"Recent U.K. order total, shipping and tariff fee included" Topic

I recently placed an order with a U.K. historical mini. company, which I will not name because this post is not meant as a criticism of them specifically.

Just an informational example of what the tariffs are costing us, regardless if your attitude is "well that's not bad, I can absorb that" or "this is outrageous and wasn't even necessary", or somewhere in between.

The total of the products themselves was $550.00 USD. The package weighs about 7 lbs.

Shipping for this order was $47.00 USD.
The tariff fee of 10% was $55.00 USD.

That is a total of $102.00 USD in shipping and fees to get a 7 lb. package the size of small toaster from the U.K.

And people say this won't hurt the overall economy and won't shrink economic activity? Ok.

Shipping to and from the UK has always been expensive, so I think that cost is a wash. The 10% tariff fee though does increase the cost of goods & services from outside the US.

Wouldn't the postage also have been $47 USD last year, Baranovich? So, yes, 10% tax on the order. And please point me to the person who said taxes don't affect the economy. I'd also like to meet the ones who think the US government can continue indefinitely to spend $7 USD trillion a year while collecting "only" $5 USD trillion in taxes. Are there other tax hikes you'd prefer? Or spending on you you'd like to see cut? (Everyone would like the government to spend less on someone else, I think.)

As I understand it, the argument of the pro-tariff faction is not that it will have no economic impact, but that it will reduce the deficit, and that some manufacturing will be repatriated. In the specific case of miniature warfare, I think this unlikely, but I hesitate to go around shouting "reduce the deficit by raising taxes on stuff I don't buy!"

What's your solution?

The total for shipping was not $102 USD, it was $47 USD, with a $55 USD tariff on $550 USD of goods.

As others pointed out, the money paid for shipping surely can't be a surprise and is an expected expense when ordering in the US from the UK.

There are many older US buyers here who should recall the days where UK postage was just a flat percentage of the invoice amount.

Typically those percentages were at least 15-20% of invoice, sometimes more that that.

The OP paid a mere 8.5% for shipping. After you factor in the time value of money compared to the older rates, he got a veritable steal for shipping. Ironically, the $102 USD (18.5%) on his $550 USD order falls in that "old school" range, just being paid with 2025 dollars now.

Please note that we are talking about toy soldiers, a want and not a need to existence. Fortunately we still get to decide how to spend our money and in this case the OP chose to spend it on luxury goods.

He knew what the final cost would be when he clicked to confirm the order. If he didn't want to spend that much he didn't have to unless someone threatened to shoot a puppy or some other unlikely deterrent if he didn't buy his toy soldiers from the UK.

Btw, my most recent UK order arrived October 20th with all tariffs paid by the manufacturer.

The OP tries hard to present this as "informational", but his real agenda shows itself in the last sentence.

Why not just be happy you got $550 USD of toy soldiers to play with?

"Please note that we are talking about toy soldiers, a want and not a need to existence."

Speak for yourself.

So, 20% of value for shipping and tariff? That's a bargain. The Brit sites that I look at were charging a flat 25-40% for shipping alone.

LOL. I just bought a second hand boardgame from the US and the shipping to over here cost as much as the original item. No tariffs involved as it is well below the de minimus limit here.

Shipping from the US to UK has been ludicrous the last few in any case.

However it was a price I was willing to pay as I wanted my nice shiny thing.

Shipping between the US and UK has been expensive for a while and I know of at least one publisher that has partnered with businesses in the US and Australia to deal with it.

Tariffs are simply a flat tax on the consumer which has been a goal of certain think tanks for a while.
It hasn't worked well historically but if the goal is to simultaneously raise revenue and bring back manufacturing it runs into the issue of what happens to the revenue if the domestic source appears? The tariff revenue then decreases and you are back to filling the gap.
I would increase the top tax rates and look for some savings elsewhere.

Postage from US to Australia and from UK to Australia is horrendous. We had 10% GST added to all parcels a few years ago with the removal of a de minimus equivalent. It has made things expensive but I have no choice because the stuff I wanted doesn't exist here.

I can understand the OP annoyance; never should we expect to pay more than we are charged, but you have the beautiful tariffs now and its just the way it is. Like us having to accept the GST threshold being removed (which was all down to one greedy businessman complaining about losing business).

Look on the bright side, Baranovich. A Canadian wargamer would have been socked with provincial VAT on any import, which can be worse than 10%. I know Indiana doesn't impose its 7% sales tax on overseas imports. Does Connecticut collect its 6.35%?

kiltboy, it's a problem with any "sin tax" as well. We tax tobacco and alcohol to discourage consumption, but to the extend they do we lose tax revenue, which has to come from somewhere. The same would be true of a carbon tax. I think in this instance the hope is that if manufacturing were repatriated, lost import duties might be made up in increased income tax and diminished welfare and unemployment payments. I don't know that this will work, but palming the deficit problem off on the next administration certainly hasn't.