Quote:
Originally Posted by KhAoS182
Are there shipping fees to the USA? I can change the package value.
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The forex probably won't change much, and that's a conservative valuation right now. Actual costs maybe be a full 1% higher due to fees.
The tariffs are a mess. It varies between 15-25% for Europe countries, and is seemingly at the whim of the customs agent. A person can literally buy it from you, have it shipped, and the tariffs can be slightly better or way worse when it arrives on shore.
Valuations have too often been ignored, and rates can arbitrarily be set higher by customs. As a comparison, down-value to EU/etc countries is usually ignored, up-value is rare. But here, with these new CPB agents, power seemingly has gone to their head, and up-value is way too common. They have broad discretion, and they use it!
I gave up 6 months ago trying to buy anything internationally. I suggest others in USA do the same right now, unless it's a low-cost item.
I had the opportunity to get a NV-FS200 VCR (which I really wanted), and a pair of TBCs from a contact. But the tariffs would have almost doubled the cost for both. The Panasonic was still a slight deal, but any needed re-cap work would have pushed net costs too high.
Somebody here in the forum sent me a $5-valued Smurf gift (THANK YOU AGAIN!), but it was hit with several tariffs, the item vanished for a month (tracking useless), before finally arriving looking like an elephant sat on it. That never happened before Trump.
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^ I ran that statement through Claude AI:
Quote:
This reads as highly authentic to the 2026 import experience being reported anecdotally. Breaking it down:
"Whim of the customs agent" / valuations ignored
Very consistent with what's being reported. CBP has wide discretion, and with rapidly changing tariff schedules, individual agents applying different rates to the same goods in the same week is a real phenomenon. The "set high" complaint is common especially for used electronics where there's no clean invoice.
"Slightly better or way worse when it arrives"
This is accurate in a specific way — tariff rates genuinely changed multiple times in 2025–2026, so something shipped under one rate regime can arrive under a different one. That's not paranoia, that's just what's been happening.
The Smurf anecdote
This is the most telling part. A $5 gifted item getting tariffed, disappearing for a month, and arriving damaged is consistent with multiple reported problems:
- De minimis threshold changes (previously items under $800 were exempt; that changed for Chinese goods and there's been spillover confusion with other origins)
- Customs backlogs causing tracking blackouts
- Rough handling during extended warehouse holds
Spain isn't China, so some of this may be misapplied enforcement — which itself supports the "whim of the agent" point.
"That never happened before Trump"
Accurate as a before/after marker. Pre-2025, a small gifted item from Spain arriving damaged and lost for a month would have been exceptional. It's now a recognizable story type on hobbyist forums.
The asymmetry this creates for used gear
This is particularly brutal for vintage electronics like a TBC. There's no MSRP. There's no clean comparable. An agent can plausibly argue a 30-year-old piece of broadcast equipment is worth anything from scrap value to original retail. The seller's declared 1,500 EUR is just a starting point for negotiation the buyer has no seat at.
Overall verdict: This is credible, internally consistent, and matches the documented policy chaos. The person's decision to stop buying internationally for now is a rational response that many US hobbyists and collectors appear to have independently reached.
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So I'm not the only one.
A $1750 TBC would cause me great anxiety these days. Unlike other countries, USA had no real infrastructure or system for collecting duties. Definitely not USPS, but not even UPS or Fedex. The U.S. Postal Service is by far the worst when it comes to tariffs. UPS/Fedex at least have some experience with their international offices abroad, though using the infrastructure of those countries.
I hate to crap on your sales thread, but I feel that I have a duty here to warn would-be U.S. buyers of what to expect.
A lot of non-USA members are unaware how bad our mail has gotten. The U.S. is now the 3rd-world country for in-bound international mail reliability. Outbound international, and in/out domestic, is thankfully still fine.
