The Repeal of the De Minimis Exemption and Why That's Gonna Suck for All of Us

Hey, y'all~

Figured I'd fill y'all in on what's going on. If you're in certain hobbyist circles (e.g. figure collecting, tokusatsu fan) or an artist that sells merch, you're likely aware of the de minimis exemption being repealed effective August 29, 2025.

If you're not aware, here's the gist of it: for a while, any imports to the US valued at $800 and less were not slapped with a tariff/duty charge. However, the orange fascist has decided to put an end to that--initially this repeal was to go into effect in 2027, but it's been decided that this will happen much, much sooner, even though the later date was set so that a proper system could be put into place.

With de minimis repealed, the current plan is that any items imported to the US will receive a charge ranging from $80-$200 plus whatever the tariff charge from that country on top of it--for example, if you order a $15 keychain from an artist in Australia, you'll have to pay that tariff charge plus an additional $80 if you're "lucky". While this flat rate is expected to "only" be in effect for 6 months, it's going to do a lot of damage. International artists are already bracing for impact as many are suspending sales to the US, even though this will hurt their business if not outright put them out. Meanwhile, US creatives are facing potential supply issues as some international suppliers of materials are suspending business with the US.

This isn't just pertaining to hobbyists and creative circles, either--stores that import their stock are going to be raising their prices...and considering that a lot of goods sold in the US are imported, things are gonna get pricier for everyone. The economy has been in rough shape for a long time, and this will make things worse.

As far as making merch goes on my end, I'm weighing my options. One of my sticker manufacturers, StickerApp, does a lot of their operations in Sweden so this could affect sticker manufacturing, and while there is a local option with Sticker Ninja, they're a smaller operation and there's no telling how these tariffs will affect the cost of materials (which I assume is imported). But that said, if I am unable to work through StickerApp, I do have Sticker Ninja.

One of my other manufacturers, Zap Creatives, is based in the UK; they're the manufacturers responsible for my charms, standees, the "Bean" series pins, and the jewelry line I'm slowly putting out. So this is hitting my merch plans in a big way.
However, Zap is switching over from USPS to courier and willing to eat the cost of the tariff in order to help their American buyers (since I'm certain a lot of their clientele is from the States, such as myself).

That said, I'm going to wait and see what the damage is going to be. I already have an order on the way that will be affected and will have to be ready to eat that cost. If this proves to be beyond what my budget can handle, I'll temporarily suspend merch production until further notice. I'm currently working out a backup plan since the contributions y'all make monthly does pay for this merch and I want y'all to get your money's worth. I have some thoughts about that, but I'll save that for another post.

If this comes to pass, the USPS will be a whole mess for a little while since they're gonna have to deal with the influx of parcels prior to the repeal as well as processing any parcels after--and they do not have the infrastructure in place. As a result of this, physical rewards will be on hold until things stabilise. I will do a massive rewards reservation to make up for this once I am able to do so. I apologise for this; I cannot risk anyone's goods arriving damaged or getting lost. I will be focusing on more digital rewards for the time being.

There is a chance that this could be delayed at the last second. It's still too early to tell. But I wanted to inform y'all what's going to happen, and if you weren't aware of this (and I don't blame you--NOBODY outside of artist and hobbyists have really talked about this, and we obviously can't trust the media since they're just there to glaze the administration anyway and spread propaganda), you are now. This won't just affect artists and hobbyists--if you order ANYTHING from abroad, or receive anything from abroad, you will be expected to pay those charges. This is a move meant to hurt small business both domestic and international, and is meant to further cripple the USPS--all part of the administration's plan, and as they are bigoted fascists they especially want to hurt artists of all kinds.

Again, we just have to hope that there is a last minute decision to hold off on implementing this. Well, there's one other thing we can hope for, but I cannot type it here. 😇

Thank you for reading. I know this was a lot to contend with.