Hi all! I’m new to the forum, so I’m excited to be here and start learning I’m looking to pick up an ungraded Japanese CoroCoro Shining Mew for my binder collection. However, most available copies on ebay are in Japan, and I’m not sure how to go about handling whatever extra import/handling fees come with buying a copy from a Japanese seller. Most sellers seem to be shipping through FedEx.
Can any one give me any info/advice on how these international fees work, and how much extra I can expect to pay because of them? Thanks in advance!
I’m not sure that this is accurate for the USA. In poking around with the Googles, it would seem that there can be import fees for goods purchased from outside the country. It could depend on the value, declaration, and type of good. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
Yeah, I was reading into this stuff as well. Obviously there wouldn’t be anything like hazardous materials or anything like that haha, but I just had a hard time figuring out if anything weird applied to my specific scenario.
I live in the US and from my experience import fees are very few and far between. It depends on value and how it was declared etc. I’ve had multiple high end packages declared at full value come from around the world with no issue. Only time I’ve ever had to pay was one from Canada sent at full value and even then the important cost was barely 5% of purchase price. What customs is looking for is goods that are going to be resold in the USA so if you were buying say cases of Japanese booster boxes and going to then sell them on a retail front then in theory you would need to pay important taxes. The USA is really hit and miss for enforcing this though just as long as you declare properly I wouldn’t worry about anything.
I live in the US too and there’s virtually no import fees. I’ve ordered a bajillion things from Japan, not just limited to cards, and pretty much just get charged your county sales tax rate, for me it’s 8.25%
Also to specifically address your Japanese ebay concerns, I’ve ordered at least a hundred or two cards directly from Japan on ebay at this point, and I’ve never been charged more than item price + tax rate + shipping, aka: what shows up in the ebay checkout. I’ve also ordered cards from sites like Pokevault (located in Japan) and had the same item price + tax + shipping. Us Americans get off pretty good with the customs stuff… I’m sorry UK
It’s a step the seller has to take when shipping internationally. They fill out a form stating what the package generically is, usually something like “trading card, card, etc” and they fill out it’s weight and how much it’s worth. That’s the declaration. The declaration is what dictates how much customs is going to charge (usually) and it’s illegal to fill it out incorrectly… however… is a random customs worker going to know the difference between a $1.50 card and $1,500 card? Almost certainly not. Don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely not saying you or anyone should do anything illegal like under declare, but it is a fairly common practice that I’ve seen multiple times as a buyer.
As a buyer in the US though, you don’t have to worry about declaration really, that’s on the seller.
As stated above the declaring comes from the seller. In the case of your mew you should be fine. It’s certainly not an extremely expensive card so no matter what the seller declares it as it will be fine. The issues can stem when you declare something for very low but then you add expensive insurance. Most places won’t even let you do this. With this purchase you will be fine.
Agreed, OP will probably just get it in a PWE a couple Nihon stamps I ordered 2 corocoro mews from Japan myself last year or so ago and they both came pwe declared on value no issues
Guys there are zero import fees for Pokemon singles coming into the United States. Only inexperience I have in this regard is if the card is insanely valuable. Like 10k+ for example.
I think there is a threshold around $2000 usd or $2500 usd (I forget exactly) where packages go through a “formal entry” process and sometimes couriers (Fedex/DHL/UPS) will charge a customs processing fee (for me was about $40 on a $4000 package). If you’re under that threshold though, I think it usually just passes through without an issue.
I’m looking to pick up an ungraded Japanese CoroCoro Shining Mew for my binder collection. However, most available copies on ebay are in Japan, and I’m not sure how to go about handling whatever extra import/handling fees come with buying a copy from a Japanese seller. Most sellers seem to be shipping through FedEx.
I ordered 2 corocoro mews from Japan myself last year or so ago and they both came pwe declared on value no issues