The 1200 is the cost for each item. Quantity defaults to 1. If you raise it, the cost will be charged accordingly. It’s pretty much how it works on other sites like Amazon.
Finally created a buyee account. Planning on lurking for a few more weeks, then ramping things up here in the next few months. I’m excited 
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So, I was one of those bidders that picked up a 30 count OHTO lot auction. Low and behold, I’m ready to ship what I’ve accumulated in the Japan warehouse, and so far it’s the heaviest package yet for me, at 2365g. Shipping fee? Zikes! ¥11,377. That’s like nearly $80 USD.
There’s basically these shipping services available:
Airmail ~ 2 weeks
EMS ~ 1 week
FedEx, UPS, DHL (2 to 6 days)
Surface ~ 2 to 3 months [crazy long, only good for very large items]
Zen Express (2 to 3 weeks)
I always pick Zen Express because the timing is usually within 2 to 3 weeks and it’s cheaper than the others. BUT… ZenMarket doesn’t provide a shipping calculator. What if one of the other services has a “heavy class” rate, or a flat rate that goes up to 3kg? It might actually be cheaper than the progressively increasing Zen Express.
If anyone here knows more details about the rate calculations for these carriers, please advise. Thanks!
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I’m not a fan of how the buyee app shows me the prices in USD. I prefer to just guesstimate the conversion and be blissfully unaware of how bad it really is 
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I prefer seeing the prices in Yen, as well. I just divide it by 100 to get US$, and know that that will be high.
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Zenmarket DOES provide a shipping calculator. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Shipping Fees. That will take you to the link for the shipping calculator. Enter what you think the package will weigh and it’ll show you all their methods of shipping and approximate price. I just received a package today from Zen that weighed 2750g and cost ¥7501 + ¥811 insurance using DHL.
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Thanks – I missed that. I’d already committed a package to Zen Express and their customer service went dark on me. No response. Started to get hit with fees on a few items, so I pulled the trigger. Learned my lesson.
The really tragic thing here is that until a package is processed, you do not know what will be the total weight and dimensions. And so, there’s no way to use the shipping calculator before hand, if you don’t know the total weight.
I’ve requested Zen Market to freeze this and cancel. Hopefully they will respond. $50 USD lost for a longer shipping time is absolutely unacceptable.
This is usually why I prefer just searching for stuff using fromjapan but actually buying on ZenMarket.
Zen Express is the most expensive of all carriers for packages weighing 1000g, 1500g, 2000g, 2500g etc. Only if the package is under 1000g is Zen Express not the most expensive.
When you click ‘create a new package’ , on the next page at the bottom of the list of items to be shipped, it gives the total weight of all items selected and the total price of the items. I try to keep my weight at 2000g and hope that packaging is under 500g. My packaged target weight is 2499g or less, as DHL gets a big price boost at 2500.
Using the shipping calculator can get you pretty close if you consider other variables. Box size does affect costs. On your parcels page, it gives the weight and dimensions of the package, use these as reference to help determine probable package size. BUT… the calculator will still calculate without the dimensions, only weight is needed.
If you really wanna geek out on this, make a chart of all prices of each carrier for every 100 grams- do it on paper of a file. very interesting to see how the prices shift and who is cheapest at any given weight.
But then there that damn fuel surcharge, and who the heck knows how much that might be. Waiting for sub $2.00 fuel prices like the good ol’ days…
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Haha, I thought I would be the only still calculating that way (of course Euro instead of Dollar, but that’s the same now) . And I think it’s still correct in the end with all cost levels summing up…
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Thanks. In the interface, I didn’t notice that for creating the package that there was a total weight and dimensions already provided.
You’re right, DHL is more expensive than FedEx and UPS.
Here’s what the calculator shows for my particular shipment:
I wondered why on Earth Zen Express would have such a huge markup. They go through USPS in the destination country. Maybe USPS incurs a partner fee of some kind that boosts the total cost?
Zen Market finally replied to me and they froze the parcel. 
I’d had good customer service from them before, so this is a relief that they’re still on track.
They did warn me though… they said that Zen Express through USPS never has any issues with documentation and customs fees. They said additional fees can result with UPS and FedEx.
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As I have posted here or elsewhere, I was hit on my latest shipment with Customs Fees coming in via DHL.
I had a request for shipping to France, and when I was getting a quote, it requested the HSTariff number. So looks like countries are starting to crack down.
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Wow, considering that your package is 2350g, shipping is cheaper than i thought. Zen Express has no reason to be that expensive.
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Strangely, all of my packages delivered by DHL have had import duties tacked on, but my most recent - with FedEx - had none. Which is bizarre, since we‘re supposed to have duties for anything above 25€ (@2nd_astronaut correct me if I’m wrong).
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This was my first Customs Fees in 5 years.
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The limit was recently lowered to 0EUR 
Usually only packages from low-volume senders and/or smaller carriers have chances to slip thru customs in my experience.
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Well damn. Just happened to me too. My first Buyee shipment was 155,202¥ and I just received a $72 bill in the mail from FedEx 
and that was after sitting in customs for 9 days.
I made the mistake of buying a pen. Not sure if that triggered anything but I had to fill out the form.
My second Buyee order (just pencils) came DHL. No form and had my package (Tokyo to Memphis) in 6 days.
DHL bill has yet to present itself.
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Are you saying that you’d not had any added charges with pencils and then by including one pen it was levied? Was it an expensive pen?
I decided to go with UPS. I used them one time a couple of years ago and there weren’t any customs charges. Hopefully nothing has changed.
Never had to worry about this as most of my shipments weren’t over 1kg. Now, I’ve diversified a little and decided to try my luck on a large pencil/pen lot.
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It was my very first shipment, so I really don’t have anything to judge it against other than the second one that I mentioned.
it was a Platinum Z pen. I thought it was a pencil and I was getting a good deal for $30. 
When I arranged shipping I didn’t notice where to select a carrier, rather I just had shipping options like air, ground, etc.
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A Platinum Z ballpoint for $30? That’s a steal, really. How’s the condition?
Now you need to get a matching MP, if you don’t already have one.
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