| Marcus Brutus | 04 Aug 2025 7:28 p.m. PST |
I noticed that the Trump administration is ending De Minimis rules related to the importation of packages under $800. USD I wondered how this was going to effect importing wargaming figures to the US after August 27. Anybody know? |
 miniMo  | 04 Aug 2025 7:49 p.m. PST |
Unless we're saved by the TACO, gaming imports get hammered by tariffs. Ebay, Etsy, small direct purchases are all in line for getting hit.
As I buy more gaming goods made in the UK (and Eureka from Australia) than the US, I've been on a bit of a buying binge the last several months bracing for this. My wishlist is pretty well cleared and stockpiles are in hand. Several painted armies on the way from EBay now that should all arrive safely before then. |
 McKinstry  | 04 Aug 2025 7:59 p.m. PST |
I'm on a buying binge as well as it is essentially a 15% price increase. I buy from 3 Uk vendors and one in Lithuania. I wonder how overseas painting services will be charged? |
 Dye4minis | 04 Aug 2025 8:52 p.m. PST |
My buddy who is the Pendraken US distributor (Dark Horse Hobbies) is struggling about having to raise prices again. UK manufacturers do not offer similar retail trade discounts like the US does. Without raising prices his profit margins will be deeply cut. Add to that how long it takes to get restocks is just another serious setback. Two months to receive an order is not just frustrating it's a major obstacle to servicing the customer! Are there similar experiences with dealers getting things from the UK and having to deal with the loss of the minimis law? |
| miniMo | 04 Aug 2025 8:53 p.m. PST |
Ah, and made my saving throw on one more stockpile purchase on a variety of imports through Badger Games here in the US before they have to raise their prices. |
martin goddard  | 04 Aug 2025 11:53 p.m. PST |
Peter Pig
Brookhurst hobbies CA have a full stock of Peter Pig products. Including rules and resin models.
They are great.
Brookhurst gets stock from us within 14 days of ordering. This is because we make all of our products in our workshops here.
Brookhurst gets an excellent trade discount from PP.
Looks like PP is an outlier in its dealings with its US stockist? It will be very bureaucratic for the US to tax every package coming in to the States. There are probably quite a lot? This is not an area I am an expert in (sorry).
The US could hire many more workers to administer such a system.
The president might change his mind.
There might be a delay, as the system is put into place.
Something else might happen. I would say "buy now" from Peter Pig, but that does not solve the issue for future projects. At the moment the US government is charging gamers 10%. Maybe this will change? I suggest a "wait and see" stance .
martin
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| Fitzovich | 05 Aug 2025 2:43 a.m. PST |
It will not be positive for any of the parties involved . |
| korsun0 | 05 Aug 2025 3:42 a.m. PST |
It happened in Oz when GST was added to parcels under $1,000 USD AUD. It can add a bit to some orders, especially those where the AUD is not in good shape….which is generally any currency. For example, a 100 pound order becomes 110 pound so an extra 20 bucks. It adds up over a year. |
| Grelber | 05 Aug 2025 8:30 a.m. PST |
I suspect Martin is right. The logic behind the de minimis concept is that you reach a point where the expenses of administering and inspecting the packages becomes significantly more than the tariff brings in, so let's just forget it for small value packages. My understanding is that the Chinese were packing drugs in a $600 USD package of underwear and not declaring it. Of course, a lot of this is political, and the powers that be might announce that the de minimis threshold had been lowered to $597 USD, effectively blocking 97.6% of the drugs that are smuggled from Britain to the US. Or something along those lines. In any case, I bought most of the foreign figures I planned to but this year in the first half of the year. Grelber |
| DeRuyter | 05 Aug 2025 10:34 a.m. PST |
Currently digital goods are considered services and not subject to tariffs. So, if you buy stl files for 3d printing or PDF copies of rules there should no effect. This will help the 3d print services also. I have a printer, but I see plenty of services on Etsy that are in the US. Frankly a good time to get a printer if you are on the fence. There are some beautifully sculpted 3d printed minis out there now. |
| Oberlindes Sol LIC | 05 Aug 2025 10:49 a.m. PST |
I fully expect my lead mountain to get me through any periods of not buying miniatures. |
| Dark Horse Master | 05 Aug 2025 3:25 p.m. PST |
Just some info…
2024 saw 1.36 billion de minimis packages for the year. The number of packages that will be subject to tariffs under the revocation of the de minimis rule will be approximately 4 million packages EACH DAY! This will obviously go down over time as Americans look toward purchasing non-foreign goods to avoid the tariffs. (aka taxes) The golden age of cross-border e-commerce has ended. American companies must now navigate a complex landscape of duties, formal entries, and increased compliance costs. Incidentally – something I did not hear discussed before passage of The One Big Beautiful Bill Act – was that it eliminated the de minimis exemption entirely (and permanently) on July 1, 2027, anyway. --------------- We've plugged in the tariff taxes/fees at 15% (what we expect to see) and if nothing else changes – we will have to increase our $13.25 USD pack of Pendraken miniatures to $15.50 USD. By ONLY passing on the 15% tax increase – this will result in a loss of 5% to our PROFIT MARGIN! At the moment, it appears that is the best we will be able to do without some other concession happening somewhere. PS: We also don't know what the compliance costs will be – brokerage fees, bonding, etc.
-------
Sources:
link
link |
| ThunderAZ | 05 Aug 2025 4:21 p.m. PST |
We in the US have been spoiled by this exemption. I personally have imported many thousands of dollars of goods with zero import tax. Many foreign companies (Aliexpress, Shein, Temu, eBay sellers…) have taken maximum advantage of it for years. I have benefited greatly having cheap goods available. Local producers of similar items… not at all. I see the need for this change, but will feel the hurt like all of us other Americans that have been spoiled in the past. Think about how unfair it has been to those on the other side of this equation. A shipper in China can deliver something to an American for pennies. Under a dollar. If I want to send the smallest non-letter size package 1 mile across town, its almost $5 USD too. I guess I'm off topic here a bit, but the Chinese shipping subsidies should stop also. |
| OSCS74 | 05 Aug 2025 5:07 p.m. PST |
I wish I could say "I feel your pain", but did you feel my pain when exporting hobby items a decade ago. I could not do business in Europe because of the costs of custom duties of up to 100%.
I understand helping europeans in the 1950's to 70's. Those days are long gone. America was getting slammed by unfair trade practices.
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| GildasFacit | 06 Aug 2025 9:50 a.m. PST |
Which country were you exporting to ? I know of no import duties as high as that for any hobby related items. |
| ThunderAZ | 06 Aug 2025 1:31 p.m. PST |
I can't vouch for the accuracy of this website which indicates numbers all over the place, but in general it appears 15% to 20% is common and with minimums as low as $0. USD link I can say from personal experience with sending gifts to friends abroad, occasionally the package will be tagged by the receiving country with a tariff due that appears to have been arbitrarily determined and ended up being substantially higher than what the the tariff should have been. Worst offense was a tariff of about 50% of the value of the product shipped. |
 StoneMtnMinis | 06 Aug 2025 3:25 p.m. PST |
The new tariffs have been a resoundingly successful. The last figures I had access to showed that over $160 USD Billion dollars have been added to reducing the $37 USD Trillion dollar debt. A BIG WIN for current and future generations of US citizens. |
| McKinstry | 06 Aug 2025 3:32 p.m. PST |
A tariff on packages that fall under what used to be the de minimus rule is simply, as relates to this hobby, a sales tax. The US consumer has to pay the tax. Over time a manufacturer/supplier could eat all or part of the tax in their price but given most hobby firms are smaller operations it is unlikely they can afford to take that hit to margin. The less bad news is that most small hobby sellers are in the EU or UK and the tax is only 10-15%. |
| Dark Horse Master | 06 Aug 2025 4:32 p.m. PST |
No concept of the reality…
$160 USDB won't even fund the Dept of Education for a year. But it WILL fund the IRS and the FBI, so there is that. The reality is, as someone else said, it's just a new tax – essentially a sales or consumption tax – not on foreigners, but on Americans. More importantly, it would take OVER 250 YEARS at $160 USDB/yr to pay off the current debt – assuming they don't continue to add nearly $2 USD trillion each year (the 2025 projection) to the deficit as they have been spending like the world ends tomorrow and there is no credit limit. …This also assumes they actually put ALL of that money on the debt and get their drunken sailor (sorry swabbies) credit card taken away. I bet the whole thing gets pissed away on some worthless backwater "make work" project for some congress person(s) to help enrich their friends or extended family. This also does NOT in any way address the reckless, out of control, drive over the cliff, spending that those making these decisions have been engaging in since at least the turn of the century. As a reminder – we're already 1/4 into that century! |
| StoneMtnMinis | 06 Aug 2025 4:59 p.m. PST |
Every journey begins with a first step. And with any luck the dept of education will soon be history. And this is only after 5 months, so it will only continue to increase. And, the party of spending isn't in control now.
Plus, this is a correction that is 60 years overdue. |
| Nick Bowler | 06 Aug 2025 7:30 p.m. PST |
Thunder AZ – the link is crap. It confuses sales tax with tariffs. |
| GildasFacit | 07 Aug 2025 1:34 a.m. PST |
Yes, this is a list of sales tax rates which apply to residents as well as importers so irrelevant to this discussion. We keep getting these statements and yet nobody comes up with any valid data to back them up. Possibly because it doesn't exist !!! |
| ThunderAZ | 07 Aug 2025 8:51 a.m. PST |
Nick – Thanks for the correction. |
| ScottWashburn | 08 Aug 2025 7:13 a.m. PST |
Probably as important as the price increase (for a lot of us) is going to be the DELAY in receiving orders. 4 million additional packages A DAY that have to be inspected and processed? Obviously there currently isn't the staff to handle that. Nor facilities for them to work in, nor warehouses to store all the packages waiting to be inspected. Delivery times might be increased by several months. And since we have to pay this, how is that handled? The exporter doesn't pay, we do, so is a bill attached to the package when it's delivered or do they send us a bill that we have to pay before it will be delivered? How does that work? Genuinely curious. |
| Leon Pendraken | 12 Aug 2025 5:04 p.m. PST |
Just for info, we've had an update today about this from Royal Mail. Basically, all packages to the US must now be sent DDP (Delivered Duties Paid), so companies will have to charge customers the correct tariff rate (10% for UK, 15% for EU) at the point of sale. The companies then have to pay this tariff fee to the US Customs BEFORE the package arrives in the US. (The tariff rate is the current 'reciprocal' rate decided by the US government, which is based on trade deficits and actually nothing to do with any tariffs charged by those countries on US goods.) However, there is no information available as to how companies are supposed to submit these payments, who to, or how often. If the payment has to be made before the package arrives, then it's safe to assume that we'd have to be submitting data/payments at least once per week, maybe more often. But we have no idea who we're supposed to be paying? With this tariff/tax on top of the currency changes seen so far this year, it's adding about 23% to anything bought from the UK, and over 30% to anything bought from the EU. |
| Incavart77 | 26 Aug 2025 7:25 p.m. PST |
@StoneMtnMinis The new tariffs have been a resoundingly successful.The last figures I had access to showed that over $160 USD USD Billion dollars have been added to reducing the $37 USD USD Trillion dollar debt. A BIG WIN for current and future generations of US citizens. Where did you see these figures? Is there a source? Me personally, I find this de minimis elimination to be chaos for chaos' sake. I just shelled out thousands to make sure my current projects are complete but my government shouldn't be working to make stuff more expensive for me. |
