US TARIFFS ARE BRUTAL (Personal Anecdote)

[JustinG]

Well, without getting into any political debate. The reality of tariffs just emphasized that they are indeed real to me today....
I was successful in a bid from a reputable Canadian Dealer I have dealt with in the past. In the past, shipping was $30 USD for a small package. That was what the fees for shipping and handling were before. Now, a whole new category of fees that are just added: an Administrative fee went to $87.64 and shipping now $38USD. I am not sure if this is due to the declared value of the item purchased or what, but that is a sizeable fee, at least IMHO.
I used to like scouting ebay.de or other sites, perhaps finding a straggling item that might have a price of €35-60 euro. Well, I won't be so quick to buy now that the potential "good deal/price" is now obliterated by fees and taxes.

Ouch. That will have me really considering my foreign purchases.

Just sharing a personal anecdote

Best Regards,
JustinG

 

[JPT]

Well, without getting into any political debate. The reality of tariffs just emphasized that they are indeed real to me today....
I was successful in a bid from a reputable Canadian Dealer I have dealt with in the past. In the past, shipping was $30 USD for a small package. That was what the fees for shipping and handling were before. Now, a whole new category of fees that are just added: an Administrative fee went to $87.64 and shipping now $38USD. I am not sure if this is due to the declared value of the item purchased or what, but that is a sizeable fee, at least IMHO.
I used to like scouting ebay.de or other sites, perhaps finding a straggling item that might have a price of €35-60 euro. Well, I won't be so quick to buy now that the potential "good deal/price" is now obliterated by fees and taxes.

Ouch. That will have me really considering my foreign purchases.

Just sharing a personal anecdote

Best Regards,
JustinG

The end of time is near !

 

[coert65]

Well, those tariffs will be paid by all Americans, regardless of what they buy, things from outside the US will all have those tariffs.
As usual, the customer gets the bill. Mr T, and no, not the guy from the A-team, will do serious damage the the US, in the long run.

 

[Bobted]

Dont declare the real value , I never do Old hat $30 theatrical hat $25 etc. Rob

 

[ww1czechlegion]

Well, without getting into any political debate. The reality of tariffs just emphasized that they are indeed real to me today....
I was successful in a bid from a reputable Canadian Dealer I have dealt with in the past. In the past, shipping was $30 USD for a small package. That was what the fees for shipping and handling were before. Now, a whole new category of fees that are just added: an Administrative fee went to $87.64 and shipping now $38USD. I am not sure if this is due to the declared value of the item purchased or what, but that is a sizeable fee, at least IMHO.
I used to like scouting ebay.de or other sites, perhaps finding a straggling item that might have a price of €35-60 euro. Well, I won't be so quick to buy now that the potential "good deal/price" is now obliterated by fees and taxes.

Ouch. That will have me really considering my foreign purchases.

Just sharing a personal anecdote

Best Regards,
JustinG

Hello JustinG,

I have re-read your nice comments above here, and I have several questions for you.

I too, notice that the postal shipping cost has gone up, which is nothing new. I recently mailed a small 4" x 6" bubble pack envelope and the mailing cost has increased 32% from pre-July 2025 time. The price to mail the bubble pack envelope used to be $5.60. The mailing cost is now $7.40. That increase in mailing cost has nothing to do with any tarriffs, period. Lets be clear about this. The U.S. Postal Service had a large price increase jump back in July, which I was not aware of until last week, when I mailed something to a customer. The U.S. Postal service normally has increased their postage rates as each year goes by.

Could you kindly please ask the Canadian dealer to explain to you whether or not the new "administrative" fee has anything whatsoever to do with Tariffs? You have stated the following: "Now, a whole new category of fees that are just added: an Administrative fee went to $87.64 and shipping now $38USD. I am not sure if this is due to the declared value of the item purchased or what, but that is a sizeable fee, at least IMHO." I believe that a breakdown or explanation of this so-called "Administrative fee" would be helpful here to our members, if the Canadian Dealer would be able to show you, or break down exactly what this new fee is for. Could you ask them to show you what the fee is for?

It would also be helpful to readers here if they could have some sort of perspective about the declared value of your purchase, which may or may not correlate directly to this supposed "$87.64 Administrative fee" that you were charged. I understand if you are not willing to share with us the total purchase price of the item(s) you purchased recently from the Canadian dealer. It seems to me that they are not directly stating that this new "Administrative fee" is actually a tariff. It appears to be very unclear about exactly what the fee is for.

I have recently seen on another forum that when U.S. buyers have items they purchased from European auction houses that are shipped using FedEx, that specifically the U.S. buyer is being charged a tariff for importing WW2 era items they purchased. I have as of yet to see evidence of anyone in the U.S. being charged a tariff for purchase of a 100+ year old item from the WW1 era. It seems that the buyers here in the U.S. are only being charged tariff fee/taxes when the seller (auction house in Europe) is using FedEx as the shipping agent.

And more to the point in what I'm trying to say: The paperwork that I have seen from FedEx for the purchase of these WW2 German era items clearly show the charging of a tariff to the buyer. The paperwork I have seen shows the breakdown of the tariff fee, and any administrative fees. I have seen no evidence on the other collector forum, of any tariff being charged to a U.S. buyer when an item has been shipped by the Postal Service, or by United Parcel Service. I have only yet seen FedEx shipper charging a tariff, and it has only been for newer items of WW2 era, nothing on WW1 era items with FedEx.

Best Regards,

Alan

 

[ww1czechlegion]

Dont declare the real value , I never do Old hat $30 theatrical hat $25 etc. Rob

I do similarly, Rob. My customers in Canada and Europe have usually not had to pay any tariff when receiving anything they have purchased from me in the past. And if they have ever had to pay, it is because my customer wanted a higher partial value declared on the customs paperwork for their item, thus triggering a small tariff fee they had to pay. And nothing that I declared at a small value was ever lost, or damaged during transit. The items were always received in good, undamaged condition.

The problem is that large online Dealers, and Auction Houses are usually not willing to declare a small value on the customs paperwork for the buyer. It seems that they declare the full value, or close to the full value of the item.

In the past time here in the U.S., it was never a problem for someone living in the U.S. to receive an item from Europe, or Canada, with the U.S. buyer normally did not have to pay any tariff for buying a 2nd World War era item. It now seems that European sellers using FedEx as their shipping agent currently triggers a tariff fee to any U.S. buyer on items that are less than 100 years old.

Best Wishes,

Alan

 

[coert65]

Hi Alan,
I have bought several helmets/items from sellers in the US, including you, but never paid any tariffs, because here, one only pay's a tax on imported antiques. No tariff, but Importtax, this has alway's been so. Not that I paid any recently, because the value and description of the items was alway's low, and well stated.
Tariff's are only for goods imported to the US, as far as I know.

Regards, Coert.

 

[michiel]

I do similarly, Rob. My customers in Canada and Europe have usually not had to pay any tariff when receiving anything they have purchased from me in the past. And if they have ever had to pay, it is because my customer wanted a higher partial value declared on the customs paperwork for their item, thus triggering a small tariff fee they had to pay. And nothing that I declared at a small value was ever lost, or damaged during transit. The items were always received in good, undamaged condition.

The problem is that large online Dealers, and Auction Houses are usually not willing to declare a small value on the customs paperwork for the buyer. It seems that they declare the full value, or close to the full value of the item.

In the past time here in the U.S., it was never a problem for someone living in the U.S. to receive an item from Europe, or Canada, with the U.S. buyer normally did not have to pay any tariff for buying a 2nd World War era item. It now seems that European sellers using FedEx as their shipping agent currently triggers a tariff fee to any U.S. buyer on items that are less than 100 years old.

Best Wishes,

Alan

Dear Alan,
As I purchased several objects from you and Brian calkins, I can confirm this, happy about handling every time, we repeatedly succeeded in low custom cost shipping, but is is not stressfree…
But stating a low value for shipment can be risky, it went well every time, but what if a parcel gets lost?, typically items coming over the ocean can be tracked and traced, the seem to disappear in a black hole for over a week everytime it goes through customs, ( sometimes for weeks), thereafter it typically is just left at the front door without any needs to sign, (whereas it is an insured track and trace item),
So, in conclusion, happy the way it worked out every time, but slow and somewhat stressful/ risky it seems to me…

 

[Doug B]

Importing at a low declared value bites you in the ass when customs asks for proof of payment to match to a low declared value.

Administrative fees aren’t tariffs, that is duty, and depending on how it’s shipped and declared (no commercial invoice created, incorrect or unclear description resulting in a wrong harmonized code used, etc) and the courier used, admin fees vary wildly. UPS charges anywhere between $10 to $100 to broker in an item here varying on land or air crossing (air being far cheaper) and how it’s invoiced by the seller.

I think the carrier charged you fees to broker the item through. Ask dealers who they ship with and ensure a commercial invoice is created by the seller and not just a bill of lading.

 

[chinstrap]

I agree with Michiel. Maybe I’m too much of a pessimist, but I always ask for the full value of an item I’m buying from abroad to be shown on customs forms, in case the item goes astray or is damaged or destroyed. I just have to accept any charges. The same applies within the UK when I’m happy to pay a seller for full insured postage, and, as a seller’ I insist on the buyer paying for full insurance, as I don’t want a problem coming back to bite me. I guess it depends on one’s attitude to risk taking, which is whole different philosophical question!

 

[michiel]

I agree with Michiel. Maybe I’m too much of a pessimist, but I always ask for the full value of an item I’m buying from abroad to be shown on customs forms, in case the item goes astray or is damaged or destroyed. I just have to accept any charges. The same applies within the UK when I’m happy to pay a seller for full insured postage, and, as a seller’ I insist on the buyer paying for full insurance, as I don’t want a problem coming back to bite me. I guess it depends on one’s attitude to risk taking, which is whole different philosophical question!

I do agree on your risk taking attitude, remark , as long as the value is below 1000 euros I would definitely choose aiming for low value attribution to avoid high customs, because if lost it is a real nuisance but not the end of the world, but for much more pricey objects or unique objects I would not dare to take the gamble…. As you point out depends on your psychology/ philosophy

 

[John Josef]

It should be the buyers choice always, and if it gets lost they eat it if they decide to lie.

 

[Bobted]

In my experience the more bells and whistles you buy ....insurance registered signature express etc the longer it takes and the more likely its gonna get stolen. Just had a $4000 item sent to me guaranteed next day signature before 6 guess what it did not turn up or the Sunday, so Monday posty rocks up singing to i tunes and plonks it in the mail box without a signature or photo or anything! Poster is trying to get a Guaranteed refund of $50 post off them and guess what, sorry you need to speak to head office etc yada yada yada. I just send priority no value ( internally ) Worldwide and practically everyone says low value standard first class air international.

if you earn $1 an hour and you see a description

GOLD WATCH value $9000 it just might get stolen

 

[ww1czechlegion]

I agree with Michiel. Maybe I’m too much of a pessimist, but I always ask for the full value of an item I’m buying from abroad to be shown on customs forms, in case the item goes astray or is damaged or destroyed. I just have to accept any charges. The same applies within the UK when I’m happy to pay a seller for full insured postage, and, as a seller’ I insist on the buyer paying for full insurance, as I don’t want a problem coming back to bite me. I guess it depends on one’s attitude to risk taking, which is whole different philosophical question!

I would like to call to attention that when shipping Internationally from the United States, many countries, including European countries, have very low level of value that can be insured on a package. I am guessing that some here may not realize this fact.

From my extensive shipping experience mailing to various European countries, I have discovered that many countries in Europe have a very low value amount that can actually be insured on an item when mailing a package via the United States Postal Service to a European destination country. In other words, I have seen some countries can only be insured on the value of the package to an amount of $80 USD. I have seen some destination country have a much lower value of say, $40, or $50 insurable amount on the package. Yes, this is true. Some countries are only slightly higher, such as a little over $100. Of course a package can be sent "Registered" or Signature Required, but if the package gets damaged or lost, that low value threshold value amount is what will get paid out by the postal service. A package that can only be insured for say, $100, will not be paid out more than $100, even if the value of the object is stated as $1,500 or more.

Seeing and reading this may be an eye opener for some in Europe who do not realize this fact, thinking if they declare the full value on a package and full insurance may be surprised when their $1,000 plus value helmet can only be insured to say, $100, or maybe $150. Thus the payout will never be anywhere close to the full value of the helmet.

Best Wishes,

Alan

 

[ww1czechlegion]

In my experience the more bells and whistles you buy ....insurance registered signature express etc the longer it takes and the more likely its gonna get stolen. Just had a $4000 item sent to me guaranteed next day signature before 6 guess what it did not turn up or the Sunday, so Monday posty rocks up singing to i tunes and plonks it in the mail box without a signature or photo or anything! Poster is trying to get a Guaranteed refund of $50 post off them and guess what, sorry you need to speak to head office etc yada yada yada. I just send priority no value ( internally ) Worldwide and practically everyone says low value standard first class air international.

if you earn $1 an hour and you see a description

GOLD WATCH value $9000 it just might get stolen

Thanks for sharing this Rob.

I'm not surprised this happened to you, that they missed having you sign to receive the package, and they simply dumped it off in your mailbox.

I've had the postal service miss scanning a package delivery to me, several times over the years.

Best Wishes,

Alan

 

[JustinG]

Hello JustinG,

I have re-read your nice comments above here, and I have several questions for you.

I too, notice that the postal shipping cost has gone up, which is nothing new. I recently mailed a small 4" x 6" bubble pack envelope and the mailing cost has increased 32% from pre-July 2025 time. The price to mail the bubble pack envelope used to be $5.60. The mailing cost is now $7.40. That increase in mailing cost has nothing to do with any tarriffs, period. Lets be clear about this. The U.S. Postal Service had a large price increase jump back in July, which I was not aware of until last week, when I mailed something to a customer. The U.S. Postal service normally has increased their postage rates as each year goes by.

Could you kindly please ask the Canadian dealer to explain to you whether or not the new "administrative" fee has anything whatsoever to do with Tariffs? You have stated the following: "Now, a whole new category of fees that are just added: an Administrative fee went to $87.64 and shipping now $38USD. I am not sure if this is due to the declared value of the item purchased or what, but that is a sizeable fee, at least IMHO." I believe that a breakdown or explanation of this so-called "Administrative fee" would be helpful here to our members, if the Canadian Dealer would be able to show you, or break down exactly what this new fee is for. Could you ask them to show you what the fee is for?

It would also be helpful to readers here if they could have some sort of perspective about the declared value of your purchase, which may or may not correlate directly to this supposed "$87.64 Administrative fee" that you were charged. I understand if you are not willing to share with us the total purchase price of the item(s) you purchased recently from the Canadian dealer. It seems to me that they are not directly stating that this new "Administrative fee" is actually a tariff. It appears to be very unclear about exactly what the fee is for.

I have recently seen on another forum that when U.S. buyers have items they purchased from European auction houses that are shipped using FedEx, that specifically the U.S. buyer is being charged a tariff for importing WW2 era items they purchased. I have as of yet to see evidence of anyone in the U.S. being charged a tariff for purchase of a 100+ year old item from the WW1 era. It seems that the buyers here in the U.S. are only being charged tariff fee/taxes when the seller (auction house in Europe) is using FedEx as the shipping agent.

And more to the point in what I'm trying to say: The paperwork that I have seen from FedEx for the purchase of these WW2 German era items clearly show the charging of a tariff to the buyer. The paperwork I have seen shows the breakdown of the tariff fee, and any administrative fees. I have seen no evidence on the other collector forum, of any tariff being charged to a U.S. buyer when an item has been shipped by the Postal Service, or by United Parcel Service. I have only yet seen FedEx shipper charging a tariff, and it has only been for newer items of WW2 era, nothing on WW1 era items with FedEx.

Best Regards,

Alan

Ok, Thanks Alan for bringing up good points. Yes, The USPS and others have increased their shipping costs. The grouping I was successful for was for a metal (Tombak) badge, zinc metal wappen, a silver/bronze pin/nadel, two award documents and a period book. The final price was $1767. The 24% (hammer price) added an additional $424.08 to the price. Then the above "Administrative fee of $87.64 and shipping via FedEX for small parcel $38. So my total payment $2316.72.

 

[Doug B]

In my experience the more bells and whistles you buy ....insurance registered signature express etc the longer it takes and the more likely its gonna get stolen. Just had a $4000 item sent to me guaranteed next day signature before 6 guess what it did not turn up or the Sunday, so Monday posty rocks up singing to i tunes and plonks it in the mail box without a signature or photo or anything! Poster is trying to get a Guaranteed refund of $50 post off them and guess what, sorry you need to speak to head office etc yada yada yada. I just send priority no value ( internally ) Worldwide and practically everyone says low value standard first class air international.

if you earn $1 an hour and you see a description

GOLD WATCH value $9000 it just might get stolen

First mistake was sending it post. I wouldn’t send a bag of dog poop through the postal service. FedEx UPS DHL all via international express insured and tracked with signature. Usually never a problem. @ccj and I had quite the fun time on a helmet a few months ago with UPS however so no method is fully bulletproof.

 

[Steve Nick]

Interesting conversation. It seems that the less attention you attract the lower the probability of encountering problems.

 

[Doug B]

Interesting conversation. It seems that the less attention you attract the lower the probability of encountering problems.

If you’re going by postall service I’d agree.

 

[MAP]

An AI overview so take it for what it is worth....but seems like Antiques made in say Germany but purchased in Canada for shipment to the US would be subject to the prevailing European tariff rate. Unless I'm reading it wrong...( See "tariffs based on country of manufacture" below)

It appears that most antiques purchased in Canada and shipped to the United States are subject to the new tariffs, with some important distinctions:

• Antiques are generally subject to tariffs: The US enacted a 10% general import tariff on all goods starting April 5, 2025, including previously exempt categories such as antiques.
• Canada-specific tariffs: In addition to the general tariffs, Canadian-origin goods are subject to a 35% tariff as of August 1, 2025, an increase from a previous 25% rate.
• USMCA exemption: Goods that qualify for preferential treatment under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA/CUSMA) are exempt from these tariffs. However, according to experts, it's often difficult to prove USMCA/CUSMA compliance for vintage and antique items due to lack of documentation.
• Tariffs are based on country of manufacture: The tariff applied depends on where the antique was originally made, not where it was shipped from. So, if an antique made in Canada is shipped from the UK, it would still be subject to the Canadian tariff rate when entering the US.
• Antiques over 100 years old are generally duty-free but still subject to the new tariffs: While Chapter 9706 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) states that antiques over 100 years old are duty-free with proof of age, they are still subject to the newly imposed tariffs.
• Original artwork and sculptures are exempt: The US government views original artwork and sculptures as a form of communication and has exempted them from the current tariffs, according to sources. This exemption is included under 50 U.S.C. §1702(b) of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

In summary, unless an antique from Canada qualifies for the USMCA/CUSMA exemption or falls under the specific exemption for original artwork, it will likely be subject to a 35% tariff when imported into the US. It's recommended to consult with a customs broker for specific guidance on individual antique purchases.