25€ fee

Hello fellow philatelists!
I sometimes order from delcampe, but I got email from admin that a new 25€ fee will be applied to orders below 150€ from non-EU countries.
As this applies to UK and I collect British colonies, this is quite hard to swallow.
Is the fee applied to all sellers or is my english reading comprehension lacking?
Philately is an expensive hobby as is!

Hello,

Your understanding is almost correct, but there is an important nuance.

The €25 flat fee does not apply to all purchases from outside the EU. It only applies when you buy from professional sellers located outside the EU.

So:
- If you buy from a private individual outside the EU no €25 fee
- If you buy from a professional seller outside the EU €25 fee applies

This is why checking the seller’s status (private vs professional) is important before purchasing.

Hope this helps clarify things a bit.

Kind regards,
Miranda

Delcampe Customer Service

I initially thought this might be a scam.

I think that although applied to businesses it will see a slump in sales the increase in costs from 5% to the flat fee is just not comparable.

Since the UK dropped out of the EU it has not been the same and this will not be a positive step for all collectors.

Is it possible to search on private only as I would not see any point searching on the professional side going forward?

Miranda,

This fee / approach seems in my opinion to be designed to negatively impact Professional Sellers like myself.
It almost seems that Delcampe no longer want non-EU sellers on the site.
Clearly buyers will look to avoid Professional Sellers as already seen in this thread (and depending on how buyers set their search this could also impact EU Professional Sellers!).

I find it difficult to believe that latest EU Directive, although clearly designed to further protect the EU from outside competition, sets the level of outrageous fee that Delcampe has now introduced on purchases specifically made from a Professional Seller. It further seems difficult to read anything into this fee anything other than Delcampe no longer wants non-EU Professional Sellers on its site? Please advise.

No doubt you will mention / highlight this 'imposition fee' when setting out the benefits of selling on Delcampe for Professional Sellers?

Perhaps you can clarify whether Buyers still have an 'opt out' so that they can continue to pay import fees and customs duties on delivery?

An extremely disgruntled UK Professional Seller.

Alan Catherall
[Hoatzinstamps]

Hello,

Thank you for your message; I understand your concern, especially regarding the increase in costs and the potential impact on collecting habits. Many collectors are indeed carefully reviewing how these changes may affect their purchases.

At this stage, I’m not able to confirm whether adding a filter based on the seller’s status would be easy to implement or how long it might take. However, I can confirm that this is a very good suggestion, and it has already been shared with the team in charge of these changes. If any update is planned, we will of course keep you informed.

In the meantime, I invite you (if you have not already done so) to display the seller’s status in your search results. To do this, simply click on “Display” at the top right of any search or category page, select “Seller status”, and click “Save settings”.

You can also determine whether a seller is professional or private by checking the status displayed on their profile or the “PRO” label next to their username.

Kind regards,
Miranda

Hello Alan,

I fully understand your concerns and the frustration you are expressing.
However, I would like to clarify an important point: this approach is not a policy introduced by Delcampe to disadvantage non‑EU professional sellers.

It is the direct consequence of European Union (EU27) regulations, which will come into force on 1 July and aim to remove the exemption from customs duties for low‑value shipments.
Although the UK currently applies its own framework, it has historically followed a similar approach. To ensure consistency and compliance, we have aligned our system accordingly.

In practice, managing two separate systems would have created significant technical and administrative complexity, making them financially unviable for Delcampe.

In this context, we had two options:
- either implement a harmonised system with an appropriate flat fee,
- or discontinue imports to the United Kingdom.

We chose to maintain this option, as we know how important it is for our collectors to continue finding and acquiring the rare item missing from their collection, even if this involves a higher cost.

Concerning a possible “opt‑out”, this is unfortunately no longer available on Delcampe. This option was removed following repeated cases of misuse, particularly when imports were not correctly declared or declared at an incorrect value.

While EU and UK regulations still provide different mechanisms in certain cases, they increasingly place responsibility on marketplaces to ensure VAT is properly collected and declared. In this context, collecting the applicable import charges at checkout is the most reliable way to ensure compliance.

As a result, buyers can no longer choose to revert to the previous system of paying duties upon delivery on our platform.

Kind regards,
Miranda

Miranda,

Thank you your fast response as usual and various clarifications.

Your answer doesn't really explain the outrageously high charge of ER 25 being implemented by Delcampe.
I cannot envisage many customers paying this on top of the platform fees, import duties, postage etc.
Net, this change severely impacts selling to EU customers henceforth.

I think this flat fee discontinues imports to the EU.

This looks like the beginning of the end.

Alan Catherall
[Hoatzinstamps]

I feel that I have to agree with many of the comments here, Delcampe has made things very difficult for sellers since its imposition of platform fees over 2 years ago which has resulted in my sales declining by over 50%.
Now this, a £22.50 fee for professional sellers which so far Delcampe has not explained how it has been arrived at. This seems somewhere between guesswork and usury, particularly as Miranda has admitted that the UK is not implementing this currently. Given that this is the case, are Delcampe then going to keep the whole fee for themselves, or pass it over, and, if the latter, to whom, an by what mechanism?
I am not a professional seller but am under little illusion that this will be of no consequence to the majority of EU buyers who don’t want to stare at some small entry in a seller’s profile, to see if they are professional or not, but will simply ignore UK sellers altogether.
As Hoatzinstamps says, this is the beginning of the end, I fear

As professional sellers, we are caught in the crossfire of the global trade war against companies like Shien and Temu. The following is all my understanding and may be incorrect (not legal advice etc)

When I started selling I had to provide 3 items on a written CN22 Description - 'Stamps' Value - £2 Weight - 20g and then sign it. With the new digital forms its become a minefield of IOSS, country of origin etc etc. Once the tariff wars started and delcampes buyers fees complicated the declarations I stepped away from exporting.

The full EU guidance is here Link (https)

The good news is this is temporary until 1 July 2028. after that the actual duty is charged which will be 0% for stamps (9704) by my understanding from here Link (https)

Until then we need to pay 3EUR per line on the customs form. The examples shown do not account for country of origin so I'm not sure if 2 stamps from Norway and 1 from France would count as one or two lines. for common stamps this basically means its not worth buying from outside of the EU from businesses.

There is also an additional 2EUR handling fee per parcel being added by some countries. Customs inclusive postage is also more expensive (see the USA costs since tariffs) iirc.

Now on to Delcampes implementation. They have made a bad situation 100X worse. I think they probably arrived at the blanket fee by getting an average professional order size (say 7 items - 21EUR) and adding a bit.

A blanket per item fee would have been fairer (3EUR) and allowed higher value stamps to be sold at an acceptable rate. number of items per order would come down, but you could get the odd stamp being bought if it filled a hole. its also transparent and relatively risk free from Delcampe's perspective as its impossible for fees to be over the actual tariff.

The huge EUR25 fee basically stops all but the most expensive items being bought. it also encourages bulk purchases, which will push up the order size. From delcampe's perspective this could lead to even higher actual customs fees than they were anticipating and a financial loss on these transactions.

A couple of questions for Delcampe.

* Your information makes no mention of country of origin (which requre separate lines on a customs form) has this been taken into account?

* You are proscribing the information we have to enter on to the customs form for delcampe transactions, but we as sellers are signing the customs forms that all details are correct. Are you providing indemnity to us as sellers if your information is not correct.

Hello Alan,

The £22.50 corresponds to the equivalent amount charged to European members, which is €25, when they make a purchase from a seller located outside the European Union.

We understand that this adjustment may raise questions. As previously explained, in order to ensure the continuity and sustainability of our system for our members in the United Kingdom, we have chosen to implement a harmonized approach between UK and EU members.

In practice, managing two separate systems would have resulted in significant technical and administrative complexity, making their financial management not viable for Delcampe.

Kind regards,
Miranda

Miranda,

The impact on my business and Delcampe is significant.

A real example of a Belgian buyer who purchased 1 item last evening for £14.25.

His bill now is shown as:

Purchase £14.25
Postage £3.70
Platform fees £1.70
Import VAT £2.99
Delcampe admin £0.71
Total £23.35

Post 1st July it will be:

Purchase £14.25
Postage £3.70
Platform fees £1.70
Import VAT £2.99
Delcampe admin £22.50
Total £45.14

I don't need a crystal ball to recognise what impact this change will have on sales.

No sales = no business for me and no platform fees for Delcampe and no import or customs duties for the EU.

So, how do I become a non Professional Seller on Delcampe?

Alan Catherall
[Hoatzinstamps]

I'm not sure I wish to wait until 2028 to see if the EU bureacracy can make sensible decisions. I'd be out of business by then.

You raise a few intersting points about how this is being implemented. See whether Delcampe can clarify.

I think sales to the EU countries will just dry up and confidently expect post purchase cancellations as Buyers see the outrageous costs.

Everyone will be a loser - Buyer, Seller, Delcampe, EU. No winners as far as I can tell.

Need another plan

Alan Catherall
[Hoatzinstamps]

If you are buying to sell you cannot, you are breaking UK/EU consumer laws if you do. What a mess.

That's a moot point as I may wish to sell my personal collection.
And yes it's a mess.
And yes I need a new plan / strategy.

Alan Catherall
[Hoatzinstamps]

Managed to find my own answer to country of origin, again not legal advice etc, just my understanding.

In the full EU guide Link (https) Top of page 14 has two bike parts (with the same code) from two different countries of origin. The 3EUR is paid twice, one for each line.

Looking at the other examples it would be perfectly ok to have a single line for say all the Ghana stamps (be they Ghana or Gold Coast) in an order. (this is what I was doing on electronic forms prior to halting exports).

You cannot change the country of origin when you sell the object it is still 'made in XYZ' and needs to be declared as such unless you 'sufficiently process' it (listing on an auction site does not count, if not it would be used to get around a lot of tariff boundaries). More details from the UK govt Link (https)

Following the letter of the law can be a minefield though. What to do with Kenya Uganda Tanganyika? Current Mint stamps that are still valid for postage should be on a separate code (4907) rather than 9704. Royal Mail systems limit the number of lines to 20 etc, and require a country of origin (unknown is not acceptable) so large orders can be an issue.

Then you get into collections/mixtures. what does sufficiently processed mean in the world of philately.

So the question to Delcampe remains, what about country of origin, and how does it fit into your plans?

OK, OK ... that's all a bit of a joke.
What about countries that no longer exist in their original names or British Occupied Italian colonies etc.
I have customers that order for example 1937 Coronation sets from say 20 countries on the same order - is that 20 x 3 euros.

The paperwork wouldn't fit on the envelope.

I give up

Alan Catherall
[Hoatzinstamps]

Well, what a mess indeed.

What to do about postage stamps that were printed in country X, for the postage service in country Y, but was only sold from an agency in country Z?

It was a bit tongue in cheek yes, but is the letter of the law as I understand it, and with electronic invoices etc they are getting tougher.

Under most previous tariff/tax regimes it made no difference to the tax paid at the border, so the likelihood of getting issues was slight as there is no financial loss as long as the totals tally to the invoice For the UK stamps are all 0% tariff, 5% VAT (20% via IOSS).

For the next 2 years it will make a financial difference for exports to the EU, especially where the customer has bought multiple lots. Knowingly not declaring stuff properly to avoid tariffs causes legal issues and with joint liability on the marketplace Delcampe are going to be careful.

The wording on multiple item shipments is fairly clear, and I suspect that is why I may be waiting a while for a response from Delcampe while they run it past their compliance function or law firm.

We are very much an outlier on the customs front (at least in the low value order space). These rules were written for someone ordering couple of items off Temu/Shien whatever they say, and it may come down to us getting caught as unintended consequences.

Reading between the lines this is an existential crisis for Delcampe. They kicked a lot users in some states in the US out when the sales tax issue came up. They may need to split the site for professionals into EU and RotW if they don't get the fees right. Interestingly the other site has not yet issued their guidance on this.

Yes. There are lawyers/customs experts who specialise in this stuff (think cars being built from parts in multiple countries. my uk govt link goes into some of the complexities.

For the average customs official having an order with 'Kenya' printed at the top of the stamp claiming to be from the GB due to being printed there would probably raise flags.

Then there is the issue of when a stamp ceases to be gummed paper (4811490000), I'll stop now .....

Quote: " Interestingly the other site has not yet issued their guidance on this."

On another site (not the US one), where I sell on occasions, they have done something really clever imho; they only allow sales within the EU.

Wow, 75% of my sells are to the EU so yup up go's the white flag.

Hi Just reading the post above, by Steve hill stamps, he states that this will be temporary until 1st of July 2028 when stamps become zero rated, if this is the case and will Delcampe revise its systems, can you confirm please?. At the moment I have 11,000 plus items listed with you witch I was slowly increasing. now under this new 25 euro charge its was not worth my time continuing and my first thought was giving up but if things will change on the 1st July I will carry on.


As an aside my display screen has had an update that makes how the visits are displayed difficult to see.

Another issue that customs will not understand regarding country of origin is a lot of stamps were printed in the UK by DLR and Waterlow etc in the UK and then sent overseas, so if customs examine a letter containing Rhodesia Admirals they will think they came from Rhodesia and not the UK, my head hurts!

Hello "marionfeather",

Rest assured that we are keeping a close eye on how regulations evolve, and we will adjust whenever needed to stay fully in line with the laws in place.

Kind regards,

Marion - Delcampe Customer Service

That's in 2 years time so a big wait, and things can change in the meantime.

Also remember that Delcampe may keep the charge for 'operational reasons'. They are imposing the fee on mainland UK customers where there have been no changes to require such a charge as yet.

All in all a mess, and like you I am continuing to monitor whether listing anywhere is worthwhile anymore.

Miranda or Marion @ Delcampe you have still not addressed the country of origin issue, will this be addressed or not?