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  • How to Buy Doujinshi & Doujin Goods from Japan (2026): Toranoana vs Melonbooks vs BOOTH vs Suruga-ya

    How to Buy Doujinshi & Doujin Goods from Japan (2026): Toranoana vs Melonbooks vs BOOTH vs Suruga-ya

    Last updated: July 12, 2026

    You found an artist on pixiv or X whose work you love. They announced a new doujinshi. You clicked the shop link, hit a wall of Japanese, saw “海外発送不可” in the fine print, and closed the tab.

    Don’t close the tab. Every major doujin shop in Japan is buyable from overseas in 2026 — you just have to know which door to walk through, because each store handles international buyers differently, and none of them makes it obvious.

    I live in Japan and buy doujinshi the boring way: in person at Toranoana and Melonbooks in Akihabara and Ikebukuro, and online when I miss a release. This guide is what I’d tell a friend abroad who asked “okay, but how do I get this book?” One scope note: this guide covers all-ages works only.

    The short answer: which store, when

    Here’s the decision in thirty seconds. The rest of the article is the detail.

    • The book just came out (or is on pre-order)? Buy it new from Melonbooks or Toranoana through a proxy service. Toranoana publishes an official list of approved proxies; Melonbooks requires a proxy too.
    • The artist sells directly on BOOTH? Best option when available. Digital editions can be bought from overseas with a regular credit card, no proxy needed. Physical items ship through BOOTH’s official Buyee integration.
    • The book sold out months or years ago? Go secondhand: Suruga-ya (which has an English site that ships internationally) or Mercari via a proxy.
    • It was an event-only item that never hit shops? Auctions and secondhand — more on that near the end, and in full in our guide to getting Comiket exclusives after the event.

    One mental model ties this together: doujinshi have a lifecycle. New → in print at Melon/Tora → sold out → secondhand at Suruga-ya and Mercari. Where you should shop depends entirely on where your book is in that cycle.

    The four stores compared

    Toranoana Melonbooks BOOTH Suruga-ya
    What it is Major doujin retailer, now primarily online Major doujin retailer, online + physical stores pixiv’s creator marketplace — artists sell directly Japan’s biggest secondhand hobby chain
    New or secondhand New releases & pre-orders New releases & pre-orders New (and digital) from the creator Secondhand, some new old stock
    Ships overseas directly? No — Japan addresses only No Digital: yes. Physical: via official Buyee integration JP site: no. English site (suruga-ya.com): yes
    Proxy support Official list of approved agencies (Buyee, ZenMarket, tenso.com, AOCS, RAKUFUN, JPGOODBUY) Proxy required; Buyee publishes an official how-to Buyee is the officially integrated partner Any proxy for the JP site; none needed for the English site
    Payment (via the usual route) Through your proxy (card/PayPal balance) Through your proxy Overseas credit cards (Visa/MC/JCB) for digital; Buyee checkout for physical Card/PayPal on the English site (PayPal is the community-recommended option)
    English interface No No Yes (booth.pm/en) Yes (suruga-ya.com)

    Now the detail on each, because the table hides the traps.

    Toranoana: the new-release standard, proxy-only

    Toranoana (“Tora” to everyone) is one of the two pillars of doujin retail. If a circle does a shop release at all, odds are good it’s here. Since scaling back its physical stores, Tora has been overwhelmingly an online operation — which is good news for you, because the online catalog is the whole store.

    The catch: Toranoana does not ship overseas, full stop. You need a Japanese address, which in practice means a proxy or forwarding service. Unusually, Tora maintains an official list of approved services: AOCS, ZenMarket, RAKUFUN, Buyee, JPGOODBUY, and tenso.com. Stick to that list — Tora has publicly warned against unapproved forwarders, and orders through random services risk cancellation.

    Two flavors of service on that list:

    • Proxy purchase (ZenMarket, Buyee, AOCS): paste the product URL and they buy it for you. Easiest if you don’t want a Toranoana account. AOCS publishes its own English guide.
    • Forwarding (tenso.com): make your own Toranoana account, set your tenso-issued Japanese address, and order yourself. Slightly cheaper, slightly more Japanese-language friction.

    Know before you buy: once an item leaves Japan via a forwarder, Toranoana will not accept returns or exchanges — misprints and shipping damage become your proxy’s problem, or nobody’s. (Taiwan residents: Tora runs a dedicated Taiwan store instead.)

    Best for: new releases and pre-orders, especially from established circles. Pre-orders matter — popular print runs sell out fast, and Tora lists them well before release day.

    Melonbooks: the other pillar — same deal, slightly pricklier

    Melonbooks is Toranoana’s eternal rival, and for many circles it’s the primary shop outlet — plenty of artists stock Melon and not Tora, or put their bonus items (bromides, papers) with one and not the other. Check both before assuming a book isn’t available.

    Like Tora, Melonbooks doesn’t ship overseas and doesn’t take non-Japanese payment methods. Proxy required. Buyee publishes an official Melonbooks guide and even has an “Add to Buyee” flow for it; ZenMarket, FROM JAPAN, and the other major proxies all handle Melon orders routinely. Japanese doujin artists themselves now regularly point overseas fans to Buyee — it’s become the de facto standard answer when someone replies “how do I buy this from the US?” under a release announcement.

    One caveat: community reports (see the long-running MyFigureCollection thread on forwarding services) mention Melonbooks occasionally canceling orders sent to recognized forwarding addresses when an item is flagged Japan-only. It’s the exception, not the rule, but it’s a reason to prefer a full-service proxy over a bare forwarding address for Melon specifically.

    Best for: new releases, and it’s the store to check when Tora doesn’t have the book. Compare bonus items (“特典” / tokuten) across both — the same book can come with different extras depending on the shop.

    BOOTH: buy directly from the artist (and skip the proxy for digital)

    BOOTH is pixiv’s marketplace where creators run their own storefronts. It’s the closest thing to handing money directly to the artist, and it’s the most overseas-friendly of the four by a wide margin:

    • Digital items — no proxy needed. PDFs, digital art books, voice works: buy them from anywhere with a Visa, Mastercard, or JCB card tied to your pixiv account, download immediately. If the artist sells a digital edition, this is the fastest and cheapest route that exists, and 100% of what you pay (minus platform fees) goes to the creator.
    • Physical items — official Buyee integration. BOOTH has had a formal partnership with Buyee for years: an “Add to Buyee cart” flow buys the item domestically and forwards it to you. From the artist’s side it counts as a domestic sale, so individual creators don’t have to figure out customs forms — which is exactly why most of them never enable their own international shipping.
    • English UI. BOOTH runs a proper English site, so you can search and browse without the copy-paste gymnastics the other stores demand.

    The trade-off: BOOTH is only as complete as each artist makes it. Many circles sell shop stock through Tora/Melon and keep BOOTH for leftovers, digital editions, or nothing at all — and listings vanish whenever the artist closes them.

    Best for: digital doujinshi (buy directly, today) and physical items from self-distributing artists. Check whether your artist links a BOOTH shop in their pixiv or X profile before paying proxy fees anywhere else.

    Suruga-ya: the secondhand ocean — and the one with an English site

    Suruga-ya is where doujinshi go after they sell out. Its secondhand catalog is enormous — decades deep, across fandoms mainstream and microscopic — and prices for non-hyped books are often lower than the original cover price.

    Suruga-ya is also the only store here with a direct-to-overseas option: the English site at suruga-ya.com ships internationally and takes card or PayPal (shipping fee details here). But read the fine print before celebrating:

    • Smaller catalog. The English site only sells stock held at the main warehouse, so it’s a subset — often a small subset — of what suruga-ya.jp shows. (MFC’s detailed English-site review covers the gaps well.)
    • Marked-up prices. The same item frequently costs more on the English site than on the Japanese one. Sometimes the convenience is worth it; on bigger orders, the JP site + proxy math can win. Run both numbers — we ran them item by item in our Suruga-ya English site vs proxy comparison.
    • Payment quirks. Community consensus says use PayPal — overseas credit cards have a history of triggering cancellations.

    So Suruga-ya is really two stores: the convenient English one (search in romaji, ship direct, pay markup) and the full Japanese one (bigger catalog, better prices, proxy and Japanese search terms required). Serious hunters end up on suruga-ya.jp through a proxy — but for a first doujinshi purchase, the English site is the lowest-friction entry point in this entire article.

    Best for: anything sold out, older fandoms, back-catalog binges on a circle you just discovered.

    The lifecycle strategy: match the store to the book’s age

    This is the part most guides skip, and it’s the part that actually saves you money and heartbreak.

    Phase 1 — Announcement/pre-order. The circle announces on X or pixiv; shop links go up on Melonbooks and/or Toranoana. Act now and pre-order through your proxy. First printings of popular books can sell out on release day, and doujinshi have no guaranteed reprint, ever — a reprint happens only if the artist personally decides to do one.

    Phase 2 — In print (release to a few months after). Still on Melon/Tora shelves. Buy new at cover price plus proxy fees. This is the window where buying is easy and the artist gets paid.

    Phase 3 — Sold out. Melon and Tora listings go gray. Now you’re in secondhand territory: search Suruga-ya first (both sites), then Mercari through a proxy — Buyee is integrated directly into Mercari Japan, making it the smoothest route. Prices follow demand, not cover price: an obscure book might be ¥300, a legendary one ¥10,000+.

    Phase 4 — Rare. Not on Suruga-ya, not on Mercari. Set alerts (Suruga-ya saved searches; Mercari alerts via proxies like ZenMarket), check Yahoo! Auctions via proxy, and be patient. Collections get sold off constantly — the book will surface; the question is whether you see it first.

    The strategic takeaway: new books are a speed game, old books are a patience game. Decide which game you’re playing before you start.

    How to actually find things: Japanese search survival kit

    The single biggest wall isn’t shipping — it’s that Toranoana, Melonbooks, and most of Suruga-ya’s catalog are searchable only in Japanese. Here’s how to get around it without learning the language.

    1. Search by circle name, not artist name. Doujinshi are published under a circle (サークル) name, which is often different from the artist’s handle. Find it on the artist’s pixiv profile, X bio, or the colophon page of any book they’ve made. Search shops with the circle name in Japanese script.

    2. Harvest the Japanese text — never type it. You don’t need to write Japanese, only to copy-paste it accurately:
    – Copy the circle/artist name directly from their pixiv or X profile.
    – Copy series and character names from the Japanese Wikipedia article (switch language on the English article’s sidebar) or from pixiv’s tag pages.
    – Paste into the shop’s search box. Done.

    3. Use the 「◯◯ 同人誌」 pattern on Google. Searching Google for [series name in Japanese] 同人誌 (doujinshi) or [circle name] 通販 (mail order) often lands you directly on the Tora/Melon product page, skipping the shop’s own search entirely. Adding とらのあな or メロンブックス to the query narrows it further.

    4. Romaji is a trap — mostly. Typing “Marukawa” won’t find 丸皮. The exceptions: BOOTH’s English site handles romaji reasonably well, and Suruga-ya’s English site is built for it. Everywhere else, paste real Japanese.

    5. Learn to recognize five words on sight. You don’t need to read them, just recognize them: 新刊 (new release), 既刊 (back catalog), 予約 (pre-order), 品切れ／完売 (sold out), 特典 (bonus item). These five cover 90% of the status information on any product page.

    6. Machine translation is fine for pages, risky for search. Chrome’s page translation makes product pages navigable, but don’t trust it to generate search terms — translated titles rarely match the real Japanese title. Harvest, paste, browse translated.

    Event exclusives: the hard mode (a preview)

    Some items never reach any shop: Comiket-only books, event-limited goods sets, “会場限定” (venue-limited) items. If your artist announces something is event-only, the shop pipeline above won’t help.

    The short version: your options are the artist’s own post-event BOOTH sales (increasingly common — many circles list event leftovers online within a week or two) and the secondhand market, where event items hit Mercari and Yahoo! Auctions the same weekend at scalped prices, then drift downward over the following months. Event exclusives deserve their own playbook, and Comiket has one: how to get Comiket exclusives after the event covers shop restock timing, on-site buying agents, and the Japanese words that tell you whether an item is coming online at all. For now: if it’s event-only, wait for the artist’s own online sale before paying a scalper.

    Etiquette: how to be a buyer artists are glad to have

    Doujin is a hobbyist culture operating in a deliberately maintained gray zone, and it runs on norms as much as rules. As an overseas buyer, you’re a guest in it. A few things that matter:

    • Don’t share scans. Uploading or requesting scanned doujinshi is the most damaging thing a fan can do here. Print runs are tiny and self-funded; scans are books the artist can’t sell, and more than a few artists have quit over it. Buy the book, keep the files to yourself.
    • Don’t resell for profit — and don’t feed people who do. Buying multiples to flip is despised in this culture (the word to know is 転売, tenbai). If an in-print book is available from the artist and from a marked-up flipper, buy from the artist.
    • Secondhand itself is fine. Used copies of genuinely sold-out books are a normal, accepted part of the ecosystem. Nobody expects you to time-travel to a 2015 release day.
    • Don’t pressure artists about overseas shipping. Replying to a release announcement with “ship worldwide please!!” puts a hobbyist in an awkward spot. They’ve usually already answered — check their profile for a BOOTH link or a Buyee mention.
    • A quiet thank-you goes a long way. A short reply or fan message after your book arrives — plain English is fine — is the kind of feedback that keeps small circles publishing.

    FAQ

    Is it legal to buy and import doujinshi?
    Buying all-ages doujinshi and shipping them abroad is routine — proxies handle thousands of these packages daily. Some items are flagged Japan-only by the shop, in which case the proxy will refuse them.

    What does it actually cost?
    Rough math for one ¥800 book via proxy: item ¥800 + proxy fee ¥300–500 + domestic shipping ¥300–600 + international shipping ¥1,000–2,500 depending on method and destination. Consolidating several books into one shipment is the biggest cost saver — order in batches. To total up a specific stack of books, run it through our proxy fee calculator.

    Which proxy should I use?
    For Toranoana, pick from the official list (Buyee, ZenMarket, tenso.com, AOCS, RAKUFUN, JPGOODBUY). For Melonbooks and Mercari, Buyee has the deepest official integration. Fees differ by shipment size; we compare them in our proxy service comparison.

    The book I want is sold out everywhere. Will it be reprinted?
    Only if the artist chooses to — there’s no publisher to force a reprint. Watch their X/pixiv for reprint announcements (再版 / 再販) and set Suruga-ya and Mercari alerts meanwhile.

    Can I read these without knowing Japanese?
    That’s between you and your dictionary app, but plenty of collectors buy for the art alone. Camera-based translation apps have made “read as you go” genuinely viable.

    Do these stores sell things besides books?
    Yes — acrylic stands, keychains, prints, and full goods sets flow through the same four stores and the same proxy routes. Everything here applies to doujin goods, not just doujinshi.

    Sources

  • US Tariffs on Anime Merch from Japan (July 2026 Update): What Collectors Actually Pay

    Last updated: July 12, 2026. Tariff policy has changed roughly every three months since mid-2025, and it will change again soon. Check the date above before acting on anything in this article. Next key date: July 24, 2026 — the current 10% surcharge (Section 122) expires that day, and what replaces it is not yet final.

    This article is general information, not legal or customs advice. The final call on any individual package belongs to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the carrier handling your shipment.

    The short version: what you pay right now

    If you order anime figures, trading cards, or other hobby goods from Japan today, here is the situation as of July 12, 2026:

    • Every package pays duties, no matter how cheap it is. The $800 de minimis exemption — the rule that used to let small packages enter the US duty-free — has been suspended since August 29, 2025, and the suspension survived the Supreme Court ruling that struck down the tariffs it originally rode in on. CBP has since proposed rules to make the suspension permanent.
    • The effective tariff on most anime merch from Japan is about 10%. That’s the global surcharge imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 in February 2026. Most figures and toys (HTS heading 9503) and trading cards carry a 0% base duty rate, so the 10% surcharge is usually the whole tariff. It replaced the ~15% “reciprocal” rate that applied to Japan through most of late 2025, so costs actually went down in February.
    • On top of the duty, someone charges a processing fee. Either your shop builds it into a DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) surcharge at checkout, or the carrier bills you a disbursement fee on arrival — FedEx charges $15 or 2% of duties, whichever is higher as of January 2026, and UPS charges 3.5% with a $14 minimum.
    • All the major shops and proxies are shipping to the US again. The chaos of autumn 2025 — when Japan Post, Good Smile, AmiAmi, and HLJ all suspended US shipments at once — is over. Details and resumption dates are in the shop table below.
    • July 24 is the wildcard. Section 122 legally caps out at 150 days and cannot be extended without Congress. The administration’s proposed replacement is a 12.5% Section 301 duty covering 46 countries including Japan. As of this writing, that is a proposal, not a final rule. Nobody — including the shops — knows for certain what rate applies to a package clearing customs on July 25.

    If you were waiting to find out whether ordering is “safe” again: yes, packages are moving normally, and the math is predictable through July 23. Beyond that, read the “What happens after July 24” section before pre-ordering anything with a distant release date.

    Timeline: how we got here (July 2025 → now)

    Date What happened
    Jul 30, 2025 Executive order signed suspending the $800 de minimis exemption for all countries, effective Aug 29. Japanese goods face the ~15% IEEPA “reciprocal” tariff.
    Aug 27, 2025 Japan Post suspends most US-bound mail because it cannot collect duties. Good Smile, AmiAmi, HLJ, and others pause US shipping within days.
    Aug 29, 2025 De minimis suspension takes effect. Every package to the US now owes duties on entry.
    Sep 8, 2025 Good Smile resumes US shipping with higher shipping charges.
    Oct 22, 2025 AmiAmi resumes US shipping via ECMS and Surface Premium (duty prepaid).
    Oct 27, 2025 HLJ resumes with DDP options via DHL, FedEx, and ECMS.
    Dec 17, 2025 AmiAmi adds non-DDP DHL back (you pay the carrier on delivery).
    Feb 20, 2026 The Supreme Court rules the IEEPA tariffs unlawful. The administration terminates them the same day — and immediately imposes a 10% global surcharge under Section 122, while issuing a new executive order continuing the de minimis suspension on a different legal basis. Net effect for Japan: ~15% → 10%.
    Apr 14, 2026 Japan Post resumes accepting all US-bound mail, on condition that senders prepay duties to CBP through an approved app (Zonos Prepay). Documents and gifts under $100 remain duty-free. Full EMS convenience hasn’t returned, but the door is open again.
    Apr 21, 2026 Buyee switches from its flat 15.5% DDP surcharge to category-based duty rates.
    May 7, 2026 The Court of International Trade rules the Section 122 surcharge invalid.
    May 12, 2026 The Federal Circuit stays that ruling. CBP keeps collecting the 10% from everyone except the three named plaintiffs while the appeal proceeds.
    Jun 23, 2026 CBP publishes proposed rules to make the de minimis suspension permanent (litigation over this continues separately).
    Jul 24, 2026 Section 122 expires (150-day statutory limit). Proposed replacement: 12.5% Section 301 duties on 46 countries including Japan. Not yet final.

    Two things stand out from this timeline. First, the courts have ruled against the government twice, and the practical result both times was a new tariff under a different statute within days. Betting on a court ruling to make your figures duty-free has not paid off. Second, the industry adapted fast: within two months of the August 2025 shutdown, every major shop had a working duty-prepaid pipeline.

    What you actually pay: three real-world examples

    Assumptions: the item is a typical anime figure or sealed TCG product (0% base duty), the current 10% Section 122 surcharge applies, and shipping cost is excluded from the duty calculation for simplicity (some carriers and shops calculate duty on item value only; check your shop’s terms, as a few include shipping in the dutiable value). Numbers are estimates — the exact figure on your bill depends on the shop, carrier, and how CBP classifies the item. To put your own order through the same math — service fees, shipping and the duty line together — use our proxy fee calculator.

    Scenario A: $50 prize figure or booster box

    Route Duty Fees Total added % of item price
    DDP shop (AmiAmi ECMS, HLJ DDP, GSC) ~$5 built into checkout surcharge ~$5–8 10–16%
    Non-DDP courier (e.g., AmiAmi DHL) $5 ~$15 carrier disbursement fee ~$20 ~40%

    Takeaway: on cheap items, the carrier’s flat disbursement fee hurts far more than the tariff itself. For a $50 order, always pick a DDP option, or bundle several items into one box so the flat fee is spread across more value — consolidation and carrier choice are worth more than the tariff here, and we cover both in our guide to the cheapest ways to ship from Japan.

    Scenario B: $150 scale figure pre-order

    Route Duty Fees Total added % of item price
    DDP shop ~$15 built in ~$15–20 10–13%
    Non-DDP courier $15 ~$15 ~$30 ~20%
    Proxy with prepaid duty (Buyee/ZenMarket) category rate ≈ 10–15% proxy service + prepay fees ~$18–28 12–19%

    Takeaway: this is the sweet spot where all routes converge on “roughly 10–15% extra.” Budget that into every pre-order and you won’t be surprised.

    Scenario C: $500 grail (big scale figure, PSA-graded card)

    Route Duty Fees Total added % of item price
    DDP shop ~$50 built in ~$50–60 10–12%
    Non-DDP courier $50 $15 (FedEx: 2% = $10, so $15 min applies) ~$65 ~13%
    Non-DDP UPS $50 3.5% of outlay, $14 min ~$65 ~13%

    Takeaway: on expensive items the percentage settles near the raw tariff rate, and the DDP-vs-COD gap narrows. What matters more here is declared-value accuracy and insurance, not the fee structure.

    One more scenario worth knowing: bona fide gifts valued at $100 or less sent through the post remain duty-free under the current postal rules. That does not make it legal to have a shop mark your $500 order as a “gift” — misdeclaration risks seizure — but genuine gifts from friends or family in Japan still have a duty-free lane.

    Shop-by-shop status (July 2026)

    Shop / Proxy US shipping status Method Since
    Good Smile (GSC) Shipping Duties handled up front; US shipping charges raised to cover costs. Tariff FAQ Sep 8, 2025
    AmiAmi Shipping DDP via ECMS and Surface Premium (since Oct 22, 2025); non-DDP DHL also available — you pay duty + ~$15+ fee on delivery. Announcements Oct 22 / Dec 17, 2025
    HobbyLink Japan (HLJ) Shipping DDP via DHL, FedEx, and ECMS. HLJ blog Oct 27, 2025
    Buyee Shipping DDP mandatory for US. Flat 15.5% surcharge from Aug 2025; category-based duty rates since Apr 21, 2026. Notices Aug 2025
    ZenMarket Shipping Duty prepayment on US-bound courier parcels (DHL/UPS/FedEx), roughly 15% charged at checkout. Announcement 2025 (prepay introduced Aug; mandatory rollout completed by Dec)
    Japan Post (direct mail from Japan) Accepting all mail types again Sender must prepay duties via a CBP-approved app (currently Zonos Prepay); gifts ≤ $100 duty-free Apr 14, 2026

    Practical notes:

    • “DDP” does not mean “no fees.” It means duties are collected before shipment instead of at your door. Shops and carriers still take a handling margin, which is why DDP surcharges (like Buyee’s old flat 15.5%) run above the raw 10% tariff.
    • DDP surcharges are usually non-refundable if rates drop. When Japan’s rate fell from 15% to 10% in February, prepaid surcharges on already-shipped orders generally weren’t recalculated. Keep that in mind for long pre-orders.
    • Private sellers on eBay, Mercari, and small shops vary wildly — some use Japan Post’s new prepay flow, some use couriers, some quietly stopped shipping to the US. Ask before you bid.

    What happens after July 24?

    Honestly: nobody can tell you yet, and you should distrust anyone who claims certainty. Here is what is actually known:

    1. Section 122 hard-stops on July 24, 2026. The statute limits the surcharge to 150 days, and only Congress can extend it. There is no sign Congress will.
    2. The proposed replacement is Section 301. USTR opened two Section 301 investigations on March 11, 2026 (covering excess manufacturing capacity and forced-labor enforcement), with a completion deadline of July 20 — four days before the surcharge dies. The proposal on the table is 12.5% duties on 46 countries, including Japan.
    3. If that lands as proposed, costs on anime merch go from ~10% to ~12.5% — a real but modest increase (about $3.75 more on a $150 figure). It is also possible Japan is treated differently in the final determination, that rates differ by country or product, or that implementation slips past July 24, leaving a gap at the base 0% duty rate for some period. All of these are live possibilities as of July 12.
    4. The court cases continue regardless. Section 122 was ruled invalid at the CIT in May and survives only on a stay pending appeal; the de minimis suspension is also being litigated. Refund claims for duties already paid are a corporate-importer topic — no mechanism exists today for a hobbyist to claw back the 10% on a figure order, and preserving refund rights requires formal-entry paperwork most collectors never touch.

    What this means in practice: if you’re deciding between ordering an in-stock item now versus after July 24, ordering now locks in a known 10%. Waiting could save you ~10 points if there’s an implementation gap, or cost you ~2.5 points if the 12.5% lands on schedule. For pre-orders shipping in late 2026, the tariff rate at ship time is what matters, and no shop can honestly quote it today — which is exactly why most have moved to charging duties at shipment rather than at order.

    We will update this page when USTR publishes its determination.

    FAQ

    Is the $800 de minimis exemption coming back?
    There is no sign of it. The suspension has survived a Supreme Court loss (via a new executive order on different legal authority), and CBP proposed rules in June 2026 to make it permanent. Litigation continues, but plan your purchases assuming every package pays duty.

    Do I pay tariffs on used/pre-owned items or items under $20?
    Yes. With de minimis suspended, there is no value floor. Duty applies to the declared value of used goods just like new ones. The only meaningful exception is bona fide gifts of $100 or less sent by post.

    My package arrived and nobody billed me anything. Did I get lucky?
    It happens — clearance is inconsistent, especially on postal and low-value courier shipments. Carriers can also bill duties weeks after delivery, so don’t spend that money yet. Under-collection is a known issue CBP’s proposed rules aim to fix.

    Are trading cards taxed differently from figures?
    Both typically carry a 0% base (MFN) duty rate, so under the current regime both effectively pay the same 10% surcharge. Buyee’s category-based system may show slightly different rates per category. Graded-card slabs are still cards for classification purposes, but high declared values attract more customs attention.

    Should I use a US forwarding address to dodge the tariff?
    No — that changes nothing. Duty is assessed when goods enter the US, regardless of the final delivery address. Freight forwarders are subject to the same rules, and some now refuse Japan-origin hobby shipments precisely because of duty-collection liability.

    Will I get a refund if the courts strike these tariffs down for good?
    For Section 122, the CIT already ruled it invalid, but collections continue during appeal and only the named plaintiffs have relief so far. Individual hobbyists realistically will not see refunds — informal postal/courier entries don’t preserve refund claims the way commercial formal entries do.

    Is buying from Japan still worth it?
    For most collectors, yes. The yen remains historically weak (around ¥161/USD as of July 2026), which for dollar-based buyers offsets most of the 10% tariff on typical items compared with 2021-era exchange rates. Japanese retail and secondhand prices for figures and TCG singles are also frequently below US market prices by more than the tariff margin — though not in every category, as our figure price data for July 2026 shows. Do the math per item — but the tariff alone rarely flips the answer.

    Sources