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museguy

Finding a VW Golf Mk I for M Chassis ?

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Hi All,

I am building an M Chassis car and would like to use a VW Golf Mk I body shell.

I love, love the looks of @maquettedecox Golf Mki Street, I believe he used a Tamiya body which is crazy expensive ($200+ for body) if you can find one. 

I have only been able to find a few options and I would appreciate any feedback or guidance. Thank you ! 

  1. Carten Golf MK1 Body Shell, not sure if polycarbonate, does not look to include front bumpers
  2. ARION Golf GTI MK1 BODY 210mm, said to be polycarbonate, does not include front bumpers
  3. Colt 1:12 VW Golf Mk1, said to be Lexan

 

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On 3/25/2022 at 8:17 PM, museguy said:

Hi All,

I am building an M Chassis car and would like to use a VW Golf Mk I body shell

Do you / would you use a proxy site to access Japanese Auction and shopping sites?

I use buyee.com a lot so can vouch for the system and service, and saw this complete NIB M05 Golf Mk1 kit on Rakuma today for <£120

https://buyee.jp/rakuma/item/73ca89193ffad28b4a2d17e24f2112c5?conversionType=service_page_search

Buyee have a weird policy where they won't ship oil or grease, so they (carefully and precisely, it must be said) remove those items before shipping a kit. If that's going to bother you, there are other proxies (ZenMarket, From Japan) that possibly aren't as cautious, so you have options, if it's of interest. 

Just a thought :)

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10 hours ago, Juhunio said:

Do you / would you use a proxy site to access Japanese Auction and shopping sites?

I use buyee.com a lot so can vouch for the system and service, and saw this complete NIB M05 Golf Mk1 kit on Rakuma today for <£120

https://buyee.jp/rakuma/item/73ca89193ffad28b4a2d17e24f2112c5?conversionType=service_page_search

Buyee have a weird policy where they won't ship oil or grease, so they (carefully and precisely, it must be said) remove those items before shipping a kit. If that's going to bother you, there are other proxies (ZenMarket, From Japan) that possibly aren't as cautious, so you have options, if it's of interest. 

Just a thought :)

Dear @Juhunio

Thank you for the suggestion ! Very kind of you. I have never used buyee, just placed the order for the M05 Tamiya 47308 kit

Thank you for your suggestion and kindness. 

Cheers 

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1 hour ago, museguy said:

Dear @Juhunio

Thank you for the suggestion ! Very kind of you. I have never used buyee, just placed the order for the M05 Tamiya 47308 kit

Thank you for your suggestion and kindness. 

Cheers 

Ahhh, good man! You’re welcome 

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21 hours ago, Juhunio said:

Do you / would you use a proxy site to access Japanese Auction and shopping sites?

I use buyee.com a lot so can vouch for the system and service, and saw this complete NIB M05 Golf Mk1 kit on Rakuma today for <£120

https://buyee.jp/rakuma/item/73ca89193ffad28b4a2d17e24f2112c5?conversionType=service_page_search

Buyee have a weird policy where they won't ship oil or grease, so they (carefully and precisely, it must be said) remove those items before shipping a kit. If that's going to bother you, there are other proxies (ZenMarket, From Japan) that possibly aren't as cautious, so you have options, if it's of interest. 

Just a thought :)

Never heard of these proxy sites before. How do they work!!!

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2 hours ago, Busdriver said:

Never heard of these proxy sites before. How do they work!!!

Essentially they allow you to view, bid on and win items listed on Japanese auction and shopping sites without an account on those sites. 

Instead, you set up an account with your proxy of choice. Their website essentially accesses, translates and reformats different Japanese shopping sites and displays them within their own site design. So your experience is that you are dealing entirely with a Proxy, while accessing a multitude of different Japanese language sites. If you see something you like on Japanese Yahoo Auctions or the other shopping sites that the Proxy works with you can 'bid' on it (or 'buy it now'), and they do the bidding on your behalf. If you win, there are a fixed set of fees to pay (admin fee, payment fee, and then various protection plans such as an Inspection on Receipt or full insured delivery)...with buyee it works out about £6.50 per item, so bear that in mind. It's the same fee whether the item is £3 or £300, which can make a difference to how 'cheap' something ends up being. 

If you win, the item gets shipped to their warehouse first (as they are the 'buyer') and then they offer you relevant shipping options to get it to the UK (or wherever you are). It is rare for Japanese auction prices to include domestic shipping, more likely that domestic shipping within Japan is worn by the buyer (you), but also rare that you know what that is up front. So your international shipping fee will also reveal and include the cost of the seller to ship it to the Proxy's warehouse. Occasionally this can cause a nasty shock, but more often than not they're roughly in line with what you would expect to pay for domestic eBay shipping for a part / tyre set / body set / kit etc.

At the moment all Japan Post Air services to the UK are suspended, so international shipping is courier only which is prohibitively expensive. But the proxies also let you store items in their warehouse free of charge for 30 days, and also offer a package consolidation service. Ie if you buy multiple items, they will consolidate all of them into one package (for a small fee) and then give you a single price to ship that combined item as one parcel. This often works out cheaper. Also worth noting that once you 'consolidate' items, the 30 day storage period starts again, so I'm using that as a tactic at the moment to maximise my free storage period whilst waiting / hoping for Japan Post to reinstate air services to the UK. As I said above, Buyee will not ship oil and grease so they always inform you if they're present and offer to remove those small tubes from kits. They do it carefully and precisely, and send a photo to show what they have removed. I seem to have accumulated lots of small tubes of AW grease, ceramic grease, ball diff grease and damper oil, so it doesn't bother me. But if you are looking to buy a NIB kit and then sell it on for a profit, bear that in mind...it won't be strictly NIB when you receive it. But if you're planning on building and enjoying it yourself, it makes no odds IMO. 

Other than that, the same rules apply as using eBay here in the UK. If it looks risky, don't do it. If the descriptions or photos don't feel right, don't do it. Set your maximum and stick to it. Japanese Yahoo works differently to eBay, in that if you slap in a maximum bid at the last second, the auction doesn't end, it extends by 10 minutes to allow other bidders to react to your late bid. This can lead to temptation to get into a bidding war as it can feel like "oh it's only an extra couple of quid", but that can escalate quickly. Also, just my opinion, but I think there is a lot more 'insider' bidding on Japanese Yahoo, ie sellers with separate accounts bidding on their own items to test your maximum...a couple of times I have watched bids come in that creep up in small increments right up to matching my maximum bid, and then miraculously go no further; the message changes when you match an existing maximum, it tells you that you have bid the same as the current winning bid and that if you bid no further, the pre-existing maximum will win. Convenient, huh? So I win, but it cost me that absolute maximum I was willing to pay. 

I think they're a great way of accessing a hitherto difficult to reach market, and much more cost effective than trying to buy similar items from Japanese sellers on eBay in the UK, where you'll often see the same items at up to 10 times the price that they are listed on the domestic Japanese sites. But I would approach it as a fun and interesting way to get hold of things that you hardly ever see over here any more, rather than a 'cheap' way of grabbing a 'bargain'. 

Sorry, bit of a lengthy answer, hope it helps :)

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6 minutes ago, Juhunio said:

Essentially they allow you to view, bid on and win items listed on Japanese auction and shopping sites without an account on those sites. 

Instead, you set up an account with your proxy of choice. Their website essentially accesses, translates and reformats different Japanese shopping sites and displays them within their own site design. So your experience is that you are dealing entirely with a Proxy, while accessing a multitude of different Japanese language sites. If you see something you like on Japanese Yahoo Auctions or the other shopping sites that the Proxy works with you can 'bid' on it (or 'buy it now'), and they do the bidding on your behalf. If you win, there are a fixed set of fees to pay (admin fee, payment fee, and then various protection plans such as an Inspection on Receipt or full insured delivery)...with buyee it works out about £6.50 per item, so bear that in mind. It's the same fee whether the item is £3 or £300, which can make a difference to how 'cheap' something ends up being. 

If you win, the item gets shipped to their warehouse first (as they are the 'buyer') and then they offer you relevant shipping options to get it to the UK (or wherever you are). It is rare for Japanese auction prices to include domestic shipping, more likely that domestic shipping within Japan is worn by the buyer (you), but also rare that you know what that is up front. So your international shipping fee will also reveal and include the cost of the seller to ship it to the Proxy's warehouse. Occasionally this can cause a nasty shock, but more often than not they're roughly in line with what you would expect to pay for domestic eBay shipping for a part / tyre set / body set / kit etc.

At the moment all Japan Post Air services to the UK are suspended, so international shipping is courier only which is prohibitively expensive. But the proxies also let you store items in their warehouse free of charge for 30 days, and also offer a package consolidation service. Ie if you buy multiple items, they will consolidate all of them into one package (for a small fee) and then give you a single price to ship that combined item as one parcel. This often works out cheaper. Also worth noting that once you 'consolidate' items, the 30 day storage period starts again, so I'm using that as a tactic at the moment to maximise my free storage period whilst waiting / hoping for Japan Post to reinstate air services to the UK. As I said above, Buyee will not ship oil and grease so they always inform you if they're present and offer to remove those small tubes from kits. They do it carefully and precisely, and send a photo to show what they have removed. I seem to have accumulated lots of small tubes of AW grease, ceramic grease, ball diff grease and damper oil, so it doesn't bother me. But if you are looking to buy a NIB kit and then sell it on for a profit, bear that in mind...it won't be strictly NIB when you receive it. But if you're planning on building and enjoying it yourself, it makes no odds IMO. 

Other than that, the same rules apply as using eBay here in the UK. If it looks risky, don't do it. If the descriptions or photos don't feel right, don't do it. Set your maximum and stick to it. Japanese Yahoo works differently to eBay, in that if you slap in a maximum bid at the last second, the auction doesn't end, it extends by 10 minutes to allow other bidders to react to your late bid. This can lead to temptation to get into a bidding war as it can feel like "oh it's only an extra couple of quid", but that can escalate quickly. Also, just my opinion, but I think there is a lot more 'insider' bidding on Japanese Yahoo, ie sellers with separate accounts bidding on their own items to test your maximum...a couple of times I have watched bids come in that creep up in small increments right up to matching my maximum bid, and then miraculously go no further. So I win, but it cost me that absolute maximum I was willing to pay. 

I think they're a great way of accessing a hitherto difficult to reach market, and much more cost effective than trying to buy similar items from Japanese sellers on eBay in the UK, where you'll often see I've the same items from the same sellers at up to 10 times the price that they are listed on the domestic Japanese sites. But I would approach it as a fun and interesting way to get hold of things that you hardly ever see over here any more, rather than a 'cheap' way of grabbing a 'bargain'. 

Sorry, bit of a lengthy answer, hope it helps :)

Great answer. Thanks

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