Cheap import fees just jumped. The local analog brand is back on the table.
When the $4 gadget stops being $4, someone in your zip code can finally charge $18 and not look crazy.
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The loophole that made junk feel free is getting taxed like a real product. Carts will feel it before headlines do.
For years the hustle was obvious: list the same widget the ocean already made, undercut everyone, hide inside a marketplace.
Fees and de minimis rules are catching up. The $4 analog of everything is about to be $9, then $14, and the review section will still say it broke in a week.
That is not a tragedy. That is price cover for anyone making a slightly better object nearby, or assembling it in a spare room and shipping in two days.