Shipping FAQs

Can you ship via a recognized courier company rather than the postal service?

Yes, all of our international shipments are shipped with DHL Express. DHL provides fast delivery even at peak periods, usually within seven days. They also provide comprehensive tracking and help desk services.

How much duty will I pay on my purchase?

Each country charges import tariffs differently. Our metal miniature products are typically given the HS (the Harmonised System is how trade goods are categorized) code 9503.00.00, which covers scale models.

This tariff finder tool can be used to look up the duty rate for your country for the export (from New Zealand) of our products. There may be additional taxes imposed by local countries, however this calculator shows the base duty rate applicable at any time. Some of our other products such as boxes or calendars have different HS codes, subject to different tariff rates.

New Zealand has Free Trade Agreements in place with a number of countries see the link here: FTAs in force as at Jan 2023. These agreements mean that products are free from duty, but they may still be subject to VAT/GST on import depending on the tax rules in the destination country.

NZ has concluded FTAs with the UK and the EU, and both are expected to come into force in 2023.

I am in the EU, is Imperial Productions a member of IOSS so that you can collect VAT/GST at checkout?

No, the scale of our business doesn’t currently justify the compliance costs for IOSS filing. Customers will be responsible for any duties and taxes levied at import. DHL manages this process for us.

We are constantly looking for ways to make purchasing our products more convenient for our international customers.

My shipping charges turned out to be different to the estimate when I placed my order. Please explain.

Our website links to our shipping carriers (NZPost and DHL) and uses rules to estimate the shipping costs, mainly based on weight. One thing they can’t do is add up the box sizes of the products ordered and figure out which shipping carton they’ll fit in. This matters because courier companies charge based both on weight and something called the volumetric weight which is a function of how big the box is.

Before we send the invoice we calculate the actual shipping costs, and sometimes the box turns out to be a different size than estimated. We only charge actual shipping costs, so sometime this works out cheaper.

If you want a precise shipping quote we can calculate that for you at any time, it’s just that our system doesn’t (yet) take the product box sizes into the estimating equation.

Do you offer free shipping?

Yes. For International orders over NZD $1500, and for domestic (NZ) orders over $500 we ship for free. Duties and taxes if any will still be payable for international orders.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sustainability & Materials

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Instagram

Shipping FAQs

First to know