"15mm & 6mm Multiple Small Orders?" Topic

I just placed my 2nd order with Khurasan Miniatures since I finished painting the contents of my first order.

One thing I've noticed when I purchase things for 6mm and 15mm, is that I often make multiple small orders at regular intervals.

One reason for this is customs/taxes. If I order something over $20 USD in value, Canada Customs will assess it GST/PST/HST of 12% (less in some places) and Canada Post will charge a $5 USD service fee for handling this. As well as the additional charges, this also means an unknown additional amount of time spent sitting with Canada Customs until they get to it. So it's like getting a shipping downgrade.

I recently worked out the percentage over MSRP that I end up paying at different price points depending on shipping costs and whether or not the package is marked at a value that will cause me to get extra charges and when it comes to smaller scales like 15mm and 6mm, the math works out strongly in favour of multiple sub-$20 orders. Savings seems to only become a factor when the order gets large enough that shipping costs and the $5 USD fee becomes a negligible part of the overall cost.

For example at one source, I can make a sub $20 USD order and my final cost over retail to get it to my door is 31.25%. It goes up from there to 44.5% at an order size around $100 USD and then doesn't get back down to 31.25% until I'm ordering $163 USD worth in a single order.

I imagine those in Europe have similar issues when ordering outside of the EU. I know people in the US can pretty much order anything they want and not have to worry about this.

What do the mail order/online retailers of miniatures think about this? Do you get mostly small orders from customers outside the US? What do you think about the fact that you have smaller ticket items and small packet post rates that encourage some people to make continual small orders?

Do you like the idea of effectively developing "subscribers" who order many small orders very regularly?

I imagine those in Europe have similar issues when ordering outside of the EU.

Yup.
I very rarely order from the US as a result.

However my sales to the US tend to be bigger in general than sales to the UK.

Michael.

I very rarely order from the US as a result.

This would be a good reason for US manufacturers to develop good UK/EU/Canadian (what happened to NAFTA?) distributors.

A problem I have had with orders from Canada (speaking primarily about stuff from RAFM's Space: 1889 line) is the delay in customs. Always takes forever. Not so bad coming from the UK, though the exchange rate isn't helping there. At least the reduction in VAT helps cover the shipping costs.

I imagine RAFM's sales would jump if they added a UK distributor. Canadapost + Canada customs = major disincentive for anyone outside Canada.

Same problem in the UK. It's not so much the tax added to orders valued over $22 USD but the large 'handling' fee charged for collecting the tax!

Multiple small orders for me.

Cheers,

Kev

Wow, customs on tariff exempt items…. Ever take a stick to them for a refund?

It's technically not duty on exempt items but provincial and federal taxes being assessed and collected. It's a legitimate charge, it just sucks.

Wow… We don't have to deal with any of that here in Aussie land. And I regularly order from all over the world.

Splod89-

Back in the mid seventies, it wouldn't be uncommon to have a retail purchase from overseas zinged by Customs, from time to time. They seemed only to worry about parcels when they were about half the size of a shoe box, or larger. As a consequence, most of my (back then snail mail) miniatures purchases would be overlooked anyway, as they were only your typical "small packet".

The mechanisms are all still in place, if they could afford the time to intercept all the goodies now coming in. I think Customs effort now is directed mostly at intercepting narcotics and other contraband. The relevant unions have also made noise about delays and backlogs, were they honestly to be expected to deal with all the retail purchases inbound now…..

In forty years of overseas retail purchasing, I think I've had three parcels held for collection of duty and sales tax, all over thirty years ago. Every now and again, I get one opened by Customs for some kind of check but, there's obviously no imperative to collect monies for it.

Truly a lucky country.

Duck

Splod – the threshold these days is $1,000 USD so it will take a fairly impressive order to get clobbered for it. Mind you, the local retailers want that provision dropped & GST charged on imports…..

I used to be able to order things from the US (to the uk) no problem, no matter the order size, but last year they really cracked down HARD and started collecting all the tax/fees. I order from rebel minis fairly often as their postage ($6) is extremely reasonable, I only wish that other manufacturers in the US would offer such a competitive rate. Between taxes and dues or multiple small orders I have come to regard ordering from abroad as adding 50-100% to the order cost overall – nasty.

What are the problems with ordering FROM Canada that people were talking about?

Canada Post is slow. That's the crux of it.

Here in Indonesia, the cost of stuff + the shipping must not exceed USD50. Still have to pay about 0.60. More than that though… well I've been disciplined enough to not discover the extra cost.

The stupid thing is if I order things from the UK, they cannot differentiate USD50 and GBP50…

The problem ordering from Canada is that it takes frickin' forever.

I live in the US. I can order something from the UK, and it'll get here in about a week. It travels a long way, so…hey, wish it was faster, but no problem. I'll deal.

If I order something from Canada – which does not have to cross a large body of water – it'll be two weeks at a minimum, guaranteed.

Yeah, when I sell something on eBay/bartertown/whatever and it goes to the US, I just eat the extra to send it via XpressPost. Regular parcel just takes forever.

There are services that give you a US postal address, and then gather your parcels together into one big order. I wonder if there is one close to the Canadian border that would hold items for you to collect. That might take away some of the pain. Or perhaps a US wargame store in the area that can collect your parcels for a fee.

I third the Aussie comments. I hope they never drop the 1000 threshold though. Posting out is where it hurts in Oz……

+1 to korsun0 (a prince amongst Aussie wargamers). Even when the AU dollar was rubbish currency it was still easy to order from OS.