...would welcome the help from someone who’s used the site before.
The crank is listed for sale on Yahoo Auctions, you can't sign up to Yahoo without a domestic Japanese shipping address therefore you need a proxy service who will buy the crank on your behalf and fwd it to your address, Buyee is one of such services but there are many proxies out there working for a fee or a % (these buying services work all over the world, in effect greasing the jockey wheels of international shopping, i recently sold a few pairs of vintage Stussy sunglasses to a buyer in Japan via a buying service based in Heathrow business park)
I tend use ZenMarket, they only charge 300¥/item (£2) Ive also used Jauce, from Japan, SutoCorp ect in the past.
You would need to sign up to
Zen, all you need is an email address and password, no personal deets.
Paste the Cook Bros link into the ZenMarket URL.. here i've done it for you
CBR Crank
Fund your online wallet via PP so you're bidding with your own money, if you click the 'Place a Bid' tab you will be directed to a PP link to add funds.
Yahoo is more civilized than ebay, in this instance the seller has selected 'Automatic Extension' so the auction end continuously rolls over until eveyone has the chance to bid, much like a traditional auction house.
'Early Finish' has also been selected meaning that if there are no other bidders the auction can be closed early to a single bid so you stand nothing to gain by a snipe bid and everything to lose.
If you win the auction, your goods will be delivered to the Zen warehouse in 3 or 4 days, you then choose your shipping method and fill in your own declaration form so you could ship the crank to the UK with a marked value of 1000¥ avoiding all border charges but bear in mind that if your package goes missing you can only claim the marked value back from the insurance.. all the above is automated so don't fret about language barriers. You could ship at half value or full but the higher the marked value the higher the border charges will be.
You can fund your wallet as often as you like but if you fail to win the auction, Zen can not refund your dosh for 6/7days just because the ¥¥¥ has to clear in their bank account before they can issue a refund.
Any problems.. just give me a hola!