What is the best value Yahoo! Auctions Japan redirection service?

I picked up my package today from FedEx with no problems. No customs fees/charges of any kind.

The only downside is that From Japan decided to package my steering wheel assembly in some shitty tattered boxes. So far only 1 defect was found, and that was with a plastic connector that had bent metal prongs.


EDIT: On further inspection, since I was only able to look at the cables from the brief moment that I opened the box, I didn't get a chance to notice the dings, broken plastic, bent metal parts (including an important gear), etc. So thankfully, I added the insurance option and will be filing a case accordingly.

 

Which shipping type did you select? Light, secure or normal?

 

Yea let us know which you picked because I'm about to ship out soon. I really can't afford to have any items arrive damaged as some of these items will be hard to re-find in the condition they are in.

 

I wasn't given the option to choose the shipping type through FedEx. That's all done by From Japan.

Anyway, I have to actually contact From Japan in regards to this due to the packaging they sent it to me in. The only thing FedEx was able to do was jot some notes down.

 

Does anyone know how FromJapan rates are compared to ShoppingMallJapan? Been using SMJ for years...but just wondering if I should give From Japan a try..

 

Use the estimation tool.

 

You mean a recycled cardboard box? That seems to be a common thing among a number of Japanese online shops that I've been using have been doing. But even if they gave you a new box, it probably wouldn't matter because the box alone won't help to protect your shipment (Proper packing is required as well, which will increase the costs of shipping).

Sometimes you have to be a bit understanding as well: If it's a really rarely chanced-upon item, there could be a chance that the proxy's staff won't know how to pack it properly. In that case, you should just write them a note when filling in the shipping instructions.

Shipping large/heavy items is always a risk anyway, regardless of who you engage. It's also the reason why people don't really like to ship PlayStation 2 TOOL units, since they have a tendency to get damaged during transit (By the transport company) and are really heavy. I've seen people complaining about their TOOLs suffering from cracked ports, casings, and stuff inside coming out of their places etc.

I don't have a good example because it's been nearly two years since I last used SMJ. But the commission they demanded was apparently quite steep for me (3 USD wire fee and the steeper commission rate). It was quite big for at least me because of the JPY -> USD -> SGD rate (Yea, my currency gets converted twice because they charge in USD, based on how they got charged in yen... which gets converted into USD).

I may be wrong, but it's just from what I felt at that moment when I swapped over. :/
That's orobably because I found it too surprising whenever their commissions seemed to occasionally exceed my estimates for no clear reason, which probably came from the slightly mediocre SGD:USD:JPY exchange rates back then. And I was quite a fair bit younger then, so... yea, I might have been young and foolish as well.

From what I see now, the 3 USD wire fee is still there, while FJ only demands 298 yen at most (it's surely less than 3 USD). The commission may be a bit hard to deal with because both proxies use different methods of calculating their commissions: FJ wants 800 yen + 5% (which might be a lot if your item is an expensive one, but only if it's really, super expensive) while SMJ uses something more rule-based (But might be more expensive for cheaper items: 6 USD for a <=2000 yen item).

Originally, it was actually even better because the had no commission fees at all (The 800 yen fee didn't exist). But they implemented it after the strain on their systems got worse (with the increased userbase), apparently to increase their capacity.

 

@Ninsega
There is also a possibility that they cut on the packaging because it was too borderline on the size/weight limit of the chosen postal service.
This happened to me once, the post office would not take my package because it was too big for regular post.

I had to redo the package with a lot less padding than I wanted to. It still got to destination in one piece fortunately.
So I would not be so quick as to blame From Japan for the packaging, maybe it was too borderline for Fedex and this is why they did not offer it to begin with, but because you insisted for a cheaper service they offered it to you but they needed to cut on the packaging.

 

Why don't you try a new buying service Sendico.com? Fixed fee for only 1000yen per purchase, no bank fee, fastest work process, fastest packaging/consolidation/sending! I fell in love with them, really.

 

oh rly? Please tell us more. It's very obvious you are not at all affiliated with them what so ever. So tell us what did you buy? How does it compare to other services you have used?

 

I'm new to this, but if I have understand these things correctly:

I can for example buy 10 games from 10 different auctions on Yahoo JP at 1000yen pr game, and it will cost me (FromJapan):

The cost of the items themselves
+ 200yen pr item
+ 5% system fee charge pr item
+ domestic shipping pr item
+ bank payment fee between FJ and seller (x10 in this case)

But then I can bulk up to save on shipping from FJ to me.

Seems like there will not be much to save (instead of buying on for example eBay), or am I reading this wrong?

 

these services are aimed at sellers who wont ship abroad.

 

That, and for item that are expensive when sold in the West. For example, PC Engines, even without the CDROM addon are quite expensive on eBay, but you can get the console and the CDROM for much less from Yahoo! Auctions.

 

Yup also remember the fees too.

If you buy from ebay, you'd have to pay: item cost + domestic shipping in Japan + service/bank transfer fee + shipping from japan to ebay man + 10% ebay fee + 3% paypal fee + domestic shipping. (+ seller profit usually too). By the time you get the item, the item only ended up being a small fraction of the cost. You can cut half those additions off the list by going to YJP.

 

I've used Tenso several times without any issues at all, but nothing beats having a friend in the country to forward packages for you!

 

Best choice

Thanks for the comparison. I used FromJapan to buy from Yahoo auctions twice and Anoslo once. Recently I've found zenmarket.jp/en/. Has anybody used it? It seems to be cheaper than FromJapan.

 

I've used FromJapan twice to buy from Yahoo auctions and Anislo once. Recently I've found http://zenmarket.jp/en/ . Has anybody used it? It seems to be even cheaper than FromJapan.

 

Hi everyone,

I came across this thread while trying to figure out what is the best option to choose for shipping from FromJapan to the Netherlands, and I am a bit at a loss.

Basically I have a 10Kg box (3 consoles) and EMS' quote is roughly ¥19000 while Fedex is close to ¥9000. I am tempted to choose Fedex as my estimate led me to think that I would have to pay ¥6000-7000 of misc tax on top of that (based on Fedex own calculator).

In the end it is still cheaper than EMS without any customs/duty taxes. However, I also read about all these nightmare stories about Fedex, so am I overlooking something in this estimation? For once, I haven't taken into account brokerage fees as I do not know if this applies to my situation. FromJapan told me they are using Fedex economy.

I have two days left to decide, any stories or advice to share would be super appreciated!
Thanks!

 

Will they ship boat? That is likely your best bet. Duty will depend on your cuntry though.

 

I called FedEx, and they mostly/solely ship by plane, then the basic options are priority (2-3 days expensive) or economy (roughly a week). FromJapan uses economy. They confirmed that my estimation for duty/VAT clearance was correct and could not think of any surprise fee to pay on top of that. They did mention that they have a fixed admin fee for duty/VAT clearance as they advance the money for you to pay the customs and that's around €10. For my box the €10 seems relatively small, but I can easily imagine that for someone ordering one cheap single item, it might make the whole purchase very expensive in the end. I think there is a way to avoid this extra charge but I did not have time anymore to investigate as I had to confirm shipping to FromJapan. I'll look into it another time.

What I will do is now wait for the FedEx package to arrive, and calculate everything again once I know how much I paid for the different aspect of the import. I'll share my results back!