Cook Bros ...ect. Japan Buying Advice, Yahoo Auctions, Proxy Services

[Betsy]

Have you shipped a frame from JP before @DrmZ ?

There is a bike currently listed on Mercari im interested in .. the price is crazy high atm and i don't think the seller expects to sell it.. they've said, they will list it for 1month.. if no interest, they will split it.. I only want the frame, the frame size isn't listed so that could rule it out as could the shipping charges, which jump dramatically over the 1m mark which coincidentally is frame size.

 

[DrmZ]

I saved some pictures from his auctions because there was some unusual stuff in NOS condition.
Blue canti brakes

and same model in purple



He also had one pair of RPM brakes, I think also in blue or purple and one pair of Avid Tri Align in silver.
I was tempted but have too much other projects going and did not want the hassle with importing from Japan.

It's like you said: You have to find enough cool stuff so it makes sense to spend so much on shipping, customs and taxes.
I bought some parts through Jauce from Yahoo Auctions Japan in the past. Jauce stores your items up to 60 days without additional fees. That makes it easier to buy parts from different sellers or auctions and the combine all to one shipment later.
There are others who offer similar services like Buyee.

 

[kingoffootball]

1991 GT Avalanche currently at £60:

https://zenmarket.jp/en/auction.aspx?itemCode=1168911356

 

[Markybeau]

1991 GT Avalanche currently at £60:

https://zenmarket.jp/en/auction.aspx?itemCode=1168911356

(IMO) The best looking Avalanche. I so very much liked these bitd. Decided to buy something else instead. Always a tinge of regret when I see one, which is, fortunately, not very often.

 

[Betsy]

Little update.

ZenMarket are no longer marking down the value (for anyone) it wasn't just a glitch

fromJapan have also recently stopped marking down the value for UK customers, for my friends in the Eu, it still works fine.

I recently heard that https://japanrabbit.com/ will declare a lower value for shipping

Trustpilot reviews are superb!

I’ve had a poke around the site and it states that they ‘ship at full value and declare all goods as merchandise rather than gifts’

All proxy services used to state this^ In the T&Cs but whether they do or not, I’ve yet to find out.

Slightly different charging structure to Zen or fJ but they seem happy to ship large objects.. bikes and such.

I’ll try them with a bunch of CDs and let y’all know..

 

[Once A Hero]

@Betsy I'm tempted to give purchasing from one of these Japanese sites a try.
I've identified a small plastic item from ZenMarket which has a Buy out price of 2500yen, and most likely will weigh in under 100-150grams packaged, so that adds a shipping cost of 3650yen. Total 6150yen or about £33 give or take.
Am I likely to be stung for more costs on top of that?
Exactly the same item bought in the UK via ebay recently cost me just over £50 inc shipping so there is room for the price to rise and still be acceptable, but I'd prefer if it didn't...

 

[Betsy]

@Betsy I'm tempted to give purchasing from one of these Japanese sites a try.
I've identified a small plastic item from ZenMarket which has a Buy out price of 2500yen, and most likely will weigh in under 100-150grams packaged, so that adds a shipping cost of 3650yen. Total 6150yen or about £33 give or take.
Am I likely to be stung for more costs on top of that?
Exactly the same item bought in the UK via ebay recently cost me just over £50 inc shipping so there is room for the price to rise and still be acceptable, but I'd prefer if it didn't...

Hi, @Once A Hero

I’m out and about at the mo.. so from memory..

Don’t forget to account for Japanese consumption tax added onto the cost of new items, also domestic shipping costs from the seller to the Zenmarket warehouse, the additional charges will all be apparent on the listing.

When your items reach the Zen warehouse, you will ‘create your parcel’ use either EMS for shipping a small parcel or Japanese Airmail if it will fit in an envelope.. (EMS will be much quicker, Airmail will be much cheaper) .. when you come to pay your final bill, VAT will have been automatically added to your purchase if you use a UK shipping address but don’t check out, you need to ‘defer the VAT’ and that charge will be removed from your costs and it will be shipped ‘VAT Free’ but because it’s value is less than £135 you won’t or shouldn’t incur any charges at the UK border.

 

[Betsy]

I'm back home @Once A Hero

Here are my last two Japanese purchases from March..

I pre-paid the border charges on this first example, the value of the items was £130gbp.. the cost of the shipping was £20 (over the £135 limit) so when it hits the UK border, it's been declared as 'VAT Paid' with a VAT number provided.

I could have shipped this without paying the VAT but VAT would have been applied at the UK border +there would have been a £12 admin charges from Parcelforce so i saved £12 (and 3 days in customs) by pre-paying the VAT.






Here is the second example.. where i deferred the VAT (no VAT number) but because it hit the UK border with a value of £127gbp (item +shipping) which is under the £135 limit and borderforce see this is from a company rather than a private individual, VAT isn't applied.




Good Luck!.. PM if you need any advice.

 

[kingoffootball]

I have my first parcel from Zenmarket on the way. Worth noting that if you ship via UPS they charge £13.60 for collecting the border charges, so even more than Parcelforce.

 

[kingofthescratchmonkeys]

I'm lucky in that my daughter lives in Tokyo and I can get her to send or stash for when I visit. I'm mostly on Yahoo Auctions, with Japanese being my second language it's fun to search and browse whilst watching out for key info on parts condition. Very interested in this thread- many thanks @Betsy for the shipping info- when she sends stuff over my daughter always uses EMS...