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I've bought many kits from China. Except for one that got crushed, the casulty being the canopy got crushed, all the rest were just fine. Usually very good pachaging too.  

 

However, I am curious. I do have a kit on it's way but I've read that China has ordered it's container ships back to China because of the tariff BS. 

 

I received my sixth Fury from China today. I ordered it April 6th and today is the 19th so it took one day less than two weeks. I orderedit from the sunlightmodelstore on ebay. I have ordered from him before and they are very reliable, solid packaging. Great prices too.

Edited by Jon Krol
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i've bought from Chinese sellers a few times and never really had any issue. mostly things that aren't available in the states, like Galaxy mask sets or decals. 

 

it doesn't seem like it's a viable option anymore though. 

image.png.182d85c590c15ff7eb445a808820cf82.png

 

$100 dollar shipping for a $21 dollar mask set, yikes. this more on the extreme side, but shipping charges that were either free or very cheap are now either enough to make buying an item no cheaper than it would be buying it in the states, or so outrageous that no one is really going to pay them. 

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25 minutes ago, annie.shikinami said:

i've bought from Chinese sellers a few times and never really had any issue. mostly things that aren't available in the states, like Galaxy mask sets or decals. 

 

it doesn't seem like it's a viable option anymore though. 

image.png.182d85c590c15ff7eb445a808820cf82.png

 

$100 dollar shipping for a $21 dollar mask set, yikes. this more on the extreme side, but shipping charges that were either free or very cheap are now either enough to make buying an item no cheaper than it would be buying it in the states, or so outrageous that no one is really going to pay them. 

I was looking at a H&S airbrush on Ebay yesterday from a Chinese seller. $200 for the brush itself, another $200 for shipping. I contacted the seller to see if it was a mistake, but he pointed out the new tariffs as the reason for the high shipping. 

 

Aaron

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1 hour ago, strikeeagle801 said:

I was looking at a H&S airbrush on Ebay yesterday from a Chinese seller. $200 for the brush itself, another $200 for shipping. I contacted the seller to see if it was a mistake, but he pointed out the new tariffs as the reason for the high shipping. 

 

Aaron

That's their story, and they are sticking to it!

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On 4/18/2025 at 1:49 PM, Jon Krol said:

I've bought many kits from China. Except for one that got crushed, the casulty being the canopy got crushed, all the rest were just fine. Usually very good pachaging too.  

 

However, I am curious. I do have a kit on it's way but I've read that China has ordered it's container ships back to China because of the tariff BS. 

 

I received my sixth Fury from China today. I ordered it April 6th and today is the 19th so it took one day less than two weeks. I orderedit from the sunlightmodelstore on ebay. I have ordered from him before and they are very reliable, solid packaging. Great prices too.

China is not ordering ships back, doesn't work that way. The main issue shipping companies are having is that there will be a fee for Chinese owned, built or managed vessels. But as of last week, looks like that has been modified so it's not such a large hit. The prices in the container market will see the effects more so than other markets. 

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21 hours ago, strikeeagle801 said:

I was looking at a H&S airbrush on Ebay yesterday from a Chinese seller. $200 for the brush itself, another $200 for shipping. I contacted the seller to see if it was a mistake, but he pointed out the new tariffs as the reason for the high shipping. 

 

Aaron

How many of these do you think they'll sell at these ridiculous shipping expenses? 

None

That's how the playing field gets leveled.

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4 hours ago, 82Whitey51 said:

How many of these do you think they'll sell at these ridiculous shipping expenses? 

None.


Thats the point. The pricing isn’t because of tariffs. The sellers aren’t stupid. They are telling you they don’t want to sell to Americans. The goal is to not sell any in the US. 
 

Shipping rates are the same as they’ve always been for every other country on the planet.

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13 minutes ago, MoFo said:


Thats the point. The pricing isn’t because of tariffs. The sellers aren’t stupid. They are telling you they don’t want to sell to Americans. The goal is to not sell any in the US. 
 

Shipping rates are the same as they’ve always been for every other country on the planet.

Well that'll show us!

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China not wanting to sell products to the United States is like Revlon not wanting to sell make up to women. The United States is China's biggest market. 

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I think those high shipping costs are just a ruse, all it takes is one buyer not noticing the high shipping cost and BAM there's $100 extra $$ for the seller. It's like phishing emails, thousands are sent out hoping at least one unsuspecting reader replies. 

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4 hours ago, MoFo said:


Thats the point. The pricing isn’t because of tariffs. The sellers aren’t stupid. They are telling you they don’t want to sell to Americans. The goal is to not sell any in the US. 

I think you may be right - a couple of current listings on eBay UK:

1421521828_Screenshot2025-04-23at23-51-58HarderSteenbeckAirbrushforsaleeBay.png.c04f864204752ccd194eef8a66e823c8.png

919007444_Screenshot2025-04-23at23-49-21HarderSteenbeckAirbrushforsaleeBay.png.d19525ba86347fb7d1855d70d94ce616.png

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23 hours ago, Robert Garelli said:

China is not ordering ships back, doesn't work that way. The main issue shipping companies are having is that there will be a fee for Chinese owned, built or managed vessels. But as of last week, looks like that has been modified so it's not such a large hit. The prices in the container market will see the effects more so than other markets. 

No, but container ships are getting rerouted to bypass our ports.

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15 minutes ago, Jon Krol said:

No, but container ships are getting rerouted to bypass our ports.

Yes, that is true. The cargo will find its way to the U.S. but not directly as the containers are being off loaded in other nations to be transshipped. It's going to be a mess for a while till it gets sorted out.  I deal with bulk ships and already see the headaches this is going to cause. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yeah I think Americans will still be able to buy the goods from China but they will come via a third party which will drive up the costs.
 

Might be a good thing. With any luck somebody sets up a redistribution hub in the UK and filters all those goods into the US. For a profit of course... But only until Trump sees the imbalance of trade and ramps up the tariffs on the UK. Or who ever takes on the job.

 

On the plus side Ive not noticed any changes in prices of kits from China here in the UK.

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My take on it is that the reason for the $200 shipping charge on eBay from Chinese sellers is not because of tariffs, but because of the end of the de minimus exemption on parcels from goods made in China and HK.  Before May 2, packages valued at under $800 were duty free.  As of last Friday, packages containing goods made in HK or China are subject to a $100 fee per package PLUS 120% of the value of the goods.  According to the EOs, the fee gets charged to the shipping carrier.  That’s why the shipping cost went up, because the shipping company has to pay the exorbitant fees, which means they are going to charge it to the seller to ship, which means the seller is going to charge the buyer.  It’s not because they don’t want to sell to the U.S.


I got a $65 1/35 RFM armor kit from eBay that squeaked in just before May 2.  The shipping cost was $3.  Same kit, same seller, now the shipping cost is $203.  Before May 2, there was no duty.  As of May 2, the duty is $178, so that’s where most of the $200 shipping goes to.

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