How much are import taxes when buying pre loved from overseas?

cherrifoam

cherrifoam

O.G.
Sep 4, 2010
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#1
hello all
I wanted to see if anyone who has bought pre loved before, has made any purchases online, perhaps through ebay, from any sellers in japan. I am looking at some cheaper pre loved pieces on eBay to try a re hab project with, but on most of the auctions it says that you would have to pay import taxes or duty fees etc. my question is, has anyone ever bought from an international seller, and can you tell me about how much extra the fees were? I was trying to look it up online and am not getting many specifics. I know it also depends on the price of the item so if anyone has any examples to share that would be awesome. Like I paid Xxxx for the bag and the import taxes were xxxxxx. Thanks in advance!
I know that buying pre Loved online Is not for everyone. I am not looking for opinions on buying pre loved or if the sellers can be trusted to send authentic items, I am just looking for info on how much taxes \ duties someone has paid if they HAVE done this.
 
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#2
cherrifoam said:
hello all
I wanted to see if anyone who has bought pre loved before, has made any purchases online, perhaps through ebay, from any sellers in japan. I am looking at some cheaper pre loved pieces on eBay to try a re hab project with, but on most of the auctions it says that you would have to pay import taxes or duty fees etc. my question is, has anyone ever bought from an international seller, and can you tell me about how much extra the fees were? I was trying to look it up online and am not getting many specifics. I know it also depends on the price of the item so if anyone has any examples to share that would be awesome. Like I paid Xxxx for the bag and the import taxes were xxxxxx. Thanks in advance!
I know that buying pre Loved online Is not for everyone. I am not looking for opinions on buying pre loved or if the sellers can be trusted to send authentic items, I am just looking for info on how much taxes \ duties someone has paid if they HAVE done this.
Click to expand...
FYI: Sometimes you won’t have to pay anything extra as agents dont check every package that enters the country.
 
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#3
What is your location and which country would you be buying from?

I purchased a vintage LV piece from Japan, I’m located in the Netherlands... I ended up paying import tax and an administration fee. It was still much cheaper than buying from Europe!
 
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#4
cherrifoam said:
hello all
I wanted to see if anyone who has bought pre loved before, has made any purchases online, perhaps through ebay, from any sellers in japan. I am looking at some cheaper pre loved pieces on eBay to try a re hab project with, but on most of the auctions it says that you would have to pay import taxes or duty fees etc. my question is, has anyone ever bought from an international seller, and can you tell me about how much extra the fees were? I was trying to look it up online and am not getting many specifics. I know it also depends on the price of the item so if anyone has any examples to share that would be awesome. Like I paid Xxxx for the bag and the import taxes were xxxxxx. Thanks in advance!
I know that buying pre Loved online Is not for everyone. I am not looking for opinions on buying pre loved or if the sellers can be trusted to send authentic items, I am just looking for info on how much taxes \ duties someone has paid if they HAVE done this.
Click to expand...

From what I've read on the forums is people living in the US has to pay sometimes but not all the time. It seems like it depends on the agent handling your package. I'm from EU so I don't really know the specific fees for the US.

Sophie-Rose said:
What is your location and which country would you be buying from?

I purchased a vintage LV piece from Japan, I’m located in the Netherlands... I ended up paying import tax and an administration fee. It was still much cheaper than buying from Europe!
Click to expand...

In EU and Canada it seems like they are superstrict with custom/tax and admin fees. I want to buy on ebay as well and see the lucrative prices from the japanese sellers but the custom/admin/tax fees are always in the back of my head. In the end it feels it's not even worth buying from Japan even if I'm super super tempted. I'm from Sweden.

If anyone has anymore info about import fees please let us know. :smile:
 
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#5
I’m in the U.S. and I’ve been told by Japanese sellers that if the package is valued at $800 or more then you will probably have to pay fees. Although, I have heard that sometimes things certainly can slip by customs officials too. However, if you buy a preloved bag, are in the U.S., I would just expect to pay taxes.
 
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#6
I think it’s best to always take the customs/tax and an admin charge into consideration when buying internationally... and if they don’t check your parcel then that’s just an added bonus!
 
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#8
I am in Germany and have bought overseas from the US. My bags always ended up in customs and for leather bags it is 19% (taxes) + 4% (leather bag) additionally from the paid price.
 
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#10
It depends on where you are, where the item is made, which company is shipping your item, what the value is declared as. Doesn't really matter where the shipment originated from.

I'm in Canada and customs fees on (not made in USA or Canada) handbags is 10%. Then a provincial sales tax is added (I live in a province without PST, thank goodness) and federal sales tax GST 5% is added. If shipping by the country's regular mail service which comes in Canada Post, usually they will add a $10 handling charge. If shipping by UPS or Fedex, the cost is typically much higher because they charge the recipient brokerage fees... this can be anywhere around $30-$50 in my experience. I've researched customs duty as a seller selling to the US and I believe if there is a fee slapped on, it's 9.5% but US buyers seem to have it a bit easier than us Canadians.

I've ordered a few preloved items from Japan which have made it past customs without getting dinged, but in these cases it was because the seller under-declared the value so it slipped past customs without the extra fees. I've also had a $5,000 Chanel make it past customs via UPS because the seller wrapped the box in birthday paper and declared it under $100 so it was never opened nor slapped with a fee (that was super nerve wracking though). I didn't ask the seller to do this though and I'm always prepared to pay if I'm buying preloved and factor this into my purchase price.

I've been buying preloved for 13 years now.
 
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#11
It depends of the country where you live. For example I’m from Mexico and I frequently shop from Japanese sellers on eBay, only once I’ve paid customs fees, I bought a Keepall and they charged me like 20% of the original cost.
 
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#13
MyMelodyLV said:
I’m in the U.S. and I’ve been told by Japanese sellers that if the package is valued at $800 or more then you will probably have to pay fees. Although, I have heard that sometimes things certainly can slip by customs officials too. However, if you buy a preloved bag, are in the U.S., I would just expect to pay taxes.
Click to expand...

Yes o was just wondering if there was any insight to how much they would be. Like if I purchased a used bag for 400 or so, am I going to wind up paying an extra 300 in taxes/duties?? Or is it going to be under $100. That’s what I was curious about.
 
#14
tmasjeg said:
It depends of the country where you live. For example I’m from Mexico and I frequently shop from Japanese sellers on eBay, only once I’ve paid customs fees, I bought a Keepall and they charged me like 20% of the original cost.
Click to expand...

Thank you. That is helpful!
How do they contact you to pay it? Do they hold the item at the post office and you would have to go there to pay the extra fees before receiving it?
 
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