Gamers get relief on US Tariffs… for now!

It seems I am the only person who didn’t need to learn how to spell Tariffs in the last couple of weeks. In Fact it is currently one of the most searched terms on google right now.

I remember 5th grade social studies so I understand that a tariff is a tax on the person purchasing a product, not on the government of the origin country. I vividly remember a teacher telling us that without tariffs the Great Depression wouldn’t have been so Great and instead it would have just been a Depression.

All that aside, lots of us have been watching closely as the De Minimis clause seemed to have been replaced with a 10% tax (tariff) and an over $32 fee on items coming in from China. This will greatly impact the market for the Handheld Gaming space. If you want to get a budget handheld for instance that costs $50USD and you add the fees and tariff it would come to roughly $87USD ($50 + 10% + $32). That is an insane increase that will likely take out the lower end companies in the Retro Gaming space. It would even raise the cost of the new Nintendo Switch 2 and the physical games we like so much.

There have been a couple of different arguments around this and examples of ways companies willing to take a hit will be able to continue to sell at bargain pricing. Most importantly right now however is that the De Minimis exception changes have been indefinitely put on hold. According to Forbes Mr. Trump has reinstated the De Minimis exemption for items under $800USD. 

This hold is going to give us some time to figure out the new market as well as make some purchases before changes go into effect. I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see a sudden push of Retro Handheld Game Consoles to the market in the coming months with companies trying to get them shipped prior to the new tariffs going into effect. Right now these tariffs have been put on hold while the government figures out how to collect the fees on these items.

The other good news is at this rate there won’t be any government employees to implement or enforce the tariffs at the rate they are being purged. It’s unfortunate that one man’s pain might become another pleasure if they can’t enforce these fees. 

The other thing that might save the Gaming Industry is the vendors themselves. This doesn’t go to taxing the sellers of these devices but in fact has them eating the some costs of these devices. According to reddit user One-Sun-336 there are already some workarounds in effect today that will keep the prices down. They bring up that tariffs are charged when the package goes to big carriers USPS, FedEx, DHL, etc. Sellers are already using bulk shippers to get around this and it should continue to work with the current laws. 

If you have ever ordered anything from AliExpress it is likely you are familiar with Bulk Shipping. I see my packages go to a warehouse outside of Chicago before they are all gathered together in one package and shipped from there to USPS. According to One-Sun-336 this will get us around tariffs as bulk shippers won’t be charged this and the last mile is from the US to the US disqualifying it for the tariff charges as it is in the country. I really hope they are correct. I know this is a loophole they are currently using. The only problem I see with this argument right now is because of the De Minimis exception, these bulk ship products don’t go through the usual customs process. Once this rolls back the administration is saying that they will start being checked by Customs and Border Patrol. Specifically noting Temu and Shein who used 30% of all De Minimis exceptions in 2023.

I’m uncertain who’s right and who’s wrong. I don’t know when it is going to be time to sound the alarm other than it’s kinda late as Mr. Trump campaigned on raising tariffs against China. Unfortunately he also convinced over 70 million Americans that China was going to pay this tax that has nothing to do with them. You can’t make another country pay taxes, you can only tax or tariff your own citizens hoping they change their buying habits to purchasing from your country. I do however like seeing the fight back against these tariffs and with Trump recently becoming friends with Jeff Bazos dropping the De Minimis exception would hurt his new Amazon Haul business so we may see this exception stay in place.

What are your thoughts on the tariffs? Do you think they are going to hurt the Gaming Market?

Once I have more information I’ll keep you updated.

If you want to checkout some gaming deals I have found on Amazon here is a link to my page! 

GameOn

CellPhish

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