Tariffs on Overseas Purchases

[stan]

Kindly post your thoughts on the impacts of American tariffs. How to buy from overseas sellers? How will tariffs/fees be collected? Strategies?

 

Please do not post any obscene, derogatory, political, or the like comments. 

Should you do so you will be exiled from this forum. Thanks. I am the Moderator and can do so.

[mke]

I guess if a pen is suddenly 25% (Japan tariffs) more expensive, people will think twice or more often before they buy.

I would do so.

 

[Estycollector]

Buy sooner than later. Just checked eBay Wing Sung prices which appear to have not changed, but customs costs may increase the final price. 

[stan]

We travel to Japan often and bring back items for personal use. Don't remember the maximum allowed withhout duties. Believe to be $1,000 per person. How is this impacted by the tariffs? I don't think every traveller will have their luggage inspected for pens.

[InkyProf]

I don't know about hand-carry in luggage, but for shipping, I believe the "de minimis exemption" (one max USD$800 package per person per day) was revoked for goods entering the USA from China, but not for goods from other countries. IIRC, the de minimis exemption had also been revoked as part of the initial round of Canada/Mexico tariffs back in February, but that revocation was walked back after customs officials said it would be unworkable to process every package. Caveat: I'm not an expert, and this is my initial impression from reading media reports and press releases, not the full text of yesterday's orders -- and this is all potentially a moving target anyway.

[InkyProf]

Which is to say: occasional direct-to-consumer shipments of sub-$800 pens from overseas (other than China) might be unaffected, but there will presumably now be a complex negotiation between manufacturers, international distributors, and US retailers about whether and how to absorb some or all of the tariffs imposed on commercial shipments. My worry is that the losers in that negotiation* will be small retailers already operating on narrow margins.

 

*because it's probably not actually a "negotiation," but a series of decisions made by the biggest players whose effects cascade down to the smallest ones, who aren't in a position to do much except deal with the consequences.

[a student]

• Prima facie, from a logical perspective, it would appear that the general tariff announced for imports from Japan would be applied for commercial imports
• Unless the Japanese seller or the US retailer absorb some of this tariff in their prices (that is sacrifice some of their profit), the prices in the US for Japanese pens ought to increase by a corresponding amount.
• Personal import is a different issue depending on the value of the goods and the declaration made to the customs
• (That said, perhaps a person with a working knowledge of US customs practice could offer some helpful advice)

[mke]

More about de

  On 4/3/2025 at 1:08 PM, InkyProf said:

de minimis exemption

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More about it - for Chinese goods:

https://www.barrons.com/articles/cheap-shein-temu-finds-are-history-import-loophole-closed-9156ac5f

[InkyProf]

Thanks, @mke. Important detail from that article that I hadn't yet seen: 

 

  Quote

A separate order said de minimis would eventually be ended for parcels mailed from the rest of the world once those systems were ready to “fully and expeditiously” process the duties.

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[Paul-in-SF]

  On 4/3/2025 at 5:03 AM, mke said:

I guess if a pen is suddenly 25% (Japan tariffs) more expensive, people will think twice or more often before they buy.

I would do so.

 

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It is apparently the case that tariffs at some level are intended to be applied to all products from all countries. Since there are very few commercial pen producers in the US (or any at all?*) who might benefit from these tariffs, fountain pen prices can only rise in the coming months. 

 

*I think it would not be enough for the company to be based in the US, what matters is where the pens are actually produced. There just aren't that many large-scale pen producers in this country that I can think of. 

[inkstainedruth]

Before this all hit, I ordered a Pilot Decimo for my husband directly from an eBay seller in Japan.  There was some FUBAR over being able to track the package and I had to contact eBay for assistance, but there were no issues price-wise....

Of course, I'm now wondering whether the trouble our car mechanic had in ordering a part for our Toyota Prius (he got sent the WRONG part twice, and the first time he'd already painted it so he couldn't return it) is a result of tariff stuff (i.e., that he was sent what was in stock, even though it was NOT the correct part).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Ron Z]

Just a reminder, no politics. 

[jthole]

To maybe put things in a worldwide perspective:

 

Tariffs and high taxes on imported luxury goods have been the norm in many countries for years (sometimes almost 50%). And they still buy fountain pens.

 

I understand price increases are not fun, but for fountain pen collectors, the consequences are probably manageable.

[PPPR]

  On 4/4/2025 at 8:18 PM, jthole said:

[snippage]

 

I understand price increases are not fun, but for fountain pen collectors, the consequences are probably manageable.

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Absolutely agree. The result is fewer pens bought than before, which means fewer pens made. Doesn't take a rocket scientist since even I figured that one out.

[jthole]

  On 4/4/2025 at 11:54 PM, PPPR said:

Absolutely agree. The result is fewer pens bought than before, which means fewer pens made. Doesn't take a rocket scientist since even I figured that one out.

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Which could suggest that pen manufacturers worldwide are now heavily dependent on USA sales. So maybe the fact that USA consumer prices fall more in line with what people in other countries pay, will force those manufacturers to pay attention to more markets than the American one. I think that’s not bad in the longer term.

[A Smug Dill]

  On 4/5/2025 at 5:03 AM, jthole said:

Which could suggest that pen manufacturers worldwide are now heavily dependent on USA sales …‹snip›… will force those manufacturers to pay attention to more markets than the American one.

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I really don't think the Chinese fountain pen industry, being a significant force in terms of both producing ‘new’ models and driving uptake of fountain pens (by sheer number of individual users, and also units sold per capita), neither depends on sales in the US market nor puts that much emphasis on appealing to overseas buyers in general.

 

I'm ‘sure’ a lot of American consumers don't like it put that way, but for Chinese brands, at best the US market is an afterthought and revenue from it is nice to have. Otherwise, there would long have been official distributors (and accordingly beefed-up legal representation) for Jinhao, Wing Sung, Hero, Duke, Majohn, HongDian, etc. in the US, the way Pilot and Platinum have.

 

(US companies moving production of their ‘Western’ branded products to Chinese factories is a different matter altogether.)

[mke]

  On 4/5/2025 at 5:03 AM, jthole said:

pen manufacturers worldwide are now heavily dependent on USA sales

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I think they do. Even the second-hand markets depends on the US. When I sold my pens, 90% of the interest/sales came from Americans.

Probably, there are some local markets like in Japan (Yahoo Auctions, Mercari, ...) which can survive without - but I guess that demand will drop - and prices.

 

Demand from US will drop if the imported pens will be taxed. I saw such dropping demand already when Japanpost increased their shipping cost in 2020 - and that was not in the order of 25%.

 

[jthole]

  On 4/5/2025 at 6:31 AM, mke said:

I think they do. Even the second-hand markets depends on the US. When I sold my pens, 90% of the interest/sales came from Americans.

Probably, there are some local markets like in Japan (Yahoo Auctions, Mercari, ...) which can survive without - but I guess that demand will drop - and prices.

 

Demand from US will drop if the imported pens will be taxed. I saw such dropping demand already when Japanpost increased their shipping cost in 2020 - and that was not in the order of 25%.

 

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Question is (and I am not an economist, so I don't know) ... how bad is that really in the long term? I do understand Americans don't want to pay more (but they have been in an advantageous position for a long time), but it will force manufacturers to diversify and to pay more attention to other markets. It may also encourage new "trading networks" to form, outside of the USA.

 

Wouldn't that be an advantage if you look at it from a worldwide perspective?

[Ron Z]

The US is a small part of fountain pen sales.  I know that this may not be the case for all manufacturers, but we were told by a Sheaffer distributor that the US accounted for about 10% of Sheaffer's sales, with the main market being the far east. 

[stan]

Should American buyers be deterred in purchasing new pens by import duties (tariffs) the used market should improve. We need to keep an eye on offerings on eBay and at pen shows. Let's see how many used 'modern' pens show up for sale.

 

This may mirror the used automobile market that will improve as buyers are dissuaded from buying higher priced new cars and trucks. BTW, employeee pricing only lasts so long.