I’m thinking I maybe bought too much with each shipment. I probably went over some arbitrary threshold from FedEx.
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the issue does seem to lie with FedEx, I’ve never paid customs via any other shipper. I did get stung once with FedEx to the tune of about $65. But, this was not a charge sent by Customs. FedEx claimed the tax was already assessed and paid by themselves, and collected the 65 from me. Seems suspect. But I did learn in my investigating current customs charges, that if you have a declared package value of over $800 for new products, US Customs will assess charges. IF your package contains all used (or all declared used) then the declared amount can be up to $1600 without customs levying charges. Keep your package values at $800 or lower, friends. I’ve not paid import fees since discovering these value package limits.
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Good to know. Thanks 
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I’m a bit taken aback by how some of these proxies charge on shipping.
For instance, I was looking into Buyee because they have a 20% off on Mercari items for just this weekend. That sounds all nice and good… except that I checked on the shipping calculator for a 120g item, 20cm x 15 cm x 5 cm dimensions… and they’re wanting nearly ¥10k to ship.
My usual shipping rates on ZenMarket using Zen Express (takes about 2 weeks) cost me around ¥3,000 on average. My heaviest to date was 1595g, 32cm × 25cm × 12cm, and that was ¥7,750. So Buyee can go buoy in an ocean storm.
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I’ve never once had Buyee, or Zenmarket now that I think of it, ever have their calculator come anywhere close to what shipping ends up being. It’s always been, at least for me, much cheaper than what their calculator suggests.
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Yeah, I know on ZenMarket, I did see the calculator inflate prices a bit, when actual cost was less. But I never buy a single item and then ship. I always cluster. Usually a minimum of 5 items. ZenMarket has a fairly generous storage policy. 45 days.
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True. Same here. The smallest package I ship usually has at least a dozen pieces.
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And even if it’s only a handful… prices are pretty good for the basic cheapest rate by air. Lowest one I ever had was ¥635, back in 2020. Although shipping rates have gone up. My cheapest one last year had about 6 pens/pencils, pretty light package at 300g. Cost was ¥1600. There’s now mandatory insurance added, but it’s not much. Weight is the big factor.
Overall, I really like the ZenMarket interface. Feels very intuitive, easy to get around. Organized well.
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I used Zenmarket for a good long time then switched to Buyee a couple of years ago so that I didn’t have to keep funds in the Zenmarket account. That was tiring.
I’m not sure if they didn’t offer the credit line back then or if I just didn’t know about.
I’ve learned how to navigate Buyee and I really like it. BTW: I rarely actually search through Buyee. Just purchase.
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Yes, you can transfer the money back to yourself out of ZenMarket, but there is a PayPal fee both ways.
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Before the current administration, when gas was cheap, Zen’s shipping calculator was fairly close to actual price. Then FedEX,UPS,DHL,etc… had to add fuel surcharges due to the rise of fuel costs. In many cases, its not the weight of an item that dictates a high rise in costs, it’s the size of the package. The package might be light, but due to size, shippers charge more. Most all of my packages have been many pencils, 30,40, even up to 208. The biggest packages are costing me more that heavier ones. I hate opening a package and seeing the air pillows taking up room in the box- needless increase in package size and needless raping of my wallet.
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I shipped 2 pencils from Buyee once in a consolidated package, they asked for around 5000 yen.
When the pencils arrived, they arrived in a very big box capable enough to hold 20 pencils at least.
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I inquired with ZenMarket about that. They said that returning funds back to PayPal wouldn’t incur a 3.5% fee.
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I was never sure, because I never returned the full amount. I always ended up using at least part of it for purchases.
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Some sellers specify that they won’t deal with proxies, ship overseas, aren’t trusted, etc… There are many reasons but it’s usually problems when dealing with proxies.
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I hate this message… Recently, there were some Uni pencils I wanted to buy, but the seller didn’t sell to proxies.
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Several times there were sharps I wanted but could not purchase them via Zenmarket, but switched to Hoyoyo and was able to purchase thru them without issue. I believe the issue is with specific proxies, sellers wont allow sales on sites they have had issues with. It appears Zenmarket , and maybe Buyee too, generate this generic response in order to shift blame to the seller.
Pdunc67, join Hoyoyo and see if you can purchase thru them: world.hoyoyo.com
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I’ll check it out
Thank you
