Import collectibles and publishing
from Europe to Australia

Start with language, because it is the one advantage no local distributor can undercut. Spanish-language editions printed in Spain and Portuguese editions printed in Portugal are frequently the versions your customers actually want, and they arrive in Latin American markets late, in small allocations or never. Publishers like Norma Editorial, Planeta Cómic and Devir, and the Franco-Belgian houses behind the bande dessinée catalogue, sit at the centre of that. Add Taschen for art and photography books, whose formats and editions are a European proposition first.

The second axis is the hobby trade. Games Workshop's Warhammer ranges, Asmodee's board game catalogue, LEGO's European assortment, Panini's collections, model kits from Italeri and Revell, EU pressings on vinyl and European print runs of trading cards all carry regional exclusives and edition differences that make a specialist shop's window look different from everyone else's. Third, the backlist: European stock persists on titles and references that are out of print or unavailable in your market, which is often where the margin is for a specialist retailer. Commercial terms are between you and each publisher or distributor — trade accounts, minimum orders and territorial agreements are theirs to set. What we do is receive from all of them into one address and send you one shipment.

Australia draws a clear line. At or below a customs value of A$1,000 there is no customs duty and no import processing charge. Above it, the Australian Border Force assesses duty, GST and the processing charge at the border before release, with MFN duty around 5% on most clothing, footwear, leather goods and hand tools, and 0% on a lot of electronics. The Australia–EU free trade agreement was concluded in March 2026 but has not entered into force, so plan on MFN rates and treat any preference as future upside rather than a line in your costing.

GST is where the business case differs from the consumer one. There is no GST-free threshold: 10% applies either way. Below A$1,000 it is collected under the vendor-collection model — by the seller, the platform or the redeliverer, which is what a forwarding service is. Above A$1,000 it is assessed at the border. The good news for a company is that if you hold an ABN and are registered for GST, import GST is normally claimable as an input tax credit, so it becomes a cash-flow item rather than a cost. Give us your ABN and GST status at onboarding and we will reflect it in how your shipments are documented.

Two operational realities shape this category. The first is weight: paper is dense, and a pallet of books or a case of hardbacks costs far more to move than its volume suggests. That pushes you towards larger, less frequent consignments and towards sea freight where your replenishment cycle can absorb the transit — which is a planning decision, not something we can fix with a better rate. The second is condition. Collectibles are sold on condition, so a corner crushed in transit is a markdown or a return. We repack for protection where the original packaging is not up to an international leg, and we will photograph condition on arrival if you ask, so that a claim starts from evidence rather than memory.

There is also one tax rule genuinely worth knowing, because it changes the arithmetic more than anything on this page: in Brazil, books, newspapers and periodicals — and the paper used to print them — enjoy constitutional tax immunity. That does not automatically make every shipment free of every charge, and it does not extend to games, miniatures or toys, but for a bookshop importing printed matter into Brazil it is a materially different calculation from importing collectible figures. Confirm the treatment of your specific goods with your despachante; it is the first thing we would check in your position.