Importing Japanese Pokémon cards into the USA

US landed-cost lines

Four separate charges, and only the first one is quoted before you order: the cards in yen, international shipping to your address, whatever US customs assesses when the parcel arrives, and the carrier's own fee for handling that clearance.

Akina quotes in JPY with tax included, shipping is quoted separately for your destination, and import duty and customs charges sit on the buyer's side. That split is stated before you order for a reason — the quoted price is one line of four, and the other three are what turn a good-looking yen number into a bad restock.

There is a fifth line that is not a fee at all. A yen price is fixed; what it costs you in dollars is not. If you set listing prices weeks ahead, set them off the rate you actually paid rather than the rate you saw when you asked.

• Card price in JPY — quoted up front, tax included, before anything ships.
• International shipping — quoted per destination, because a US address is not the same freight as a UK or an Australian one.
• US import charges — assessed on arrival, driven by how the shipment is classified and what value is declared on it.
• Carrier clearance fee — ask what your carrier bills for clearing the parcel; it is separate from anything the government assesses.
• The exchange rate on payment day — not a fee, still a number that moves your margin.

Tariff classification

Look it up against current US government sources and get the classification confirmed before a large order — a rate quoted in a forum thread is worth exactly as much as the date on the post.

Two things sit underneath every number you will read. Classification decides which line of the tariff schedule your shipment falls under, and for trading cards it is not self-evident enough to guess at. Low-value import rules are a policy setting rather than a fact of nature, and they get revised — which means a guide that still ranks well can be describing a system that no longer runs.

So date-check every source before you use it. A page that will not tell you when it was written cannot tell you what you owe.

• US Customs and Border Protection — the authority on what is charged and how. Start at cbp.gov, not at a blog post.
• The Harmonized Tariff Schedule at hts.usitc.gov — where classifications and their rates actually live. Search it yourself.
• Your carrier or a customs broker — have them confirm the classification before your first large shipment rather than after it.
• The commercial invoice and declared value — what the assessment is calculated from. Keep a copy with the order record.
• The date on everything you read — low-value import rules get revised, so treat an undated guide as unusable.

Supplier type

Both words describe the same arrangement, so treat them as search terms rather than as a description of who you are buying from: someone in Japan buys stock on the domestic market and exports it to you. Distributor, wholesale, bulk seller, supplier, middleman — the label tells you nothing that verification will not tell you better.

Akina is that arrangement with the layers taken out. There is no storefront cart and no middleman: you send a list on Facebook Messenger, the cards are sourced and verified in hand in Japan, photos of the actual stock come back to you before you pay, payment is Wise or PayPal in JPY with tax included, and carrier availability and dispatch timing are confirmed with each quote.

Run the same checks on anyone you buy from, including us.

• Who you are actually talking to — the person doing the sourcing, or an account relaying your message somewhere else.
• Photos of your stock, not stock photos — ask to see the actual cards before money moves.
• What your payment method gives you — check what recourse each one offers before you use it, not after something goes wrong.
• Who carries shipping and duties — get the split answered in writing before the first order, not on the doorstep.
• Whether you can start small — a supplier who only talks in large minimums is asking you to test with money you cannot afford to lose.

Shipping and unit cost

Order size, more than carrier choice. Freight and clearance are charged on the shipment, so the same cards cost less each in a larger consignment — which is what makes one-off ordering the expensive way to import.

Do the division before you commit. Take the shipping quote for your address, divide it by the units in the order, and add that to the price per unit. The card price itself may not move with size — a 50-card Starter Bundle is ¥50,000 and a 100-card Starter is ¥100,000 the same per card — so the whole difference on your books comes from freight and clearance spread across twice the units.

The other thing freight buys is time. A tracked express lane costs more than a slow one, and it is the difference between stock arriving before your selling date and stock arriving after it. That second outcome is a cost too; it just never appears on an invoice.

• Cost per unit, not per shipment — divide the shipping quote by units before comparing suppliers.
• Each parcel clears separately — ask what that costs, then decide between one order and three.
• Tracking and compensation terms — confirm the carrier, tracking, and any applicable loss or damage terms in the quote before payment.
• Shipping quoted for your address — get the number before the cards are picked, not after.
• First order sized as a test — small enough that being wrong about it is affordable.

Delivery timing

Count backwards from the date, and treat customs as the step with no promised duration.

Stock for a Friday stream or a monthly show floor has a deadline the border does not recognize. Order early enough that a hold costs you nothing but patience, use a tracked express lane when the date is fixed, and keep the deadline order smaller than the restock you place with time in hand.

There is a second timing cost that never appears on customs paperwork. Freight, duty and clearance are charged on every card in the parcel, including the duplicates and the names nobody at your table picks up. Cards that sit have been paid for twice. That is the case for a bundle built to a list you write — pokemon, era, rarity, budget — instead of a random lot: the import costs land on stock chosen to sell through rather than on filler.

• Count back from the event date, not forward from today.
• Keep the deadline order small — the big restock goes in a week with no clock on it.
• Confirm by photo while the cards are still in Japan — cheaper than finding the problem after clearance.
• Buy for the format — a show table and a live selling night move different cards. Say which one you are stocking when you send the list.
• Import costs land on filler too — every card in the parcel carries them, and only the ones that sell pay them back.

First US order

Small, quoted in full before you commit, and confirmed in photos before you pay.

Every number in this article is knowable before the cards leave Japan. The yen price and the shipping quote come from your supplier; the duty position comes from CBP and the tariff schedule on the day you check; the exchange rate comes from your payment app. Nothing about a first import has to be a surprise, and finding that out on a small order costs less than finding it out on a large one.

The Box List carries sealed boxes at dated JPY reference prices; confirm current price, condition, and availability in the quote. PSA 10 singles are sourced in Japan per request and quoted card by card. Send your list on Messenger and ask for the shipping quote to your address in the same message — that is the whole first step.

• Write the list — pokemon, era, rarity, budget. A bundle is built from what you name, so a vague brief buys a vague bundle.
• Get both numbers — JPY price (tax included) and the shipping quote for your US address. Add them before you decide anything.
• Run your own duty check — CBP and the tariff schedule, on the day you order, for the classification your shipment will use.
• Look at the photos properly — they come before payment. Say so if something is not what you asked for.
• Pay and track — Wise or PayPal in JPY, then FedEx with tracking.
• Reorder from your own sell-through — the second order is the one that pays, because it is built on what actually cleared.

Official references

Checked on 20 August 2026. Rules and service terms can change; verify the current source again on the order date.

• U.S. Customs and Border Protection — Basic importing and exporting
• U.S. International Trade Commission — Harmonized Tariff Schedule