The Big Redpants Move
I know my last Blog Post was really long, so here's a quick recap of some main points. Please check that Blog Post if you want more information beyond what's covered here.
Between ongoing issues with shipping and the new US tariffs, I'm no longer able to stock inventory in the US. From now on, I'll be keeping my inventory in Japan, and I'll be doing all order fulfillment myself like I used to do way back in the day.
Product prices have gone down for most things, despite prices being raised by Aston Martin and some of my suppliers.
Shipping costs have gone up fore most things, because they’re now kept in Japan and have to be shipped internationally to customers.
Product prices and shipping costs for things shipped directly from manufacturers and distributors are not affected by the changes I'm making at Redpants.
Orders with a value of $800 or less (shipping excluded) are not subject to the new US tariffs. If an order is subject to import duties, customs fees, and/or the new tariffs, those are not charged as part of the order. Rather, they're billed directly to the custom from the shipping carrier or relevant government agency.
Orders are typically delivered in about a week once they're shipped.
I've reenabled backorders and special orders for items that are expected to be available in a reasonable amount of time, but please contact me before ordering and I'll be happy to check the current status of whatever you need.
The Redpants Terms and Conditions have been updated to cover all of this and more, but may continue to be updated or otherwise changed as I continue making changes at Redpants.
All the above is either in-progress or has been completed, but there's still a lot more to do.
The first thing I want to mention is that I’m still in the process of building up inventory in Japan. I’ve got inventory shipments coming in but I’m shipping out orders shipping out as well, so stock levels are stacking up slowly. Many of the things listed on backorder are actually shipping quickly because of the incoming inventory shipments that are already en route, and that I continue to order in. If you need an availability estimate for anything on backorder, please contact me before ordering.
A few prices have gone up but most have gone down, some dropping by as much as 10%. Had I kept my inventory in the US, prices would have gone up for most things by as much as 20-50%. I keep seeing the news report that the new tariffs are ~10-25%, depending on the country where the item is coming from. But the thing they aren't saying is that now import duties can be stacked multiple times on a single item, in addition to that new 10-25% tariff. So the reality of this whole situation is that import costs are as high as 47% when they're all added up, which is absurdly higher than the 10-12% I used to pay, and pulling a major part of my business out of the US was the only way to keep Redpants going.
I've updated most of the product listings with the new pricing, but some new issues have popped up as part of the changes I've make to my shipping system.
If you get a "No Shipping Options Available" message in your cart or during checkout, please let me know what you're trying to order and what country you’re in. There are three reasons why this could be happening:
The item is not able to be shipped to your country. Some items can’t be shipped outside of North America, or can’t be delivered to certain countries. For example, I can’t ship Motul fluids outside of the US or Canada, and I can’t ship VelocityAP products to Australia or England. I try to list shipping restrictions in each product listing, so please check to see if that’s the case.
There’s an issue with a product listing that causes it to block shipping rates from being calculated. Basically, some product listings have an obscure setting toggled that made sense when I first set it up years ago, but now is causing issues with the new shipping system configuration and I have to fix every single product and product variant individually.
I may not have yet added your country to the new shipping system configuration. I'm still adding more shipping destinations but, again, I have to do them all individually and it takes a long time.
In any case, please let me know what you’re trying to order and what country you’re in. If there’s a shipping restriction and I can’t deliver something to you, I’ll let you know what it is and why. If there’s an issue with a product listing, I’ll fix it right away. If I haven’t yet added your country to my new shipping system configuration, I’ll get started on that and should have it set up within a day or so.
I’m continuing to work on the product listings and shipping system to iron out all the wrinkles, especially the ones preventing shipping options from being available.
Lastly, since Monday is a holiday here in Japan, it's worth a quick note that I generally ship in-stock orders the same day or next business day, but holidays can affect this, and holidays in the destination country can affect delivery. In addition to holidays, shipping carriers can and do have delays or issues outside of our control. These delays can affect how quickly inventory gets restocked, when a special order item is ready to ship to the customer, or how quickly a customer receives an order. Manufacturers and distributors ship according to their own processes - this could be the same day or after a week, or longer, and I can’t affect that. I'm sure most people are aware of this, but it does come up.
Okay, I kept it short this time. Yay me.