where does your toy money go?

the short answer: of every $100 our customers paid, $8.20 was the toy. getting it to them — shipping, customs, import tax — took $25.60. taking the payment took $8.30. that's from our first four orders, every line off a receipt.

the four orders

four months in, uggaz has sold four orders. here they are, with what each customer paid and what we kept after shipping, tax, fees, packaging and the toy itself.

• germany, aug 2 — the busy hands (goldfish) and the love-hate ball. paid $37.94. kept $17.64.
• usa, aug 29 — the dumpling starter set. paid $59.99. kept $35.60.
• france, aug 31 — the screaming lizard. paid $23.12. kept $9.61.
• mexico, sep 3 — the winter legs and a screaming lizard. paid $39.98. kept $29.30.

$161.03 in. $92.15 kept.

where $100 went

getting it there (shipping, customs, import tax)	$25.60
payment fees	$8.30
the toy	$8.20
packaging	$0.70
left	$57.20

the cheapest part of selling a toy was the toy. the payment fees cost more than it did. by ten cents.

the tax part, country by country

eu: two different taxes

vat. charged at the buyer's country rate — 20% in france — and included in the price you pay at checkout. we pass it on through an ioss intermediary, which files it with the tax office. on the french order it was €3.32: 20% of the toy plus shipping.

customs duty. since 1 july 2026, the eu charges a flat €3 per item on parcels worth up to €150, until 1 july 2028 (european commission). "item" means a type of goods, not a piece: five t-shirts are one item, a t-shirt and a watch are two. the seller owes it, not the buyer, so it doesn't appear at your checkout.

on our orders: the french one was one lizard. the lizard cost us $0.50. the duty was $3.27 and the vat $3.59 — $6.86 in tax, 13.6 times the lizard. the german one was two different toys, so two items, €6: $6.52 in duty. the two toys together cost us $2.71.

usa: 27.5%

the us ended duty-free entry for small parcels in 2025. since 27 july 2026, our carrier pre-collects 27.5% of the declared value on every us parcel. it's paid before the parcel leaves. it isn't refunded or topped up afterwards, and no tax receipt comes back.

mexico: 33.5%

mexican customs changed the rate on parcels from china in august 2025. our carrier now pre-collects 33.5% of the declared value, the same way. there's no tax-free threshold, the line won't take a parcel declared over $50, and customs needs the recipient's rfc or curp tax number — so if you're in mexico, we'll ask you for it.

who else gets paid

the card payment. 6.4% to 7.2% of each order, currency conversion included. then another 0.3% when the money reaches our account.

the tracking. every parcel goes registered, so you can follow it. the registration fee alone, before the parcel weighs anything, was $2.24 to $3.08 per order.

and then the rent

all of the above is per order. the shop also costs money whether anyone buys or not: a company in hong kong, the software, a few weeks of ads, the shop platform, the eu tax intermediary. for june to september that came to $723.20, yearly bills split by month.

$92.15 kept, $723.20 spent. four months: −$631.

if you're buying something small from china

• in the eu, every different type of item in the parcel adds €3 of duty, on top of vat. one kind of thing per parcel is cheaper than a mix.
• in the us and mexico, small parcels pay import tax now. it's either built into the price or collected along the way.
• on our orders, shipping cost more than the product. every time.

these are the rates our carrier charged on these dates. the us rule changed in 2025, mexico's in 2025, the eu's in 2026. they'll change again.

so

four orders in, the toy is still the cheapest part. we're deciding whether to keep going. if you have an opinion: hi@uggaz.com.

go play.