Good news for everyone based in the US, I’m no longer suspending shipments to the US, as there is a more affordable alternative to the ridiculous $125 shipping option. However, it does come with a bunch of caveats, and it is not as cheap as it used to be.
Shipping to the US is now done in two standard options, both of which are more expensive than the previous registered service.
- Standard envelope, which is for items up to 0.5kg, and costs $23.
- Standard box, which is for items up to 2kg, and costs $54.
The shipping rates above are flat rates, so there will be no variability based on the items being shipped. However, taxes will need to be paid upfront on the items being shipped, and there is a maximum value of $100 that can be shipped to the US. I will cover the taxes, as I have always declared the value of the items being shipped to be $20, though I’m probably going to decrease it to $10 to reduce the taxes. I will also declare everything to be made in the US, regardless of where the item is actually from. I bought most of the yoyos from the US anyway, from YoYoExpert. Freebies like strings, stickers and bearings that I throw in have to be declared as well, and I will declare those as $1 as I can’t declare them as free or $0.
Another important caveat is that there is absolutely no recourse if the package does not get delivered to you, as the only option for US packages is to abandon the shipment. I won’t be able to get the package back if the shipment fails for any reason. This is different for shipments to other countries, as the default is to return the package to the sender.
I’m not sure if it’s possible for me to ship yoyos inside the standard envelope ($23), but it might be possible for orders with just a single yoyo. I’m not sure if the envelope is made of plastic or paper, but if it is paper, I don’t think that would be suitable for shipping yoyos. I will try to see if it’s possible to do so to keep the cost of shipping down, and of course, stuff lots of newspaper inside the envelope, but I think it would be safer to go with the standard box ($54) option.
If you would like to get the most bang for your buck, I suggest bulk ordering since shipping is flat rate and 2kg can really fit a lot of yoyos. Also, I will always declare all the yoyos to be worth either $20 or $10, regardless of how many there are. If a bunch of people are okay with collating their orders to send to an address before being re-shipped elsewhere, I can do that too to save on the shipment cost.
Unfortunately, I think this is probably going to be the best way to ship to the US for quite a while, until the US decides to reintroduce the de minimis exemption again.
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