I know this isn't a bargain, but I figured others would share my curiosity about how exactly tariffs affect ordering movies from websites in other countries, like Zavvi in the UK or JB Hi-Fi in Australia.
Can anybody explain what happens? Who pays the tariffs when? And will we know when we place an order how much the tariffs will be?

Thanks in advance for any answers. And I hope it goes without saying that this is not meant to be a political discussion, just looking for facts.

You would have to check with the shipper but this is the current US policy:



https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/fi..._treatment.pdf

If the 'specific duty' and not 'ad valorem' applies, then for UK and Australia it would be $80 per item as their tariff rates are 10%.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnv7l575lgeo

Truth is who actually knows... it's the wild west right now with all this.

One way to bypass this is by ordering from a US-based shop that'll handle that for you, like Orbit DVD, Diabolik DVD, Atomic Movie Store, Brother Belial, etc.

In theory, Blu-ray is exempt from tariffs:
...but to quote Jesse from Diabolik DVD:

Yeah books and media are supposed to be exempt, but I've heard that it highly depends on both what the shipper categorizes it as and what the shipping company does with it. There are horror stories of fighting with DHL over like a 40 dollar tariff and it ballooning to 200 or more because of storage fees or whatever BS they charge.

If you ship through something that connects to USPS, it seems l ike they will charge the 80/200 flat fee, but we don't know much because basically all foreign postal services stopped shipments to the US because they are the ones expected to collect it and remit it to USPS. If you use DHL/Fedex/other shipping companies who are used to collecting tariffs, they will charge you the tariff and a fee for their troubles (like 17 bucks or so).

Yep. Orbit, Diabolik and Atomic I never bought that much from due to the prices but now I am using them and taking no chances.

Atomic charges no tax and has free shipping over $50 by the way, the only one of those stores that does both, I believe.

I will have to check out Brother Belial. I haven't heard of them before now.

I have seen some crazy bills on reddit lately and people are freaking out.

Check out this subreddit for more info and examples - DHL | Excellence. Simply delivered.

Wow. I'd heard some bad reports via various media outlets, but man, there's some unbelievably nasty costs being incurred by folks in that subreddit.

And sadly I'm sure there are plenty of people – of a certain stripe – in America who cling to the jaw-dropping notion that U.S. retailers are just being greedy because the tariffs are 'paid' by China, Europe, wherever. Sigh. I was fairly certain that the cancelling of your de minimis exemption down there would be the 'light bulb' that suddenly switched on over these peoples' heads regarding what their government is doing and how its unequivocally impacting them directly, but I can picture many still cluelessly blaming this on retailers taking advantage or whatever.

It's why retailers should call these out as tariff charges. I mean there are some clueless people out there but when you see a fee due to tariffs on an international shipment straight from Fedex or DHL, I'm not sure what else can be done.

Any other sites like these other than the ones mentioned?

It really is the wild west right now, there is a lot of confusion with the carriers, customs brokers, etc., no one really knows what the fuck they are supposed to be doing because there is so much conflicting, and changing information and guidance. If I was in the US I wouldn't even risk ordering something from another country for awhile, I've heard plenty of horror stories already.

Agreed. Pray for the midterms to fix this in a year.

Amazon, if you order an import from Amazon USA. Not sure how ebay is handling it.

Here in Canada, Canada Post has partnered with a company called Zonos, a Canadian entity who act as a collection agency which collects and remits duties to the US government on any US-bound shipments from Canada. This requires filling-out paperwork through Zonos as well as Customs paperwork. Even when the duties are paid, it's uncertain if your eBay customer might be subject to further handling/export fees once it arrives to their doorstep.

As an eBay seller, I have just quit attempting to sell internationally due to the uncertainty and possible surcharges beyond my control, which as a seller, I will ultimately be held responsible for.

eBay has tried to set-up an expedited international selling program but the uncertainty and extra hassle for low-price items like DVDs are no longer worth the effort.

I don't blame you, many non-US sellers are giving up selling and shipping to the US, especially low value items, it's just not worth it anymore. After the de minimis was completely removed, the customs brokerage that I work at has been clearing shipments into the US like samples worth $1.00 and having to charge our customers much more than that for our services. Before the law changed, anything valued at under $800.00 could be shipped to the US without any duties, brokerage charges, etc. But with the new law, even a shipment valued at 25 cents ends up wasting time and money for everyone involved and paperwork has to be filed, all that for something worth a quarter, it's madness.

When I ordered from Umbrella in Australia, I don't think I saw any tariffs.

The seller may have pre-paid the tariffs before the package left Australia. That's the shrewd concept where any country exporting to the US must incur the extra expense of collecting the tariffs in exchange for the privilege of selling to the US market.

US consumers may find that some items are no longer available or they will be only available at an inflated price to cover the import tariff expenses. Will this concept re-ignite the US manufacturing sector? Maybe? Americans will be encouraged to buy American-made goods but the trade-off is when there is less competition from outside countries, the US consumers may have to pay higher prices.

There are many manufactured goods that are currently impossible to make in the US, and those that could would require a time and financial commitment from any company who wants to build a particular factory here that can manufacture those goods. Most companies would not want to risk the time and money considering the current uncertainty and constantly changing regulations, they need stability in order to risk investment. The whole thing is a tremendously flawed idea.

I just got my Hellraiser steelbook in the mail from Turbine in Germany and luckily I wasn't hit with an orange tariff.

Theoretically, "informational materials" such as books, movies, music, etc. shouldn't be subject to the new tariffs, but since things keep on changing and no one is on the same page, it's a crapshoot whether you will get dinged or not for items like this. You lucked out!

...or Turbine in Germany rolled-in the extra "invisible" expense to the purchase / shipping price. There's always creative ways for exporters to hide any extra expenses they incur to the end US purchaser. It's also commonly referred to as "inflation".

That's certainly possible as well, but I'm guessing it's easier to do on higher priced items. If I was used to buying CDs from a German record label for $20 plus $10 shipping last year and this year the total cost for me was suddenly an additional $15 or more, I'd notice that.

Even worse is the insane shipping cost to the US. For example, a $20 book costs $50 to ship from the UK or a $10 book costs $80 to ship from Australia. No way. Even to ship a single Blu-ray or a CD, the shipping is at least $15 from Europe now, in addition to any shitstain tariffs.

Ridiculous. I'll resort to unabashed piracy before paying this type of exhortion. Downloads are free - no tariffs, no shipping, instant satisfaction.

Depends on the product type and which country they hail from. Comic books for instance from the UK are tariff-free since they are classified as a paper good.

I'll go without before I steal. YMMV = Your Morals May Vary

I have found Fandango At Home a better alternative. Lately I've grabbed many movies for $5...and it's legal.

Shouldn't be surprising. Even domestic shipping rates are astronomical these days. In the past twenty or so years, the prices of Priority shipping have exploded. A large flat-rate Priority Mail box costs over $30 to ship -- back when I was selling on eBay, those used to cost something like four bucks from what I recall. And even media mail starts at something like $4.50, up from, I think, a bit over a dollar.

Christ, I understand why Amazon started their own delivery fleet.

Yes, priority large box used to be $3.90 and media mail used to start at $1.42 (one pound) and go up in increments of about 30 cents a pound - back as recently as 2006-07.

Postage all over is beyond absurd now. I'm buying as much as I can locally. Shipping really kills the deal now. Unless you're willing to pay - what - $149+ per year to Amazon and order exclusively from them to hopefully "break even" by the end of the year. But, they've got your $149 up front.