How Affordable are Dollfie Dreams?

1 hour ago, aililysan said:

I did see good deals on Mandarake. Do you need a proxy service to buy from them? Is shipping outrageously expensive? I am used to Ebay so I would be new to that service.

You don't need a proxy service for Mandarake. Shipping can be expensive but you can e-mail them with your address and a link to the item you want and ask for a shipping quote before purchasing anything.

Are there customs fees from Japan to the US from Madarake for items over $800? Thank you. 

Edited July 10, 2021 by Masteryoda1978

36 minutes ago, Masteryoda1978 said:

Are there customs fees from Japan to the US from Madarake for items over $800? Thank you. 

No, the US doesn’t have any customs fees on dolls or doll clothing. 

Your state may levy a Use Tax on out-of-state purchases, and that’s normally an amount equal your sales tax that is paid at the end of the year when you file your taxes. Not all states do this but if your does it will be called on your state tax forms. You should also be able to google “Use Tax” and the name of your state to find out. 

California does, but if California could find a way to tax breathing it would, so no surprises there. 

Thank you I was hoping that there wasn’t. I’ve read that eBay sales do over $800 but I’ve not purchased anything over 800...I was afraid of being hit with unknown possibly high customs fees and nowhere I’ve read otherwise has had any good info. And if you ask the sellers they don’t know for sure. I’m glad that I found this board...people here know what they’re talking about thank you. 

Personally for me, I was out of work for a while due to a surgery and had to sell any dolls I had collected for bills- still so much regret there- but what I did was I found odds and ends to do for cash. Like helping people move, doing freelance work - Graphic design mostly- and other such odds and ends. Obviously this was before surgery and I'm not doing the best to try to circle back around and get a doll again.

 

53 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Your state may levy a Use Tax on out-of-state purchases, and that’s normally an amount equal your sales tax that is paid at the end of the year when you file your taxes. Not all states do this but if your does it will be called on your state tax forms. You should also be able to google “Use Tax” and the name of your state to find out. 

Small tangent but I can’t resist lol

So, most states have use tax but because it generally relies on self-reporting - states don’t know what you bought elsewhere unless you tell them in that tax return - it goes unpaid by individuals.  (Companies also have to pay use tax and if they don’t, it’s generally worthwhile for a state to go after them but well, most places aren’t going to have the time or resources to go after individuals)  

This is why states went after websites like Amazon to collect sales tax - remember all those sales tax free online transactions from the early 2010’s?  Yeah, those should have had you paying use tax, but obviously, most weren’t doing that so that’s why states went after online stores instead and many started to collect sales tax after long legal battles.  (Hi, tax person lol also one of the longest holdouts to collecting was eBay if you’re curious)
 

Anyways, basically if your state has sales tax, they probably also have use tax (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon don’t have sales tax)
 

Oh and on the $800, basically if it’s less than $800 customs just won’t look at all (unless it’s alcohol, tobacco or some other special thing) because $800 and under is customs free automatically while above $800 depends on the item and even then there are lot of exemptions ^^  Overall it’s pretty rare for someone in the US to pay customs - the horror stories online of massive custom fees are usually from Europe (sorry EU friends).

7 minutes ago, abs2891 said:

Oh and on the $800, basically if it’s less than $800 customs just won’t look at all (unless it’s alcohol, tobacco or some other special thing) because $800 and under is customs free automatically while above $800 depends on the item and even then there are lot of exemptions ^^  Overall it’s pretty rare for someone in the US to pay customs - the horror stories online of massive custom fees are usually from Europe (sorry EU friends).

Just so it’s clear for everyone, dolls and their clothing aren’t subject to customs at all in the US even if they cost over $800. I’ve bought plenty of dolls over $1000 and never been hit with any import fees. I do pay my Use Tax, the amount it costs me annually isn’t all that much.
 

 

Good info here thank you. I was confused for the longest time. 

Yeah, to be clear, not trying to say you should intentionally not pay your use tax - just more the reality of the last ten years or so.

I bought a standard model (DDdy Towa) and we're fortunate to have a UK dollfie store so that saved A LOT.

It's been my experience that orders from Volks or Mandarake ALWAYS get stopped by customs, and that can be expensive.

Shoes are cheaper on AliExpress, but AliExpress is not cheap anymore.

I did go overboard buying stuff at first but a new pair of shoes is the first thing I've bought for Towa in around 3 months. After a while your doll will choose her styles so you won't waste so much on stuff she'll never wear. Oh and BTW there's a big resell market (particularly for official Dollfie stuff) so anything you buy pretty much retains its value.

I dont know the rest of europe but here in Spain the custom taxes are the 21% of the total, product+shipping cost,  its so painfull that i only bought a pair of dolls or clothes, shoes etc at year ; ; .

There's an option that I haven't seen on here (forgive me if I missed it), but Facebook marketplace (Legit BJD Groups). I have gotten a few really good deals on dolls that I would have never gotten under typical circumstances. I recently ended up with a fullset doll that was around 75% what I could normally buy him for because the person was leaving the hobby and just wanted to quickly clear dolls out.  

However, I typically have ordered most of my bodies from Mandarake or YJapan~ the shipping can be a little crazy on Mandarake, so that's something to watch out for. But normally their prices are decent enough that even with shipping you can get a good deal. 

The MOST expensive doll I have bought was through a proxy service to do a Dollfie Dream Choice for me. 

I also have no idea on custom taxes, as that's not something I have ever encountered. 😅

On 7/10/2021 at 9:35 PM, BeyondTime said:

On 7/10/2021 at 9:19 PM, abs2891 said:

 

Just so it’s clear for everyone, dolls and their clothing aren’t subject to customs at all in the US even if they cost over $800. I’ve bought plenty of dolls over $1000 and never been hit with any import fees. I do pay my Use Tax, the amount it costs me annually isn’t all that much.

I think there is actually a tax on toys/dolls but the lower limit is $3000 USD. I only found this out because of a very sought-after SD sculpt needing my proxy to fill out some extra paperwork at the post office.

There are only a very small handful of DDs that would go that much though so you shouldn’t have to worry about it and even then, many sellers automatically mark down the value.

25 minutes ago, Kotone said:

I think there is actually a tax on toys/dolls but the lower limit is $3000 USD. I only found this out because of a very sought-after SD sculpt needing my proxy to fill out some extra paperwork at the post office.

If it was coming from Japan, there is additional paperwork required on anything ¥200,000 and over, but that's a regulation on the Japanese side as far as I know.

On 7/11/2021 at 3:35 AM, BeyondTime said:

Just so it’s clear for everyone, dolls and their clothing aren’t subject to customs at all in the US even if they cost over $800. I’ve bought plenty of dolls over $1000 and never been hit with any import fees. I do pay my Use Tax, the amount it costs me annually isn’t all that much.
 

 

Man, I am jo jealous. Getting anything imported to the EU costs an arm and a leg. The advantage is that you can freely move it around afterward, but ha.. ha.. ha...

On 7/25/2021 at 12:04 PM, kalisha said:

I dont know the rest of europe but here in Spain the custom taxes are the 21% of the total, product+shipping cost,  its so painfull that i only bought a pair of dolls or clothes, shoes etc at year ; ; .

I'm from the Netherlands and my custom fees have been so random. I just checked and:

- €600 order from Smartdoll: €73 customs
- €110 order from Smartdoll: €44 customs
- €120 order from Cotindoll: €48 customs
- €100 order from Goodsmile: €22 customs
- €500 order from Fabric and Friends: €73 customs 

So my conclusion is: just go big when I order. Percentage wise the customs will be much lower. Which is why I decided to order like 5 outfits from Volks at once. I wish I could do the same for Smartdoll, but most of their items sell out too fast for me to wait until I can combine a large order.

7 minutes ago, Wasabi said:

Man, I am jo jealous. Getting anything imported to the EU costs an arm and a leg. The advantage is that you can freely move it around afterward, but ha.. ha.. ha...

It’s not all that dissimilar here, once you buy something you can move from state to state without paying a tax on your purchase, but you if you wanted to move between the US and Canada or Mexico there are limits to what you can carry with you tax free.