Tariffs

[nether1234]

So now that Trump is going through with the tariffs from Mexico, China and Canada, what does that mean for the prices on stuff from LTTStore for us that live in the United States?

[Slayerking92]

Tariffs=higher prices for Americans

[CasualExtremist]

4 minutes ago, Slayerking92 said:

Tariffs=higher prices for Americans

More money = more problems

[Tan3l6]

Just now, CasualExtremist said:

More money = more problems

Less money - Printing more money.

 

[CasualExtremist]

2 minutes ago, Tan3l6 said:

Less money - Printing more money.

 

Therefore: printing problems = solution

[CasualExtremist]

Realistically, no one has a magic ball to predict the future and how these will impact commerce or for how long. My intuition would think: the store prices won't adjust to something only impacted by USA shipping, but if you reside in USA, you might find tax, shipping, or other fees increased at the checkout.

[Razercake]

Well you will pay more, highly doubt LTT will eat those prices, so store prices will go up.

Here in Denmark we are already paying an extra +25% VAT for items. its lovely 

[Poinkachu]

Soon people in USA gonna need to pay as much as people not in USA for pc parts ?

[Thomas A. Fine]

Nobody has really addressed the question (and I don't know the answer).  Tariffs are paid by the importer, and it's generally paid by business-to-bussiness transactions (wholesalers, etc.), but what does this mean for online shopping?  We've had tariffs in place on China, but has this affected how we do business with aliexpress, gearbest, banggoood, etc.?

 

If it IS going to affect lttstore, do we have time to get our orders in before Tuesday, or it won't matter since LTT wouldn't ship anything before Tuesday anyway?

I'd love to hear an official answer from LTT on this.

[DragonQuiz]

1 hour ago, Thomas A. Fine said:

Nobody has really addressed the question (and I don't know the answer).  Tariffs are paid by the importer, and it's generally paid by business-to-bussiness transactions (wholesalers, etc.), but what does this mean for online shopping?  We've had tariffs in place on China, but has this affected how we do business with aliexpress, gearbest, banggoood, etc.?

 

If it IS going to affect lttstore, do we have time to get our orders in before Tuesday, or it won't matter since LTT wouldn't ship anything before Tuesday anyway?

I'd love to hear an official answer from LTT on this.

Correct, tariffs are paid at the point of importation not at the sale of checkout, which is accounted for in the sales price in-store/online. Though that does beg the question to an already paid item for pre-sale/wave items such as the LTT commuter backpack, like do we still pay the tariff or LTT eats the cost of it when they ship it over to the US? (still waiting for the second wave to start shipping)

 

Found out about de minimis exemption and this came up in a search https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2025/01/cbp-proposes-to-modify-the-de-minimis-exemption. 

 

Quote

To address national security risks, CBP proposes to exclude merchandise valued at $800 or less subject to an ad valorem tariff imposed under Sections 201, 232 or 301 from eligibility for the exemption under Section 321(a)(2)(C). Importers of such goods would have to pay the standard duties and fees, as well as any additional duties imposed pursuant to trade and national security actions.

Maybe someone who deals with an importation/tariff brokerage can provide more infomation into this situation as to if lttstore product(s) are subject to the now/soon-to-be increased tariff or the soon-to-be ad valorem tariff.

[Dutch_Master]

3 hours ago, DragonQuiz said:

already paid item

And to extend that: my order from last year finally shipped about 2 weeks ago and is now in the US for further shipment (EU-bound). The shipper is extremely slow, especially with updates on where the parcel is, so I may get hit by counter tariffs once the parcel arrives in the EU. Not happy about that

[Ariolander]

For customers in the US the de minimis exemption used to apply to all order less than $200 in value where tarrifs didn't apply to individuals that imported low value goods and gifts. This was raised to $800 under Obama. It seems they were removed entirely this week and everything will be subject to a 25% tarrif on top of taxes already collected during checkout. 

 

I preordered the Commuter Backpack in December in Wave 1. Had it shipped on time it would not have been subject to tarrifs, now that it is delayed LTTstore has to issue clarifications to customers. If I am subject to an 25% tarrifs + shipper handling fees, on top of the 10.25% tax I already pre-paid, I no longer want the Commuter Backpack.

 

Glib comparisons to VAT are hardly helpful. I already pre-paid my local VAT equivalents, I have 5 seperate line items of various taxes I pre-paid. US customers do not dodge VAT.

 

Tarrifs are entirely different and when the handling is not pre-arranged with the shopper, usually there are outrageous fees from the shipping companies if your customs forms aren't pre-cleared. If LTTstore items are not exempt via de minimis anymore and are subject to tariff on top of VAT, I don't see myself ordering from LTTstore ever again.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

On 2/1/2025 at 9:56 PM, Thomas A. Fine said:

  We've had tariffs in place on China, but has this affected how we do business with aliexpress, gearbest, banggoood, etc.?

Yes. Every product you buy there has to enter the country. When it does, it goes through customs, and if anything has to be paid, you will be requested to pay it before receiving anything.

Sometimes the shipping company handles that for you, and that's reflected on the shipping cost you pay upfront (they charge you for shipping+custom duties). It typically is an estimate, as the customs may apply a different criteria. In some cases that means that you have to clear the difference with the shipping company, in others they just balance out the excesses and shortcomings. Amazon has a sort of "maximum estimate policy", whereby they handle everything and promise to give you the difference back if custom duties end up costing less, but never charge you extra if it ends up being more.

 

Basically, have always existed. The specific increase in tariffs for specific countries and products that Trump announced (and now suspended) don't require any innovation in how they are handled.

 

On 2/1/2025 at 9:56 PM, Thomas A. Fine said:

 

If it IS going to affect lttstore, do we have time to get our orders in before Tuesday, or it won't matter since LTT wouldn't ship anything before Tuesday anyway?

The only thing that matters is the current tariffs at the moment the product crosses the border.

 

On 2/2/2025 at 12:15 AM, DragonQuiz said:

Correct, tariffs are paid at the point of importation not at the sale of checkout, which is accounted for in the sales price in-store/online. Though that does beg the question to an already paid item for pre-sale/wave items such as the LTT commuter backpack, like do we still pay the tariff or LTT eats the cost of it when they ship it over to the US?

Ask anyone buying from Europe or elsewhere - there's no way for LTT to eat it, as they don't do taxes for you. Unless I remember incorrectly from the number of times Linus addressed questions about people getting additional charges in the destination country, they charge for shipping only, and then you (or the shipping company doing the border crossing) deal with whatever taxes may exist in your country. Meaning, it doesn't matter the timing of the order, only the timing of crossing the border.

 

On 2/2/2025 at 12:15 AM, DragonQuiz said:

Maybe someone who deals with an importation/tariff brokerage can provide more infomation into this situation as to if lttstore product(s) are subject to the now/soon-to-be increased tariff or the soon-to-be ad valorem tariff.

That's a good question - was this a universal tariff or did it apply differently to different types of goods?

[Dutch_Master]

4 hours ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

a universal tariff

From what I understand, yes. Canada and Mexico got a (now suspended) 25% tariff, China got an additional 10% and no suspension in sight. The latter is important and missed by pretty much everyone: Chinese products are already getting a 25% tariff and with the latest decree the orange baboon raised it to 35%. (with sincerest apols to baboons. They have more braincells to whatever now resides in a large white mansion on 1600 Pennsy Ave in DC )

 

The order I had eluded to earlier this thread arrived in EU-land before any tariff came into effect and I'm expecting delivery later today at no additional cost

[LogicalDrm]

On 1/31/2025 at 9:52 PM, Razercake said:

Well you will pay more, highly doubt LTT will eat those prices, so store prices will go up.

Here in Denmark we are already paying an extra +25% VAT for items. its lovely 

Store prices won't change. Import fees are and have always been added on top of what is paid. It depends bit on country whether import fees are calculated pre or post shipping is added. As in is shipping fee subject to import fees or not. But store prices will remain same for all others than country which will increase or change their import fees.

[Razercake]

7 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

Store prices won't change. Import fees are and have always been added on top of what is paid. It depends bit on country whether import fees are calculated pre or post shipping is added. As in is shipping fee subject to import fees or not. But store prices will remain same for all others than country which will increase or change their import fees.

True, the total price would go up for them. which is what I meant, not that the actual listed price would change.

Like when I got the original LTT backpack, the total price I had to pay went up. cause it was over the duties limit for my country, so had some more taxes & fee to pay at the border.

[bloodknightoo]

if say im from Australia and a buy a shirt because the shipping goes from Canada through the us to Australia does that mean I would get taxed the 25% tariff as well?

[nether1234]

7 hours ago, bloodknightoo said:

if say im from Australia and a buy a shirt because the shipping goes from Canada through the us to Australia does that mean I would get taxed the 25% tariff as well?

This was only concerning United Sates and Canada. They did not go through with the tariffs because apparently everything Trump wanted, Canada had already agreed to in December.

[Sikh]

On 2/1/2025 at 6:56 PM, Thomas A. Fine said:

Nobody has really addressed the question (and I don't know the answer).  Tariffs are paid by the importer, and it's generally paid by business-to-bussiness transactions (wholesalers, etc.), but what does this mean for online shopping?  We've had tariffs in place on China, but has this affected how we do business with aliexpress, gearbest, banggoood, etc.?

 

If it IS going to affect lttstore, do we have time to get our orders in before Tuesday, or it won't matter since LTT wouldn't ship anything before Tuesday anyway?

I'd love to hear an official answer from LTT on this.

This is not towards you, just a general message

Tariff's effect the consumer, i thought that was obvious by now to everyone in tech when there were tariff's placed on China in 2020 and GPU prices went up $100-200 because of it.

[LogicalDrm]

23 hours ago, bloodknightoo said:

if say im from Australia and a buy a shirt because the shipping goes from Canada through the us to Australia does that mean I would get taxed the 25% tariff as well?

If it starts from Canada and package doesn't change content on the way, you are still importing from Canada to Australia. Not from Canada to US and then from US to Australia. Tariff is import fee and paid upon receiving the package.

[wanderingfool2]

Ultimately a lot of the questioning will also boil down to how the tariff wording is actually stated.  Also in regards to how LMG stores and ships items etc.

 

If they were to lets say ship them to the US to then be sold internationally, depending how things are worded LMG would have to pay the tariffs.  Anyways a quick couple scenarios (not sure how much of it's correct, if someone knows more they can chime in)

 

Assuming LMG manufactures their goods in China, brings them in an distributes them from the US:

LMG costs to US customers increase by what 10% (goods from China),

Canada, well I'm going to assume if their distribution is from the US, the 10% will be applied...and then potentially 25% from the counter tariffs from Canada (could be wrong, depends on the wording and end implementation)

 

Now the trick as well, who pays the 10%.  Now of course LMG would be paying...but realistically it's about whether it gets passed onto the consumer and if the markup remains the same or if they cap it at making a certain profits.  This we can't know though

 

Hypothetical example of how things could play out

$10 product from China being resold for $20 [Before tariffs]

Best Case for US customer:

$10 import would have $1 in tariff, but LMG only wants to pass on the added cost so raises it to $21

Worse Case for US customers:

$10 import with $1 tariff, but margin of 100%.  Selling cost is now $22

 

Worse case for Canada (if the tariffs are written badly)

$10, with $1 tariff from US

Then additional 25%, so $11 importing with extra $2.75, totaling $13.75, with 100% markup meaning $27.50 (Equivalent to ~37%)

 

 

As can be seen though, the largest hit would be ones where the margins are small...if there are products with small margins but higher costs then they will more likely have to be increased by a larger amount to make up for it.

[bloodknightoo]

3 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

If it starts from Canada and package doesn't change content on the way, you are still importing from Canada to Australia. Not from Canada to US and then from US to Australia. Tariff is import fee and paid upon receiving the package.

thank god. most packages in AUD are either from China or US. could hate to see shit go up in price even more than what they are already

[Alex T88]

2 hours ago, bloodknightoo said:

thank god. most packages in AUD are either from China or US. could hate to see shit go up in price even more than what they are already

I'd add, "for the time being". The way things are going with the current US admin., I don't think anyone will be exempt from tariffs down the line. The EU is next, would not surprise me if Australia or any other country in the world will be tariffed down the line. I'm definitely not getting my hopes up, even though for the time being no such measures have been imposed. I guess time will tell. 

[bloodknightoo]

17 hours ago, Alex T88 said:

I'd add, "for the time being". The way things are going with the current US admin., I don't think anyone will be exempt from tariffs down the line. The EU is next, would not surprise me if Australia or any other country in the world will be tariffed down the line. I'm definitely not getting my hopes up, even though for the time being no such measures have been imposed. I guess time will tell. 

the world should tariff the US for being such a tool....   sigh I hate all this crap price of living in aud is hard enough 

[xorkon]

Tariffs or not, I just want to know where the hell my order is. I pre-ordered the commuter backpack back in December, got a notification email back on January 29th that it has been shipped, provided the UPS tracking number, but the tracking keeps saying that UPS does not yet have possession of the item. Wrote to support on February 4th, got Ai reply, told me it would forward my request for support to their live human team, but nothing. So I wrote again on February 6th, got another Ai reply, and still no human reply. Today, February 9th, tracking still shows UPS does not have possession of the item...and no human reply. I simply want to know where the package is, I am going on an international trip soon and if it hasn't left Canada then I might need to cancel my order or redirect it somewhere else otherwise nobody would be here to receive it...would a live human LTT support team person please get back to me? Order# is 1022589. Thanks.