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When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

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Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#81

Post by ericd »

seg_lol wrote: post #46
Gibbon1 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of a comment I think by Nancy Teeters the first female Federal Reserve board member. She said the other board members thought they could savage the US manufacturing industry to kill wage inflation and break the unions and it would come right back once they stopped. And it didn't.

Sociopaths. It breaks me to see the Fed use interest rates to cause unemployment as the lever against inflation. It all seems so cruel.

Have you ever read about people burning piles of German currency because it was better than using it to buy firewood with? Not to say we would get there, but allowing inflation to run is not kinder.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#82

Post by inopinatus »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #23
varispeed wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know one US business that used to make niche electronic product. Most components they used were from China. Got hit by the tariffs that wiped all the operating profit. Guy also had to sell his home and is now couchsurfing. Business is unlikely going to recover. Of course he considered making chips and other components in the US, but he was few billions short to start the fab.

Reminds me of a comment I think by Nancy Teeters the first female Federal Reserve board member. She said the other board members thought they could savage the US manufacturing industry to kill wage inflation and break the unions and it would come right back once they stopped. And it didn't.

From the other side of the Atlantic this sounds like straight Thatcherism, in which Chicago-school monetarism was an ideological anti-union weapon, and the Thatcher cabinet was not coy about it. However I think the US went that way first even if Reaganomics came later.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#83

Post by mindslight »

esalman wrote: post #80
JKCalhoun wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped buying vintage cameras from Japan on eBay. Well, there's always the next administration…

I'm sure JD Vance administration will be more vintage-camera-friendly.

[flagged]

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#84

Post by inferiorhuman »

ryanSrich wrote: post #55

I also imported a roughly $400 item from Romania. Was expecting a 30% tariff at most. Nope. $756. Sender says there is nothing they can do. UPS says that's the money I owe. They will send to collections if you go long enough without paying it. Reddit had no answers, and many are struggling with the same situation.

And now you know why DHL suspended shipments to the US for a bit. I think express (non-postal) shipments are being processed these days?

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#85

Post by inferiorhuman »

esalman wrote: post #80
JKCalhoun wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped buying vintage cameras from Japan on eBay. Well, there's always the next administration…

I'm sure JD Vance administration will be more vintage-camera-friendly.

Nah, I'm sure he's more focused on vintage furniture.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#86

Post by inferiorhuman »

ericd wrote: post #81
seg_lol wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sociopaths. It breaks me to see the Fed use interest rates to cause unemployment as the lever against inflation. It all seems so cruel.

Have you ever read about people burning piles of German currency because it was better than using it to buy firewood with? Not to say we would get there, but allowing inflation to run is not kinder.

I think these days folks typically use Zimbabwe or Argentina as examples.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#87

Post by inferiorhuman »

AniseAbyss wrote: post #51
varispeed wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know one US business that used to make niche electronic product. Most components they used were from China. Got hit by the tariffs that wiped all the operating profit. Guy also had to sell his home and is now couchsurfing. Business is unlikely going to recover. Of course he considered making chips and other components in the US, but he was few billions short to start the fab.

I am imagining Mexican cartels smuggling hardware into the US... (But seriously I do not know how good US Customs is but in my country every day millions of packages from Asia arrive and they are checking not even a percent).

Well they're less perishable than avocados.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#89

Post by celeritascelery »

rabf wrote: post #61
celeritascelery wrote: post #26

I had this happen to me on an order from Sweden. The order was about $450 + $50 shipping. I used an online tariff calculator and it said it should be 15%. So I was expecting ~$70. A few days before it is supposed to arrive UPS sends me a $242 bill for “tariffs, customs, and brokerage fees”. That basically made it 50% more expensive, but it was either pay it or loose the item. A month later they sent me an invoice tha…

Its funny how little US citizens know about this, meanwhile in the rest of the world we have been paying import duties our entire lives. When an item is posted abroad forms have to be filled detailing the sender, the nature of the goods and the value. Some sellers willl bend the law for you and decalre the value of the goods to be lower than what you actually paid if you ask nicely. The main danger being that if the…

I would have just been happy if the declared value was what I paid, instead of almost double.
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