Buying Japanese Pokémon cards in the EU: VAT, the €3 duty and the new €2 fee

By Harrison King. Updated 12 November 2026.

A ¥15,999 card from Mercari Japan came to €136.58 at a French door in the example below, 51% more than the listing price. Since July 2026 the EU has added two new charges on top of VAT, and from 10 November Japan Post stopped delivering these parcels to Germany at all.

This guide covers buying a card through a proxy and shipping it to an EU country. Figures were checked in November 2026.

What changed in 2026

• A €3 customs duty on small parcels. Parcels worth €150 or less used to come in duty-free. Since 1 July 2026 they pay €3 per type of item. All trading cards share one customs code, so a parcel of cards pays €3 once. This is a stopgap until normal duty rates apply to small parcels, planned for July 2028.
• A €2 handling fee. Since 1 November 2026 the EU charges a €2 Union Handling Fee per type of item on parcels sent from businesses outside the EU, at any value. For a parcel of cards, that's €2, collected along with the other import charges.
• No Japan Post to Germany. Since 10 November 2026, Japan Post doesn't accept parcels from online purchases to Germany, citing the EU tax changes. German buyers need a courier. Buyee offers its own Buyee Air Delivery instead. Japan Post's notice covers Germany only, so far.

You need a proxy

Sellers on Mercari Japan, Yahoo! Auctions and Rakuma only post inside Japan. A proxy buys the card for you and sends it on. The two most used are Buyee, which is Mercari's official overseas partner, and ZenMarket.

• Buyee charges ¥500 per order, plus ¥500 for its Standard Plan, which covers damage, loss and items that don't match the listing (or nothing for the Lite plan, with no cover). With Buyee, VAT is collected when the parcel arrives.
• ZenMarket charges ¥800 per Mercari or Yahoo! Auctions item and a payment fee from 1%. Since March 2026 it charges your country's VAT at checkout on parcels up to €150, through the EU's IOSS scheme, so the post office doesn't need to collect it.

VAT by country

VAT is charged on the card plus shipping plus duty, at your country's standard rate:

What you pay at the door

When VAT wasn't charged at checkout, the post office or courier collects it before delivering, along with the duty and the €2 fee, and adds its own fee for doing so:

• La Poste (France): €8, or less if you pay online before delivery.
• Deutsche Post (Germany): €7.50, though Japan Post parcels to Germany have stopped for now.
• Other national posts: usually a similar few euros. Yenlens estimates €8.
• DHL, FedEx and UPS: roughly €10 to €20 for paying the import charges on your behalf.

If ZenMarket charged VAT at checkout, there's no post office fee for collecting it.

Over €150

Above €150, the €3 flat duty no longer applies. Instead, trading cards (customs code 9504 40) pay about 2.7% duty, on the card plus shipping. Cards made in Japan can come in at 0% under the EU-Japan trade agreement, but only with proof of origin, which proxies rarely provide. VAT and the €2 fee still apply. ZenMarket can't charge VAT up front on these parcels, so it's collected at the door, and some countries ask for a tax number. ZenMarket's guide says Italy asks for your codice fiscale.

Worked examples

These use the European Central Bank rate on 9 November 2026 (¥1 = €0.005656) and assume your bank or card adds 1.5% when it converts currency. Shipping is an estimate for one card.

A ¥15,999 card through Buyee, by Japan Post, to France

The same card through ZenMarket, VAT charged at checkout

The VAT is the same. The difference is mostly La Poste's €8 fee, which you don't pay when VAT was charged at checkout.

The same card through Buyee, by courier, to Germany

That's about €20 more than France, almost all of it the courier's higher shipping price and fee. Until Japan Post delivers to Germany again, that's the gap German buyers face.

A ¥42,300 card through Buyee, by Japan Post, to Italy

Ways to pay less

• Put several cards in one parcel. Cards share one customs code, so you pay the €3 duty and the €2 fee once per parcel, not once per card, and shipping once. VAT doesn't change.
• Under €150, consider ZenMarket's VAT at checkout. It saves the post office's fee and the wait while the post office collects it.
• In Germany, compare couriers. Check Buyee Air Delivery's price against DHL, FedEx and UPS at checkout, since Japan Post isn't an option for now.
• Don't ask anyone to mark the parcel as a gift or declare a lower value. It's customs fraud, and if the parcel is lost, the cover only pays out on the declared value.

If there is anything I got incorrect, please correct me at harrison@yenlens.com.