Yahoo Auctions Japan and eBay team up

Oh man, I can just imagine the gouging on shipping prices. Even just across the big ol' border in North America they double the price (paid $6.00 for a game shipping, USPS sticker said $2.55), so if any Japanese sellers are willing to sell to foreigners with or without a language barrier, I can see shipping prices being HUGE.

 

I typically add $2.50-3.00 to shipping to cover packaging and to make fee considerations easier. I even add a little more.. like .25-.50 if it's an international order. I use USPS First Class INT'l and cannot purchase that postage online for destinations outside the U.S., so I have to go to the post office, fill out the customs form there, wait in line, pay and drop off. While this may not be strange to some of you here, it's more time spent on something that I can normally do all from my desk. I still don't gouge, though.

Otherwise, I would just price the items a bit higher and go with the barebones shipping price, which is what I used to do.

(Almost all of my eBay auctions are Buy It Now if it matters.)

 

Japanese custom is to charge *EXACTLY* what you pay at the post office though. This will likely be one of those things that piss off people here. I'm pretty good about it. I basically charge 100 yen to the dollar to cover my packaging fees, even though I repackage loads of stuff (I use new packaging for loads of stuff as well, but this way, I spread the cost across for stuff I don't). I think it's pretty fair considering the double to triple the postage price people payin the US.