Mix Blog: Maintenance Issues

New York, NY (October 16, 2025)—A few weeks ago, I ordered some electronic components that I need for a repair from a vendor in Bulgaria. This may sound a little crazy, but sourcing parts for older electronics isn’t always as easy as simply making a trip to the Mouser or DigiKey websites. The expected delivery date was the third week in September, which has come and gone. I dropped an email to the vendor to see what was up, and received the following reply:

“…your package was shipped on Aug 20. It’s unfortunately affected by the new customs law in your country, due to which, many countries suspended the shipments to USA. Including Bulgarian Post. They say that the reason is that the US administration is not ready to process the shipments according to this law….”

Fabulous. The new customs law, which went into effect at the end of August, suspends the “de minimis” trade exemption that allowed customers in the U.S. to avoid import fees for items under $800. On one hand, the de minimis rule allowed low prices to consumers in the U.S. (including purchases made through Etsy and Temu), but on the other hand, it may allow unsafe, counterfeit or even illegal items to be imported to the States under the radar of U.S. Customs. Joining Bulgaria Post in suspending or restricting their acceptance of goods addressed for the U.S. are the postal services of more than 30 countries, including Swiss Post, Japan Post and The Department of Post in India. Yikes.

So what does this mean for us? Certainly, it’s going to delay shipments of electronics parts headed for the U.S., and, when combined with that pesky issue of tariffs, we can expect to wait longer and pay more for foreign-sourced components. This will prove to be a problem for manufacturers in the United States because even when an electronics item is made here, it inevitably contains components that were manufactured overseas and shipped to the States.

I recently saw a post on Facebook from a pro-audio manufacturer that was awaiting a shipment of switches (made overseas) used in the assembly of their product (which is made in the States). The shipment was assessed a 10% tariff, so the manufacturer’s cost for this part increased from $50 to $55 per unit. You might say “big deal,” but if there are five or six of these switches in each device, someone is going to have to cough up an extra 25 or 30 bucks. And we all know where that responsibility will land.

We can also expect that prices for repairs will increase, given the fact that many components such as capacitors, ICs, etc. are manufactured overseas. And worse. Because it will take longer to source the parts needed to effect repairs, it may take considerably longer to get your favorite piece of gear back into action. Good grief.