Anyone? I've read about getting it declared as a gift. Will that help?

Yeah, declare as gift and have it be marked down to anything under £15.

>>5277741

Will Mandarake be willing to do that? Will it affect things if it is lost in transit (I have to assume it will)?

If buying from Mandarake/N-Y/BiJ, you can ask them to undervalue (I usually have it at 2000 yen) - they will be willing to do that, just state that you understand the consequences and you will assume responsibility etc.

>>5277751

Note that your package, if insured will only cover up to the amount declared. I usually go with USAL anyways (not insured) so it doesn't really matter for me.

For the past few years I never got caught whilst using SAL even though they were not undervalued, but my two most recent SAL parcels were taxed. I hope those are the exception and that it isn't a case of them getting more stringent.

>>5277634
RSAL sticks with Royal Mail, occasionally gets through with no custom charges. EMS always gets custom charges plus Parcelforces rape fee.

For example a single figure on RSAL gets through with no charges 90% of the time.
Though I've had quiet a few large orders get through fine.

Why is the US less strict about checking packages and making people pay their dues?
It seems the rest of the world always has their shit opened up and made to pay up the custom fees like there's an army of former nazis being anal dicks.

>>5277836
>Why is the US less strict about checking packages and making people pay their dues?
Because generally speaking there are no customs fees for consumers in the US.
As far as Japan is concerned, the US actually has trade agreements in place allowing US citizens to shop freely with japanese companies and incur no additional fees (at the consumer level).

What is it I always hear about making sure Mandy orders are over 5000Y?

>>5277853
500yen fee for orders <5000y.

>>5277853
>What is it I always hear about making sure Mandy orders are over 5000Y?
If you order less than 5k¥ they tack on a 500¥ handling fee.

>>5277863
>>5277867
>500¥ handling fee
Those are like 4 bucks, you cheap bastards.

>>5277874
>Those are like 4 bucks, you cheap bastards.
Hey, I just answered anon's question, you may refer to me as a "knowledgeable bastard", thank you very much.

>>5277874

Still, why pay it when you don't have to?

If I have to pay a similar amount for shipping on Amazon as I would to get my total above the threshold for free delivery then I'll take free delivery and moar stuff every time.

US customs is only concerned with drugs and things that infringe on copyrights of major companies. The latter is totally unimportant because whether or not the NFL jersey you bought is official or counterfeit should not be something law enforcement needs to worry about.

>>5277882
>not be something law enforcement needs to worry about.
I detect a juicy story anon. Tell us what customs did to your knockoff jersey...

How long do items usually stay at ISC in New York? I've had a package from Mandarake sitting there for nearly two weeks now.

How would I go about getting a parcel declared at a certain value and what is the best value to set it at to skip customs?

Also, does one shipping method dodge customs more than others?

>>5277836
Us Americans hate the idea of "regulation" and, where possible, we try and get rid of it. It really is basically just as simple as that. Typically it's to our own detriment, but we rarely if ever look at the bigger picture of how fees/taxes/etc can, under a well managed system, help the populous as a whole. I mean, christ, the GOP's platform is basically to deregulate all private sectors, and to privatize governmental sectors so that they can then be deregulated. It's fucking insane, but them's the breaks.

Get the sller to mark it as a gift and keep the value under £30 - I've only had one package get nabbed by customs and it wasn't marked as a gift.

Am I right in thinking that items don't get added to Mandarake's website over the weekend?

Does anyone have any specific stories about any of the Mandarake stores? Are any better than the others?

>>5286162
The only difference between them is with Sahra in that it's a direct sale warehouse that guarantees your item is in stock and available, whereas with the other stores it's possible that an in-store customer can buy what you order before the store staff can retrieve it. Or, in some instances that I've had, an item that was listed many months ago is long gone but the store never updated it.

>>5277884
Not me personally, but I've seen the letters. First offense they confiscate and destroy the "offending" item and send you a letter. From then on, if it's knockoffs, drugs, whatever, they flag your address and start searching everything with your name that comes through.

I doubt they'd jail you for buying knockoffs unless it was high volume, but it's not a thing customs should be wasting time on. There is better shit to worry about than the NFL's bottom line.

>>5278192
We hate the idea of paying taxes, period. Even and especially the wealthy ones who could easily give up 10% of their yearly income and not suffer- you know the ones, the assholes who own 5 houses and 50 cars, yet cry about how much they suffer financially because you downloaded an MP3.

>>5286205

Would they even care about knockoff action figures

>>5286376
if a toy company demands they look for them.

China' been cracking down on such things domestic though, which is why chimungmung cut KOs. Blame Obama's diligence in not focusing on real problems for that one.

>>5277741
Does that include shipping?

>>5286497

EMS sometimes gets flagged, SAL is usually safe.

Importing is always a coin flip

Will Amiami also list packages at a certain value if I request it?

>>5289888
No idea, try it. I'd be interested to see if they do. I bet they wouldn't.

>>5286389
I'd rather blame Citizens United.

Britfag here. Never imported from Japan before. So the process is I order, try to get them to declare the value at 2000Y or less, go EMS and have it marked as "customs duty to be paid for importer"? Is there anything else I can do to minimise my chances of getting taxed?

>>5289936
As a Britfag you never use EMS unless you like Parcelforce and their rape fees.
Go RSAL, wait a bit longer but generally escape fees or at least pay a shit ton less than Parcelforce.

If you wanted to be really safe, you could try to ship every item individually which is just stupid in the off chance to save a few quid.

>>5290008

Is Air Small Packet an option to consider as a middle ground between the two? I've read it is technically the same class of mail as RSAL.

Not too sure. RSAL isn't exactly slow. About 2 weeks not including weekends usually. I don't mind the wait personally as I don't have to pay double what I paid for the figure just to get the bloody parcel.

>>5289888
No.

>>5277634
They can't be worse then the ones in the us
They open the boxes and tear the plastic bubble wrap and scrash the box

>>5294205
US customs is fucking nothing compared to other country's customs, be quiet.

Hell, you guys don't even pay custom fee bullshit.