Thank you for all the input everybody.
I’ve picked up a bunch of new pieces that I’m very excited about adding to my collection. And saved a lot of money! This has certainly opened my eyes as to what is available out there.
With the exception of one item, everything that I have purchased has either shipped or arrived at the Buyee warehouse. The one that hasn’t shipped yet was purchased a week yesterday. Is that normal? I still have around 19 days so I’m not worrying yet, but I just wanted to see what you guys do in this situation.
@Pdunc67 something I wish I had discovered earlier is the ‘save this search’ feature in Buyee. You can save something as broad as ‘mechanical pencils’ or enter a super specific search term and get notifications via email when there are new results (in either Mercari or YAJ).
It will save you a lot of time, and it will un-save you a lot of money
Yeah, it can vary a lot from the seller. I know that with ZenMarket, their warehouse is in Osaka. I used to buy from Shopping Mall Japan and they were in Tokyo. I’ve no clue where Buyee might be. But sometimes a seller can be pretty far away and take a week or two to actually arrive. There’s also the seller who can sometimes ship on only certain days and might wait a week before even mailing an item.
It is really difficult here in India for me to import anything from anywhere. I bought a few items from Buyee, and I have had to pay huge custom duty and tax. I am paying close to 50% in duties and taxes. I bought a Kuru Toga Dive for about $55 and I had to pay almost $30 in duties and taxes.
I bought some pencils worth $350 and I had to pay close to $175 in duties and taxes. Not sure, if I am doing something wrong. I know laws are different everywhere, but if anyone could suggest something to me to reduce these charges, that would be really helpful
I don’t think anything can be done, here in Brazil the rates are close to 105% of the product’s value. A mechanical pencil that costs 20,000 yen amounts to approximately a total of 40,000 when it arrives at my house. As far as I know, today, no proxy service in Japan allows to deceive the declaration of the value of the product, as it is illegal. In the end, it’s accepting the reality of the country, or else buying physically when you travel. Here in Brazil, if you lie on the declaration, the product can be seized, or you have a fine of 100% of the product value plus taxes due (which amounts to a total of 300%!)
Question on clearing customs: My package has been “clearing customs” by FedEx for a week. I had to fill out a TSCA form to declare what chemicals were in my package which I thought was weird.
How long do Buyee packages normally take to clear the process?
I’m traveling on vacation but it would sure be nice to have some new pencils waiting for me when I get home next week.
Customs all depends on the carrier, not the proxy.
The past year, anytime they use FedEx, I have had to fill out the TSCA form. I now keep a copy in my Dropbox to fill out and send, along with notes on where to send it.
For the first time in 5 years of ordering from Japan, I just got hit with import fees. Buyee marked my purchases as Ballpoints (HST 9608.10.0000) and I got hit with a 5.4% tariff.
If you are bringing in mostly pencils from Japan, see if you can get the prodxy to mark it as Mechanical Pencils (HST 9608.40.4000), which from Japan, should be 3.3% tariff.
I take the painful route of ZenMarket Express. Ends up finally routed through USPS. It’s about 1 or 2 weeks longer, but like half the cost of shipping with faster methods.
I use Zenmarket and DHL primarily. If there is an ink pen in the mix , definitely use DHL (this will avoid having to supply FedEx with a TSCA form and the delay. If no ink pen or other TSCA product, use the cheaper of DHL,UPS and FEDEX.
Depending on package weight, DHL is cheaper at lower weights, but then gets more expensive than FedEx and UPS as weight increases.
I am not in the US but I ordered 3 pencils from Singapore, declared value was 30 SGD. It was arriving via postage.
It arrives in India, Post Office calls me for the payment of custom duty. I ask, how much is it? They said, 17000 rupees, which is roughly $230. I visited the P.O and returned the package back.
I never came to know, why did they charge $230 for 30 SGD worth of items. That was crazy.
Only time I have paid this much custom duty, was when I was ordering $500 item.
Yes. It looks like the US is cracking down on shipments from Japan.
Depending on how your Proxy declares the pencils (ball points vs mechanical pencils) will depend on how much you would be charged (5.4% vs 3.3%). It won’t be anything close to what India or Brazil are charging, but it is something to start looking at when you are buying from Japan.
. I’ve never had to do any of that.