By Crossave · Updated: September 2026
Crossave tells you what it really costs: shipping, duty and VAT already in the total.
The Japanese card market is not a cheaper copy of the European one: it is a different market, with sets, artworks and promos that never reach Europe. That is why collectors buy from Japan — and, for graded cards, from the US. The real question is not «is it cheaper?» but «what does the card cost once duty, VAT and shipping are paid?» — and the answer changed on 1 July 2026, when the EU removed its 150 € duty-free threshold. Here is the full bill with two worked examples, the difference below and above 150 €, and the one charge almost nobody puts in the calculation.
On a purchase from Japan or the US into an EU country you pay three things on top of the card: shipping, customs duty and import VAT. VAT is your own country's rate — 22% in Italy, 19% in Germany, 21% in Spain and the Netherlands, 20% in France — and it is calculated on the goods plus shipping (plus the duty, when VAT was not already collected at checkout). Two concrete cases, delivered to Italy, computed with the same engine this site uses for every comparison:
A 120 € card with 15 € shipping: the goods are worth less than 150 €, so the duty is the flat 3 €. VAT is 30.36 €. Total: 168.36 € — of which 33.36 € is duty and VAT, on top of 135 € of card and shipping. Delivered to Germany the same card comes to 164.22 €, because German VAT is 19%.
A 400 € card with 20 € shipping: above 150 € the flat rate no longer applies and the ordinary duty of the tariff heading is charged — which for printed collectible cards is zero. VAT remains: 92.40 € in Italy. Total: 512.40 €.
The practical rule you can read in those two numbers: on cards, what weighs is not the duty — it is the VAT. Whoever focuses on the duty is looking at the wrong line. Type your own card into the calculator at crossave.com/en/import-duty-calculator to see the bill for your country.
Until 30 June 2026 a parcel with goods worth less than 150 € entered the EU duty-free. Since 1 July 2026 Regulation (EU) 2026/382 has replaced that exemption with a flat customs duty of 3 € per item, and the measure runs until 1 July 2028.
The flat duty is counted per item in the consignment, not per parcel. That is the difference worth knowing before you order: five cards in one shipment pay the 3 € for each item once, while the same five cards in five separate shipments also pay five clearance fees. Consolidating the order is the simplest way not to give money away at the border.
VAT, instead, is always due, from the first euro: the old exemption under 22 € was abolished on 1 July 2021. There is no threshold under which a card arrives without VAT, and anyone who says otherwise is quoting rules that are five years old.
Once the intrinsic value of the goods (the card alone, without shipping) exceeds 150 €, the flat duty no longer applies and you are back to the ordinary duty, which depends on how the goods are classified in the customs tariff.
Here is a point almost never explained, and worth knowing. For a card there are two possible headings: «other printed matter» of chapter 49 (heading 4911 99), duty 0%, the same family as books; and «playing cards» (heading 9504 40), duty 2.7%.
Which one applies is not a matter of opinion: it can be read in the binding tariff informations published by European customs, open to anyone in the Commission's EBTI database. Five decisions concern collectible cards. Sports trading cards — printed cardboard with a photo on the front and player data on the back — were classified as printed matter at 0% (German decisions DEK/1978/08-1, DE23864/11-1, DE15646/13-1). Trading card games sold as sets — deck, rulebook, accessories, in one case the Pokémon game itself — were classified as playing cards at 2.7% (Austrian decisions AT2004/000229 and AT2009/000351), on the reasoning that those cards «are collected and can be traded, but are at the same time part of a game mechanism».
So the dividing line is not whether the card is collected: it is whether the piece is part of a game. On a single loose card — the case of someone buying a Charizard on eBay — none of those decisions says anything: all five concern sticker packs and complete game boxes, and all five have expired (a binding tariff information lasts a few years). This site calculates the 0% of printed matter; on a 400 € card the other reading would cost about 11 € more. It is not a doubt invented out of caution, and it is better to know it before delivery than at the door.
For an EU buyer the rule is the same whatever the parcel's origin: 3 € per item up to 150 €, the heading's duty above, VAT always. For graded cards the US is the main market, so the same two examples apply.
Above 150 € there is one extra question worth asking the seller: goods ORIGINATING in the United States can enter the EU duty-free under Regulation (EU) 2026/1455 — but origin is where the goods were made, not where the parcel ships from, and it must be claimed with a statement on the invoice. A card printed in Japan and sold from Texas is not of US origin. On cards the duty is already 0% under the printed-matter heading, so in practice this matters for the accessories and supplies sold alongside them.
Type the product you're looking for and we'll compare it across stores and countries.
If you buy on a large marketplace and the goods are worth less than 150 €, your country's VAT may already be charged at checkout: that is the IOSS scheme, which makes the marketplace responsible for collecting it (article 14a of Directive 2006/112/EC). In that case it is not asked again at delivery.
Do not read it as a discount: you pay the VAT anyway, only earlier and inside the price. What really changes is that you avoid the collection-on-delivery procedure — and often, with it, the fee the courier charges to advance the tax.
There is also a technical difference in the taxable base: under IOSS the VAT is calculated on goods plus shipping; without it, the duty enters the base too. On a single card we are talking about cents, but it explains why two seemingly identical parcels can arrive with slightly different bills.
Besides duty and VAT there is the customs clearance fee: the amount the carrier asks for filing the paperwork and advancing the taxes. It is not a tax and it does not go to the State: the carrier sets it, and it changes from courier to courier and between express services and the post.
On a 30 or 40 € card this item can be the heaviest of the three. It is also the only number in this guide we cannot give you in advance, because it depends on who delivers: read it in the carrier's conditions before ordering, not when the parcel is already held.
The advantage of the Japanese market is almost never fiscal: it is the product. There are sets, promos and artworks that never come out in Europe, and on those there is simply no European price to compare. Where the same card exists in both markets, compare the final totals, not the listed prices: that is exactly the bill this guide has just shown you, and the comparison this site does for you.
Before ordering, the checks that change the result:
Every rule quoted here has a date and a source, listed below. Two are moving and must be re-checked: the Italian national contribution of 2 € per shipment (scheduled for 1 October 2026, already postponed once) and the European 3 € flat duty, which is explicitly temporary until 1 July 2028.
If you read this page long after September 2026, check the sources before doing the maths: on a subject like this an old guide is not imprecise, it is wrong.
Want to compare the real prices of these products across sellers and countries?
Charizard ex 199/165 → Mega Darkrai ex 120/084 →Sources checked for the figures in this guide: