How much will I now pay in duties to ship a stylus from Japan?


Anybody import a phono cartridge/stylus from Japan since the August 29 when the old $800 duty-free threshold ended? I am interested in importing a vintage stylus that costs about $200. Worried about how much I will have to pay. Do the mail carries charge the duty before delivery? How much should I expect to pay? Any tips and what to ask the Ebay seller?

mrgopal

I found out the hard way regarding fedex’s policy on collecting their fees and tax. I  shipped goods to a customer in Canada, from the USA and the buyer refused to pay the fee and tax. Fedex had already delivered the goods so they billed me for the charges since he didn’t pay. I have a Fedex account. 

I emailed the customer and he still refused to pay so I had to pay the charges. I will not ever ship goods to Canada or use Fedex for Intl. shipments again. This the first time anything like this has happened in 25 years doing business, and this has nothing to do with tariffs because Canada has always charged import tax.

@frank_sm was the customer/purchase thru Agon? If so please let this community know his user name. 

@frank_sm  I assume that the customer paid for goods and then refused delivery.  Why not just deduct your cost of the transaction from the refund owed?

Bipod, why would tariffs cause shipping delays? Perhaps if importers (us) are unwilling or tardy in paying the tariff. In that case the goods are already in the US but delivery is held up pending payment. DHL threatens to return my car parts to seller after 5 days delinquency. But I do pay when asked and delivery is fast as ever. I think I saw an article in the Washington Post about goods stacking up at delivery points because some buyers are delinquent in fact. Since Jeff Bezos owns the WP, I am guessing that is his way of complaining that folks aren’t paying tariffs in many cases. But shipping per se is fast as ever.

I can't say how much duty will be on a cartridge, but I just purchased a Luxman L-509Z on eBay from Japan. It was a brand-new unit and with taxes it cost me $7000. When it arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday I was hit with $1000 in tariffs! I was expecting something a little high, but not $1000. 

I still ended up with a unit selling in the USA for over $14,000 for $8000 but it did hurt a bit...