New here - so apologies if I’ve done any of this wrong.
I collect ungraded singles here in the UK and I’m currently at around ~15,000 unique cards.
There are cards that I need to purchase that are quite expensive in the UK, but significantly cheaper in the US - the problem is of course, that many places I’m looking at don’t offer international shipping, and those that do have ridiculous shipping costs.
I’ve looked around at many websites that offer “package forwarding” from the US to the UK - but this seems way too expensive considering I’m purchasing single cards as opposed to purchasing something that actually requires a parcel.
Is there some sort of service that I’ve not heard of that will forward single cards for an affordable price?
If you order singles from Troll&Toad (less than $100), it’ll be shipped via Switzerland. There are no import charges if you receive a package via Switzerland. I’ve experienced this multiple times.
Just make sure that it’s not more than $100. Shipping for singles is only $5. If you want to order $500, just split it in 5 orders. $25 in shipping is still a lot cheaper than import taxes.
I once ordered $500 at once, with the $5 shipping option, and it was delivered within 48 hours (expensive shipping) and had to pay a lot of taxes.
(Note that I’m located in Belgium, not sure if the UK charges no taxes on packages from Switzerland)
I can confirm that for the UK if you choose the $5 shipping option for low value cards they come via Switzerland and there is no import fees. I had a order last month from t and t that came this route.
That’s not the case for the UK unfortunately. Though most of the time UK customs do seem to ignore things from Switzerland, I have had a couple of T&T packages with import duties.
In 2016 Switzerland withdraw from the EU so I’d believe now gets charged import tax like the rest of the world coming into the UK.
“Any parcel assessed as being liable for Customs charges will also incur a Royal Mail handling fee of £8. Any goods imported into the UK over the value of £15 are liable for import VAT. Gifts between private individuals over the value of £39 are also liable for VAT.” - Royal Mail website
Whereas EU countries are exempt from these charges
You will pay taxes from stuff that come through Switzerland BUT from my experience the value of single cards isn’t visible on Troll and Toad’s envelope so you won’t be taxed.
However if you buy something else like booster packs from them, you will be taxed if the value is over your country’s limit (22 € for me). Idk why is it different but I guess it’s a different shipping option for single cards than other products.
I haven’t bought from Troll and Toad for a while but this is what I’ve experienced. I never got taxed on singles, but did for boosters.
I have purchased from Troll and Toad (and not been hit with customs charges for anyone wondering), however some cards on there are expensive, and they can be bought much cheaper, on TCGplayer for example. But TCGplayer has ridiculous international shipping prices as previously mentioned.
Using a middleman sounds good, but it seems like too much hassle for one person if I end up ordering multiple packages of cards, and then not knowing how much the postage to the UK will actually be until after I’ve bought the cards - and then the whole deal of trusting someone seems a bit much.
I use MyUS as I ship a lot of Funko pop and Pokemon tcg product over to the U.K and generally shipping isn’t that bad. I think it starts around $10.99 for the first parcel and all done by weight after so single cards won’t add much to that price, if you’re getting a few singles in, may be worth looking in to
