Hi there, if you found yourself on this page, you are one of my valued US customer, two thirds of my customer base and almost 90% of my shipments.
This new US tariffs situation has impacted my small business considerably and at the time I’m writting this text in January, I have been struggling since August to try and avoid the situation also impacting you, my customers.
I have had more and more packages refused, returned to me, paid by me again, shipped again and refused again, and I have lost too much time and money now that I am sadly forced to implement a new shipping solution for the US and the collection of tariffs at checkout.
How do tariffs work on the website:
I am working with a pre-existing open source solution for the website, and have done my best to implement something clear and understandable for all hopefully.
The website still shows prices without tax added, like before. You’ll notice a small text under the price « Tax excluded - US tariffs added at checkout ». This was the only way to have something consistent, logged in or not. When you are at checkout with a US shipping address, then you’ll see an added line at the bottom of the price list « US ONLY - Total with tariffs ». This is the total you are paying, it includes the normal price of my items, shipping costs and the added tariffs.
Important - How are tariffs calculated:
The tariffs imposed on Europe are 15% at this time, however, the shipping service takes 16.5% to cover its fees. Additionally, ANY money that comes through my website first goes through paypal that takes 5%, then taxed 12.8%. So, in total, the cost of tariffs on what I sell is actually 19.44%! I’m going to drop the 12.8% my country is taxing, and that will bring us to 17.325% for the actual tariff cost from the transporter with paypal fees. So please understand, I’m really sorry about the extra cost and also paying some from my own pocket for each US order.
Edit on February 24th 2026:
Well, after the supreme court ruling, the tariffs are still maintained by president Trump, however, they are currently lowered to 10%. For how long? go figure! how can you be expected to handle a business with rules changing on a daily basis, I don't know!
So, the new and current calculation for 10% tariffs on the website, with the shipping company still asking their 10% cut and 20% VAT on the 10% cut, we get 11.22% and taking paypal fees into account, we are at 11.811%. I'm still not charging customers with the 12.8% tax I'm paying on all money that comes in. So, for now, we are going from 17.325% to 11.811%, which is quite a relief. I hope this stays that way for now and gets completely removed as soon as possible.
How about that new shipping service:
There are 3 shipping options for the US:
- Tracked letters (paper props):
For the Blade Runner badges only. I won’t be collecting tariffs on those, they will be the same price as before. I am however deactivating the metal clip option on those, and they will be shipped in a regular envelope with two cardboard sheets inside and without a custom declaration. As a regular mail to a friend. It allows me to still offer a cheap option with 9.95€ of shipping costs and no added tariffs.
- Happy post:
This is the new shipping option. It starts at 500g, so the cost starts a bit higher than before, however, it is cheaper for 500g, 1kg and so on. And it goes up to 25kg with a step every 1kg. This is great news for the heavier stuff like the steel stands !
My slightly obvious advice to you guys would be to group your orders, take advantage of the fact it gets cheaper for heavier packages, group with your friends and split your stuff back at home… Let’s try to make this work !
The way it works is a bit particular, package is dropped at a relay, and is sent to the French Happy post Hub, for this, you’ll receive a happy post tracking. The package is then shipped to the international hub in Brussels, Belgium, and you’ll notice on the tracking page that they also give you a Belgian international tracking number, this is were that tracking number will start to work on the USPS website.
Final info about that service, I have to drop the packages at a relay, 20 minutes by car, so for this, I’ll only be shipping on Mondays because I need to spend time building cool stuff, not driving everyday to drop packages, I hope you understand. Just order before Sunday, and your orders will ship on Monday :-)
- Colissimo:
Same as before, equivalent to USPS Priority, more expensive, faster, insured and now with delivered duty paid option.
For the other customers in the world that found themselves on this page, what changes for you:
Absolutely nothing at all for now.
It was important for me to find the absolute best solution for my US customers as they are such an important part of my business, however, being a collector as well and knowing that it is very expensive for us to collect in Europe and difficult to find stuff here, I was also adamant about not changing a single thing for my European customers.
I’m saying, nothing «for now » because if there was something positive to draw about this difficult situation, is that it forced me to look for alternative shipping options, and when everything is tested and approved, I think I can implement those new solutions for all customers worldwide and bring cheaper solutions for heavy items like the steel stands. So, to be continued on this, but for now, please note that everything works exactly the same for you, and is exactly the same price as before :-)
Thank you all !
Thank you all for your trust and patience, I love my customers, I love doing what I do, I know I write a lot and I get passionate about things and this is because I really love it and it’s really important to me and I’m so close to loosing it all. It has been extremely difficult for me since August, I had a very very poor year for my small business and I have been struggling every day since those taxes came into effect, so I’m trying to keep working hard, figuring things as we go, and keep bringing cool parts worldwide that no one else does and making you guys happy if I can :-) thank you again, all of you, all over the world :-)