Far East online stores

[alvinlwh 5895]

Having purchased a few items from various far east online shops, and recently looking at more "exotic" kits, I thought I will put together a list of my experience and research. Bear in mind I am a UK based customer, your own country's tax rules could be different. The value of all my purchase are <£125 each time and "should not" attract UK tax. In fact, I had not paid any import "fines" this year (except RCMart's mistake), the benefit of Brexit I call it, as HMRC is more interested in punishing EU with strict checks them than elsewhere. Size, however, can affect the likely hood of customs paying attention or not. I have to point out I did not buy from all the shops listed here but got as far as checkout to check tax and postage costs. 

Feel free to add your own experience as well. 

Japan

Plaza Japan

Good for Tamiya parts as they are the cheapest all round with fast and reasonable economy shipping. However, kits or even body shell will bump postage up to kit band, which will be much more expensive. No tax problems. 

Hobbysearch/1999

For some reason, all Tamiya items had disappeared a few months back. Slightly more expensive than PJ, but has surface mail delivery option which is cheaper (and far slower). No tax problems. 

HK

3Racing

Thet say buying direct is the cheapest and is usually true with 3R. Reasonable postage for the lighter kits (cut off weight UNKNOWN. MG, S64 - Light, M4, SXI - Heavy), very expensive for kits above the cutoff. No tax problem (yet). 

AsiaTee

Reasonable postage as they have "discounted" postage even for heavier kits. I have not purchased from them yet but should be pulling the trigger soon. 

RCMart 

Very cheap ticket priced especially sales items, for example USD99.90 for a Comical Hornet? But extremely expensive postage. £80+ postage for that?!? On top of it, they collect UK tax at checkout, the only seller I am aware of doing that. And, in my experience, filled out the CN22 form wrong, causing me to be taxed again on entry to UK. Could be a once off mistake but definitely did not make me a happy customer as it is my first import "fine" since Brexit. 

HobbyKing 

This is not purely HK based as they have EU warehouse. Postage is reasonable for the EU warehouses but you will get charged twice for postage if your basket includes both EU and "Global" (HK) warehouse items. Items shipped but not received yet. 

Rcjaz

Good ticket price but relatively expensive postage. Interestingly, above a certain weight, FedEx is cheaper than Airmail (but still expensive compared to AT), and they have a feature I had not seen elsewhere, they advise you of how much weight you have left in your package and will filter items by weight. 

Ebay/Aliexpress/Amazon

These collect tax on checkout and should not be a problem on entry. Good for minor parts but kits will be cheaper elsewhere. Postage costs depends on the seller and postage time can be VERY long. 

[TurboRSR 356]

47 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

AsiaTee

Reasonable postage as they have "discounted" postage even for heavier kits. I have not purchased from them yet but should be pulling the trigger soon. 

Asiatees impressed me with their fast and reasonable shipping, took only 4 days from order until it arrived in Norway. They also send you a photo of all your items before packing. 

[simalarion 2196]

I want to share my experience then:

I find Ali express to have more and more of those metal parts for Tamiya (that YR are most known for as they are cheap), i just bought a bunch off parts (shaft - gerbox joints Cups -  dogbone gearbox etc) for only 20 GBP, store had a nice enough score (4.8 all over) and this product had full review score ...  so maybe Ali express will be the go to store for those parts in the future. For Tamiya brand parts i go for Tony at Ebay or Plaza Japan/RcJaz.  Rcjaz seem to have e good deal with fedex on smaller parts, i got 8 oil dampers in under a week to Norway, that was amazing (those 3Racing ones on my Agrios)

For the bigger ones go for UK or Germany ones, Tamico, EuroRC, Wheelspin, Timetunnel as they have much better shipping prices and i get them much faster (with few execptions). 

Edit:

Also Ali express shine the most when you want to fill up those Screw boxes with quality stuff (washers and all kine off screws) also for high Qality silicon cables and Sodering stuff in general, just perfect place. 

[alvinlwh 5895]

11 hours ago, simalarion said:

, store had a nice enough score (4.8 all over) and this product had full review score ...  

Never trust Aliexpress review stars, I had seen products with only 2 reviews, both the "never worked" type reviews, with 5 stars scores. 

I stay away from EU stores as due to Brexit, it seems like every incoming EU package are being hit with tax, but of course that only apply to UK. 

[Zealot 397]

The difference in postage fees between RCMart, ATees and RCJaz just goes to show a couple of them are having us on. They're all shipping from Hong Kong yet the price can be radically different from store to store.

ATees is the cheapest for shipping in my experience. RCJaz used to be fairly comparable but, I think it was early last year, their shipping cost increased dramatically.

And it seems they've dramatically increased again. I just checked on this, added a AUD134 Lunchbox kit to my cart and the shipping options are AUD292 for air parcel and AUD144 for FedEx. Ridiculous.

Also, they've jacked the price of a 45th Anni kit up to AUD700. They started out at just over AUD400.

[No Slack 454]

For the first time an order coming from Plaza Japan is noticed by the Dutch customs. My order amount was about 25 euro and is hit by a tax of about 8 euro. The additional message says: that after July 1, 2021 all purchases below 22 euro must pay tax. Before this date only orders above 25 euro must pay tax. So every small order is now at risk. I paid this time (I need the parts and are still a little cheaper as bought localy). For me this will limit the Asia-connection for RC parts.

[alvinlwh 5895]

29 minutes ago, No Slack said:

The additional message says: that after July 1, 2021 all purchases below 22 euro must pay tax. Before this date only orders above 25 euro must pay tax. 

Yes, that is the scraping of (what is known in the UK as) the LVCR. I was told that due to Brexit, EU has to plug that funding hole somehow. 

Interestingly, thanks to Brexit, UK customs no longer seem interested in packages below £135 (I was told thanks to the savings in paying millions to EU?), I had not been taxed on a Japanese package for a whole year (previously 50% chance) and we had seen how good and truthful the Japanese are with their paperwork, by pasting the details of the whole transaction on the box. 

In the past, I had always been nervous about ordering from PJ/1999, these days I place an other every few weeks. 

[alvinlwh 5895]

20 hours ago, Zealot said:

The difference in postage fees between RCMart, ATees and RCJaz just goes to show a couple of them are having us on. They're all shipping from Hong Kong yet the price can be radically different from store to store.

This statement got me thinking, so I decided to check a "like for like", RCMart vs Asiatees, using something I am eying. Price in USD.

MST TCR-M A110 

Asiatees: Kit 129.90 + Postage 39.87

RCMart: Kit 129.90 + Postage 73.85 (no VAT, supposed to be collected on entry as total is over GBP135)

What a huge difference.

So got to test another theory using another kit I am eying.

3Racing S64

3Racing: Kit 89.00 + Postage 29.00

RCMart: Kit 93.40 + Postage 53.63 + VAT 29.41

Ignoring the fact that the kit is slightly cheaper when bought direct from 3R, the second check confirms two things, firstly, RCMart postage are at least nearly twice everyone else, like for like weight, and secondly, they collect UK VAT if kit + postage is below GBP135. However, they are lazy and just fill in one line on the CN22 form, for the total price paid (goods + postage + VAT) pushing borderline cases like this example above the GBP135 threshold and HMRC applying tax again on the total price paid + postage on entry.

[simalarion 2196]

I find it very strange that RcMart have the worst Shipping prices from Asia to Eu and on topp of that is sloppy with Informing about Vat. The once Best in Clas RC shop that are so popular some even use their stickers on the RC Car, i believe they where the bigest RC car store on Ebay wich no is gone. And they does not seem to get good deals on shipping to EU, are RCmart in some cind of trouble?.

They charge exact 100 $ for shipping this kit, 66 $ Vat, in worst case scenario if Vat and handling are added again you end up with 232 $ + handling 20$ + kit price … AuCh. Not that i would order with 100$ shipping i  the first place. 

[alvinlwh 5895]

1 hour ago, simalarion said:

They charge exact 100 $ for shipping this kit, 66 $ Vat, in worst case scenario if Vat and handling are added again you end up with 232 $ + handling 20$ + kit price … AuCh. Not that i would order with 100$ shipping i  the first place. 

That is amazing, the same kit costs £239 in the UK with free shipping. 

[BuggyDad 4474]

On a side note, what sort of shipping times do you generally expect? My Plaza Japan order shipped ("economy air") on 18 Dec isn't here yet and no tracking number. RCMart took only a week I think. 

[alvinlwh 5895]

2 hours ago, BuggyDad said:

On a side note, what sort of shipping times do you generally expect? My Plaza Japan order shipped ("economy air") on 18 Dec isn't here yet and no tracking number. RCMart took only a week I think. 

PJ deliveries seem to be having a delay at the moment, or perhaps RM (or JP) is just being slow. Economy Air do not have tracking. None of these 3 orders had arrived yet, but earlier on in the year, typically 12 - 16 days for delivery. On a side note, economy surface with 1999 took 3 months exactly. You can see an earlier order was posted after an later order (and they are both before your order). The wait is painful I know, I had been taking myself "any day now" for the past few weeks. 

[No Slack 454]

My last PJ order was placed on December 20. The package is now somwhere in The Netherlands so I hope delivery is in the coming days. That is rather quick with the cheapest postage option.  

[BuggyDad 4474]

Ah. Thanks. No probs then. Funny route that plane seems to be taking. 😊

[alvinlwh 5895]

1 hour ago, BuggyDad said:

Ah. Thanks. No probs then. Funny route that plane seems to be taking. 😊

I expect "any day now" to have a big pile of PJ, 1999, Aliexpress and Ebay items to all turn up at once completely messing up my build plans.

[Zealot 397]

2 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

I expect "any day now" to have a big pile of PJ, 1999, Aliexpress and Ebay items to all turn up at once completely messing up my build plans.

And the problem is..?

[alvinlwh 5895]

18 minutes ago, Zealot said:

And the problem is..?

All arriving at once, late. 

[alvinlwh 5895]

15 hours ago, BuggyDad said:

On a side note, what sort of shipping times do you generally expect? 

Update: an order placed on 9 September last year with 1999 just arrived today. 

[Zealot 397]

7 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

All arriving at once, late. 

My comment was just intended as a bit of a joke, like, how can getting a heap of R/C deliveries be bad? Nevermind me.

[alvinlwh 5895]

36 minutes ago, Zealot said:

My comment was just intended as a bit of a joke, like, how can getting a heap of R/C deliveries be bad? Nevermind me.

Yes, my reply was too short and blunt too, sorry about that. I was planning to edit my reply after dinner, but you beat me to it 

I am happy to provide a more detailed, but boring, explanation of why is it bad, to me.

I build model A, order bits for it, waited for them to arrive.

Got bored, shelved it and started on model B, order bits for it, waited for them to arrive. 

Repeat. 

I now have 3 models sitting unfinished, with 3 different orders, 2 late, and 1 perhaps on time. If they all arrive together (or close together), I have 3 unfinished models ready to finish at the same time. 

Now, I pace my builds and purchase, usually taking about 2 or 3 weeks for a build, then another 2 or 3 weeks of test and adjustments, before starting in a new kit. Finishing all at once actually reduce my (personal) enjoyment and satisfaction of finishing a build. 

There is a bit of personality at play here (meaning it is probably "just me"), but if you look at the screenshot of my PJ order list, you will see that they are spread out in approximately 2 weeks, which ties in to my build pattern described above.

Unlike some members, I do not gather up parts for a number of future builds (or even have multiple kits on hand) as I am the type of person where if I have the parts to hand, I must build it, even if it means working till 4am. So I am the order as I need kind. Also, an unfinished build sitting around annoys me. 

[BuggyDad 4474]

Woop. My PJ order dispatched 18 Dec arrived today. Hopefully that might be a good sign for others. 

[alvinlwh 5895]

25 minutes ago, BuggyDad said:

Woop. My PJ order dispatched 18 Dec arrived today. Hopefully that might be a good sign for others. 

Nothing here yet for me, not even the Nov order. 

[alvinlwh 5895]

On 1/8/2022 at 9:52 PM, BuggyDad said:

Woop. My PJ order dispatched 18 Dec arrived today. Hopefully that might be a good sign for others. 

My 4 Dec order finally arrived today. Lesson for the future, do not order over the holiday season. 

[10mm_Nut 1]

This one will probably hurt some of your feelings.

My PJ order shipped out of Japan on Friday and delivered to Texas USA today, Monday. Less than 72 hours...

 

 

[alvinlwh 5895]

8 hours ago, 10mm_Nut said:

This one will probably hurt some of your feelings.

My PJ order shipped out of Japan on Friday and delivered to Texas USA today, Monday. Less than 72 hours...

 

 

Not necessarily. There is a good possibility that we simply ordered during a bad time of the year, looking at how long they took to dispatch. Of course, we also have our Royal Mail in the UK to thank for too.