Shown this morning on ZenMarket
Now is a great time to start TRADING to get your new pencil fix satisfied!!!
BTW… customs are considered upon the day it EXITS customs, not ship date or even the day it entered customs….
I learned this personally! (I paid $400.01 to get this information)
Holy crap…
I just got a package a few days ago via ECMS with no tariffs paid. WHERE on the ZenMarket site did you see this? I’d not seen anything on the front page. I did spot this, though:
August 2025 UPDATE: Starting August 20th (JST), ECMS will require customs duties to be prepaid at the time of shipping payment (United States only).
I did not get an email notice either… which is odd. Something this significant usually gets alerted with an email from ZenMarket.
FLAT $80 USD per parcel? That’s really f’ed up… I noticed they said “may be subject” not “will be subject.” Sounds conditional… and I wonder what that is. If “below $500 USD” via ECMS will not flag a tariff then a huge sigh of relief on that.
It’s first thing when I open up the account on the site
Yeah… so it’s not on the site landing page, but on the account landing page:
Btw, there’s a difference between “customs” and “tariffs.” It sounds like ZenMarket charges for the tariff before you pay for shipping…
Are you saying that customs is now levying their own additional costs?
When I shipped via ECMS, here was the tracking:
It went through LAX customs. This was lightning fast compared to NYC customs. My last package that went via AVIA small package went through NYC and customs took 4 days. I didn’t get charged then (back in July).
Customs is the organization that assesses potential tariffs.
Zen market simply stated August 29 as the day that the deminimus is no longer in effect
They’re alerting everyone that there may be tariffs applied moving forward but that no one has given any official statement, only the expiration of the deminimus statute
Your current delivery status or fees aren’t relevant
I know someone who works in the leisure travel industry. They’re NOT doing well. These tariffs are doing more than just penalize American consumers who buy imported products, but it has soured the opinions of people overseas who are like “screw this, we’re boycotting America and vacationing elsewhere.” The way this is going, the ripple effect is starting to be felt and I’m expecting it’ll be a tsunami that can’t be stopped. US economy is going to go into recession. This is so messed up in so many ways. I won’t comment on the person who thought this was a good idea, because that’ll breach the no-politics policy here.
I’d not heard of this term before, “de minimis”. I take it that refers to a threshold where below it the amounts are considered insignificant enough not to merit tariffs / taxation. And now that’s to be gone… no minimum threshold for application of tariffs. Basically it’s a new government tax. MAPA…
Best case scenario… the lack of American purchases, if there is a deficit, might bring down prices. If that happens, the math could even out
There’s a very large Asian collector community. Remember, all it takes is just TWO people to drive up the price of an auction. So I don’t think the tariffs in America are going to make any difference.
Sure, I’d like to think that other the non high mecha type pencils and similar in that category, it’s the Americans (and definitely other countries) who buy them primarily for the prices they’re asking. I’m of the humble opinion that Americans have a decent impact on their bottom line.
Due to Trump’s customs policy, the Czech Post has temporarily stopped receiving parcels to USA.
I am unable to send any pencils for reasonable price until further notice…crazy!
My last proxy package from Japan cleared customs in early August, and a week or so after the fact I received a letter from UPS with a whole lick of tariffs itemized by pencil that they wanted to collect. Ended up being about 10% of the total package value - even though some of the pencils didn’t have customs fees at all, some were assessed at 6.60%, some at 10%, and some at 16.60% (because they were effectively counted twice).
What stinks is UPS also hit me with “Brokerage Charges” for nearly the value of the tariffs. All in all, I ended up paying over $130 in custom duties & “Brokerage Charges” for a package of goods with declared valued around ~$750. I’m sure I could have called someone and gotten an explanation of those brokerage charges, and maybe I will next time. Regardless, seemed like a pretty stiff price for handling a package they’d already been paid to, and then sending me a letter with what I owed for tariffs.
@DarkwingDuck What was the declared value on your package that ended up costing you another $400.01 in fees? Were you into an entirely different tariff category % wise?
For reference, the Duty class numbers my pencils came in under were:
9608.40.4000 (Propelling Or Sliding Pencils, with A Mechanical Action For Extending, or For Extending & Retracting The Lead). These were tariffed at 6.60%.
9903.01.25 - I think this is the general 10% “reciprocal” tariff.
It’s possible (probable?) that the UPS collection letter sent to me actually spans customs duties they want to collect for multiple packages, some handled prior to August 1st, which might explain why some pencils were tariffed at different rates. Alas, the way the letter is itemized is too haphazard to know for sure.
It was just over $800 and yours had to be too. They include shipping charges in the value of the package.
Mine had ballpoints in it and they charged for each of them.
Also UPS
And they charged you 50% of the declared value!? Jésus Cristo… what was the country of origin? @DarkwingDuck
Japan
This was maybe April or March
I stopped shipping ballpoints and started paying attention to value in the package after that
NEVER use UPS. I learned that the hard way.
I think I posted about it HERE. Many of the fees you describe (like brokerage fees) I had to pay for, and that was during the previous administration with no tariffs.
What’s really weird about ballpoints, is that it’s the ink. They declare it as a “potentially hazardous substance” that needs to be examined or tested. JFC… BALLPOINT INK! Heck, in old pens, the problem is you often can’t get old ink out. It’s not gonna leak. It’s not fountain pen ink.
Unfortunately with Buyee they don’t give me a choice - they just pick the cheapest carrier when you pay for Buyee Air delivery. Sometimes it’s UPS, sometimes it’s DHL, sometimes it’s Fedex.
Does zen market let you be explicit about the carrier choice?
Yes
You can pick any one of them when you consolidate the package
My opinion
Pick dhl 100% of the time
I have used Avia small package, ZenExpress, and ECMS (replaced ZenExpress). My last ECMS package left Japan and in 7 days it was at my door. And it was cheap!
Thank you for sharing!
