, though. I sure hope our split won't cause you much trouble!!

Uh, I hate when that happens. Normally though, I get my stuff directly from Frankfurt to Berlin, and then I can pick it up as soon as I get my notice. Also, my customs office is only a 10-15min walk away. That's kinda awesome.

 

Doesn't work that way in the Netherlands. Toys are charged just as much as other stuf. Gifts too. It's just a matter of sucking it up .

 

Paid...Just over £100 for a doll, had a fee for £35, most of which was a "handling" fee.

I get more annoyed that Parcelforce send a letter out for you to pay the fee, but it generally takes 2 weeks to get to you, when they could have a button on the site to pay them as soon as they get them, I think it would work because really, who doesn't obsess over tracking?

I have tales of non dolls, but other things, being pretty much the same price of the item that I paid for.

 

Hmm.. I do this kind of things: First I priced my SD dolls as MSD dolls, and MSD dolls as YoSD dolls according to company's pricing.

My officers had no ideas about BJD size. They can't tell the difference between those sizes. I still pay taxes (lowered of course) but not made them obvious I got large package..
I do this because they had mafias inside their office too, sometimes the mafias charged us more than the actual price, some are bad enough to put illegal drugs on our dolls (my dad friend's son got this issues on his import stuff, in the end he paid IDR 150.000.000 (approx. US$15000) or go to jail). Fingerprints check is useless in my country

 

Mafia??? Sounds terrifying!

Well, so I guess I am lucky that today I just need to go to my customs office next door and free a GO I hosted from there... So yay, fees... but at least not all of them have to be paid by myself.

 

After reading through the 1st page I started to get really worried about custom fees because i got my first doll and she gonna be shipped soon.
Customs were not something I even thought about.
Thank goodness the U.S. does not charge customs on dolls though. That is a huge relief.
I feel bad for you individuals who say your countries charge you so much. 25% ? That's crazy!

 

The lack of customs fees in the US means that having moved to the US six months ago has done wonders to stretching my doll budget!

I think the highest amount I paid was around $250CDN for my Volks Daria, but I found that anything direct from Volks was the worst because not only do they not mark down the total values, but they wrote up their invoices in such a way that customs would be charged on top of shipping as well as the cost of the actual item.

I appreciated when Iplehouse started surveying people on the fees they were being hit with - I'd always had to pay on their packages prior to that, but after the survey they actually started labelling them differently, so my last order from them (in early 2013) was actually fee-free!

 

Here in my country they charge us 60% of price declared plus 60% of shipping fees. At least. In some cases there are some other taxes involved. Also, everything sent by EMS is taxed, since they know EMS is expensive and only if price declared + shipping is bellow 50 dollars, and the sender is a person, not a store, we don't have to pay customs. I want to live in the US or in Australia!

 

where do you live that charges like that. i wont moan about the UK again. that's extreme taxing

 

I was wondering what customs was like for the UK. I haven't had to deal with it because I have ordered my doll from Angelesque a Uk dealer for BJDs but if I were to consider order a doll from the original company site what are the charges like for UK customs?

 

I have been extremely lucky on my last two dolls. Not one red penny in customs! I expect Canada to charge customs on everything so I was astonished to find that my $600 and $1500 purchases had no charges. My bet is the fact that Iplehouse marked the value down to $100-$200 and mark them as a gift.

 

Same in Hungary: 27% VAT + Duty (depending on seller's country)+ handling fee ... So it could end up around 35% of the price of doll what you've ordered. the tax free limit is very low also, cca 20 euros as I remember.

 

Sorry, but I can guarantee you will get hit with the full wack, including shipping fees. DDE don't mark goods down at all, and all US parcels will be customs due if they are over $45. I bought my MengLi from MOC and ended up paying £104 for a $500 doll I was so upset I couldn't even bond with her for over 6 months.

 

Experience from Czech republic (EU) - when you order something that seems to be valuable, you are asked to provide confirmation of PayPal transaction and invoice from the seller - so it's quite impossible to change the value. We pay 21 % VAT (from the price of item + the shippment fee) + fee for the handling of item by Czech post office. If the value of item (+ shippment fee) is higher then 150 € you have to also pay custom taxes. Usually every package from outside EU is stopped at customs (according to my experience).

But as I see some previous messages in the thread, we are lucky that there is no mafia or 60 % fees as in other countries.