rakuten customs fees

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TheDispossessed

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about how much are the customs fees associated with purchasing knives through rakuten for delivery to the US??
 
In my experience there are no customs fees to the U.S.---just shipping costs.
 
I have never experienced a customs fee from Rakuten.
 
When I purchased smth through Rakuten, the item got "caught" by the customs office. Bear in mind that many Japanese won't indicate a price lower than real and so things might get caught easily. In my case (I live in Austria, Europe) custom duty was approx. 5% + another 20% VAT which made the whole deal unattractive in the end...
 
In Europe the problem is VAT. That is why the perfect vendor for oversea purchase is a person that don't mind to have flexible listing price.
 
Vendors that actually list actual price are dumbass! Handmade stuff like custom kitchen knives have no definite value, it's value highly depends on the buyers. It's not like a cellphone or other electronic stuff where there is an average market price, which the custom will know even without seeing the real price. It's just stupid to do that to handmade products.

Bear in mind that many Japanese won't indicate a price lower than real and so things might get caught easily.
MetalMasterJP is an exception? I told him that I don't want to get taxed by Custom, and he did as requested.
 
You guy's in the us are so lucky here in germany the customs have made a killinh out of me in the last year it adds up to about 25 percent of the original price
 
Vendors that actually list actual price are dumbass!

i bought a Takahiro pour-over pot for coffee on Rakuten and the vendor actually listed it as a bit MORE than i paid--so basically, living in Thailand, i paid steep customs fee *and* VAT.

some undervalue, some value accurately... i can't say first hand if any shops will negotiate, tbh; i don't read or write Japanese.

here in Thailand, there are massive import duties on some things (wine? shoes, which aren't available locally in large sizes? OUCH!) but others (smartphones) no tax at all. Kitchen gadgets are in between. I was taxed hard on the coffee pot but not taxed at all on a Thermapen, in spite of it being valued honestly. I know the thread's not about Thailand but if anyone out there is here, PM me and I'll send you a link to the Thai import duty tables... have some tissues handy. you WILL weep.
 
i bought a Takahiro pour-over pot for coffee on Rakuten and the vendor actually listed it as a bit MORE than i paid--so basically, living in Thailand, i paid steep customs fee *and* VAT.

some undervalue, some value accurately... i can't say first hand if any shops will negotiate, tbh; i don't read or write Japanese.

here in Thailand, there are massive import duties on some things (wine? shoes, which aren't available locally in large sizes? OUCH!) but others (smartphones) no tax at all. Kitchen gadgets are in between. I was taxed hard on the coffee pot but not taxed at all on a Thermapen, in spite of it being valued honestly. I know the thread's not about Thailand but if anyone out there is here, PM me and I'll send you a link to the Thai import duty tables... have some tissues handy. you WILL weep.

Over here, electronic items like phones will surely get taxed hard, worse if you don't list the actual price, because the customs have a ''price list'' of these popular items! You will get taxed more if you're not being honest. It's all about luck when going through customs.

For handmade products like knives, it's plain stupid to list the real price, really.
 
Well LKH9, when ordering an expensive knife with the wrong value on the package, and the package gets lost - theres no restitution for the amount you've originally purchased because the package is only insured for the amount printed on it.
 
Well LKH9, when ordering an expensive knife with the wrong value on the package, and the package gets lost - theres no restitution for the amount you've originally purchased because the package is only insured for the amount printed on it.

Insurance, well, that's a different case if the knife is like $300+

I've seen one vendor on ebay who sells Japanese knives, clearly stating that he won't lower the item value. If it's like that, be prepared to get taxed hard even on cheap items. Over $150 USD, it will get taxed over here. I won't buy anything from that vendor.
 
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