So every time I have purchased internationally from Ebay the seller has used the global international service, but this seller I am potentially purchasing from does not use this service and states the potential import charges and taxes etc. are the buyers responsibility. Does anyone know how to estimate or find the total charge value when buying internationally when the seller does not use the global international shipping service. I am the buyer living in the USA and the seller is selling from Australia and it would be for 3 cards with a total value of around $140.
$0, in general there is no import charges when you are importing cards to the US
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Oh really?? I did not know that. Are there normally no other charges I should be aware of that could be charged from an international purchase like this?
I have never had any hidden fees when ordering from another country.
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I haven’t either, but I have always ordered when the seller has the Global Shipping Service. I believe the seller not using this service is abnormal, and he even states fees etc. are buyers responsibility. But from both your responses it’s sounding more like there are none in either case which would be great!
Does he say specifically fees to the United States? If so he is not informed that the US has no fees. If he just says he isn’t responsible for international custom fees he is talking about countries that do have customs fees.
He just says generically countries that have import/customs fees they are responsible. He doesn’t specifically state the US. That’s good news! So it’s really just the shipping cost stated and that’s it? That’s a lot easier than I expected.
Is he stating fees in the auction description, or are the import fees already calculated when you put the product in your eBay cart? I’m not from the US, but I sometimes have to pay import fees when purchasing, in which case it’s already mentioned before I place the items in my cart. (In those cases I won’t have to pay anything on arrival anymore.) And sometimes I have to pay when the product arrives here in The Netherlands, which is where you guys/girls from the US aren’t bothered with, since you have no import fees.
If the seller only mentions it in his/her description, and you don’t have to pay any import fees when paying for the item + shipping, you have nothing to worry about. (Although shipping from Australia to the US might be rather pricey I guess. 
)
EDIT:
In that case you have nothing to worry about. If I would have ordered it, I would be screwed with that 140 USD price though, haha. Would have been probably be ~40-50 USD import fees at least on arrival at my place.
As a US citizen, you don’t have to worry about import fees, only shipping.
Greetz,
Quuador
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Sounds like it’s just a standard disclaimer stating he’ll properly declare items so people don’t message him after the fact complaining about import charges because they don’t understand their countries tax laws. The message would mostly be for European countries, USA has no import tax for collectibles.
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On a slightly different note. I send cards to an address in the US and notice from the start of the year the large majority of states now charge sales tax (for me it’s about 6%). Would he still have to pay sales tax for international? Or is it just from state to state?
Wow, you’re lucky in the US with no import fees!
Here in Norway we have a 25% VAT on every order from abroad, worth $40 and more (including the shipping cost, which is often around $15 and above with the Ebay global shipping program).
In addition we have to pay for the mail services to declare the items as well…
This means that an $100 item is going to be around $140.
EDIT:
Some items such as books don’t have VAT, but most things do. The exception for books is great for those of us who collect comics though! 