Custom Fees for Tonearms on Ebay From Japan

I bought 3 tonearms from Japan via eBay a few years ago. A Denon 307 and two Fidelity Research arms: an FR29 and an FR54. No custom fees or tariffs!

Thanks JB - do you recall the carrier?  Was it Fedex, UPS, DHL, EMS etc?

I’m not in the USA, but when I checked for a friend I realized the tax free limit is $2500 (for good for personal use) and then you pay 3-4% import tax if declared value is over $2500. READ THIS!

Slightly different information here.

It doesn’t matter what shipping method do you use. At the moment you can’t use Japan Post (EMS) to ship to USA (covid restrictions by Japan post), only sea mail available. But you can use DHL from Japan to USA.

Ask the seller to declare lower value for custom control and you will not pay any import tax. When I sell something to USA (or elsewhere) declared value is very low, no one never paid any import tax, but every parcel was inspected my custom control in USA (it can take from 2 days to a week).

Misha-

Thanks for the information - definitely helpful.  I'd heard about instances where DHL charged inappropriately for the duties, but its here say and wanted to hear from folks directly.

I'll PM you for some advice once I get decide to go down the Japanese route.