Black Friday 2022

[Chest Rockwell 34]

On 11/21/2022 at 12:26 AM, Willy iine said:

From retailers in the USA, I heard it's the day when they start making profit for the year (get out of debt or red), thus black.

That's certainly how I understood it!

[Elbowloh 1130]

For those shopping in the UK

 

Make It Build It seem to have some genuine deals.

 

https://www.makeitbuildit.co.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAiAyfybBhBKEiwAgtB7fundTX6K-pZeoVMVfvU9kixOQdlUS8Us2U1734MZSDd3u4DHdrwYKBoCqLsQAvD_BwE

[BuggyDad 4481]

43 minutes ago, Elbowloh said:

For those shopping in the UK

 

Make It Build It seem to have some genuine deals.

 

https://www.makeitbuildit.co.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAiAyfybBhBKEiwAgtB7fundTX6K-pZeoVMVfvU9kixOQdlUS8Us2U1734MZSDd3u4DHdrwYKBoCqLsQAvD_BwE

Yeah I picked up an Element Enduro Builders Kit 2 for £195, having been keeping an eye on these for a few weeks that's about £35 off the usual price. That was top of my list of things to look for on BF. I'd quite like to find another but that could wait til after Christmas just as well. 

[Sogogi 3219]

Ordered some Gens ace rounded 2s lipo 4000mah batteries! It ended up being $30 each which i think is pretty good at Amain.

[moffman 5752]

On 11/18/2022 at 4:17 PM, Elbowloh said:

Modelsport here in the UK are advertising loads of stuff in the Black Friday sale, pretty sure that everything I looked at is the same price it was previously.

Modelsport have done that for years (must be some sort of internal joke amongst staff? ) they are good at their mail order to be fair! Although at the beginning of the pandemic I remember they were very quick to double the free p&p threshold from £99 to £199

[Raman36 1658]

On 11/18/2022 at 3:54 AM, Willy iine said:

I usually use PlazaJapan and Amazon.co.jp when ordering stuff from Japan.    They can take a while before they ship, but they have been reliable.  

GL bargain hunting.  

I’ve been on the hunt for a TRF420X. I refuse to pay over $600 for it. Closest I’ve come is RCMart. $650 with shipping.

My neighbours wife is Japanese, I asked her to check sites in Japan to see if she can find me a better deal. 

I used Plaza as well.. they have amazing prices.. unfortunately they don’t carry many kits! 
 

I have tried Amazon JP before.. didn’t find the 420X on there for a decent price will need to check them out again tomorrow. 

[Willy iine 18806]

35 minutes ago, Raman36 said:

I’ve been on the hunt for a TRF420X. I refuse to pay over $600 for it. Closest I’ve come is RCMart. $650 with shipping.

My neighbours wife is Japanese, I asked her to check sites in Japan to see if she can find me a better deal. 

I used Plaza as well.. they have amazing prices.. unfortunately they don’t carry many kits! 
 

I have tried Amazon JP before.. didn’t find the 420X on there for a decent price will need to check them out again tomorrow. 

Yeah, PlazaJapan takes forever to ship too.. like they need at least a week to pack and label.. then EMS takes forever.    I have 3 open orders with them, none has arrived yet.  rcMart is fast.. usually if they have the goods in stock I place the order and within a week they arrive my pretend RC shop in the USA.  It's sad there is no such shop in Japan.

GL grabbing that 420X!  

[Raman36 1658]

24 minutes ago, Willy iine said:

Yeah, PlazaJapan takes forever to ship too.. like they need at least a week to pack and label.. then EMS takes forever.    I have 3 open orders with them, none has arrived yet.  rcMart is fast.. usually if they have the goods in stock I place the order and within a week they arrive my pretend RC shop in the USA.  It's sad there is no such shop in Japan.

GL grabbing that 420X!  

For Plaza I select DHL or Fed Ex usually. It’s a couple $ more but much more efficient.

What Plaza does is offer you a good price but they have the product spread out in different warehouse in Japan. So they need to consolidate it and then ship. 
 

If you give them badword, they will offer you a store credit for taking too long 😉

[alvinlwh 5895]

12 minutes ago, Raman36 said:

If you give them badword, they will offer you a store credit for taking too long 😉

My last order took over a month to arrive and when I complained to them, I got nothing. 

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

Not Tamiya, but I grabbed a Losi 22s no-prep drag roller for $125 off Tower Hobbies.  I already had a Pro-Line Chevy Nova body waiting for a chassis, so this is perfect to build a complete model.

No-prep drag roller:  link

Nova body:  link

But eventually I really want a Barracuda body:  link

Almost as good a deal as the $119 Axial SMT10 builder's kit I picked up last year...

[Willy iine 18806]

1 hour ago, Raman36 said:

For Plaza I select DHL or Fed Ex usually. It’s a couple $ more but much more efficient.

What Plaza does is offer you a good price but they have the product spread out in different warehouse in Japan. So they need to consolidate it and then ship. 
 

If you give them badword, they will offer you a store credit for taking too long 😉

Haha!   It's okay, I'm in no hurry.  The stuff I'm getting is for next year.  

[alvinlwh 5895]

Asiatee is having a Cyber Monday 10% almost store wide sale. Tested the code yesterday and it works. 

https://www.asiatees.com/article?Cyber-Monday---Take-10%25-Off-Sitewide&id=3567

 

[BuggyDad 4481]

4 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

Asiatee is having a Cyber Monday 10% almost store wide sale. Tested the code yesterday and it works. 

https://www.asiatees.com/article?Cyber-Monday---Take-10%25-Off-Sitewide&id=3567

 

 

Have you tended to get an import duty charge with Asiatees orders (assuming over £135)? A likely charge I guess?

On a related note, does anyone have a rule of thumb for the percentage one should expect to be charged? 

[alvinlwh 5895]

26 minutes ago, BuggyDad said:

Have you tended to get an import duty charge with Asiatees orders (assuming over £135)? A likely charge I guess?

On a related note, does anyone have a rule of thumb for the percentage one should expect to be charged? 

Never with AT. Definitely double charged (if over £135 total) with RCMart. 

£8 RM "fees" + 20% VAT + 8% customs duty. 

[Tobyone 557]

34 minutes ago, BuggyDad said:

 

Have you tended to get an import duty charge with Asiatees orders (assuming over £135)? A likely charge I guess?

On a related note, does anyone have a rule of thumb for the percentage one should expect to be charged? 

Everything i have ever bought from AsiaTees has had a value of £13 on the paperwork, never had any problem with customs charges, and I've bought a lot over the past 2 years. I do try and keep it below the £135 threshold but on the odd occasion its been over, no issue.

Obviously not a guarantee you wont get additional charges, but that's my personnel experience. 

[BuggyDad 4481]

11 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

Never with AT. Definitely double charged (if over £135 total) with RCMart. 

£8 RM "fees" + 20% VAT + 8% customs duty. 

 

2 minutes ago, Tobyone said:

Everything i have ever bought from AsiaTees has had a value of £13 on the paperwork, never had any problem with customs charges, and I've bought a lot over the past 2 years. I do try and keep it below the £135 threshold but on the odd occasion its been over, no issue.

Obviously not a guarantee you wont get additional charges, but that's my personnel experience. 

Good source for kits then? 

[Tobyone 557]

Used to be, before the postage costs went up like everywhere else.

You just have to be mindful that a 'cheap' kit (£70) can cost over £35 to ship to the UK using Fedex (cheapest delivery method, 1-2 days) , so sometimes falls in line with UK prices from the likes of Fusion and TImeTunnel.

Easy to get carried away and find shipping is more than the parts in your basket  

 

[alvinlwh 5895]

16 minutes ago, BuggyDad said:

 

Good source for kits then? 

No, problem is most Tamiya kits are over the 2kg limit for regular airmail packages, so will go into the higher price bracket for postage like DHL, etc. Just do a trial checkout and compare it against FH and you will see it is better to just buy kits from the UK. Hopups are a different story though as they can often come by regular airmail package. 

Also, with RCMart, they will charge you VAT but include the total value on the customs form, pushing the import price past the £135 limit, meaning HMRC will probably tax you again (probably because they do not catch all packages, for more info, read the thread I linked to), and of course along with the RM "fine". Also, Tamiya kits tends to be bigger, this attracting their attention. I had ordered MST TCR-M chassis kits from AT twice and the sail through no problem. Same with 3R MG Evo and M4, but these are smaller chassis only kits. 

[alvinlwh 5895]

27 minutes ago, Tobyone said:

Obviously not a guarantee you wont get additional charges, but that's my personnel experience. 

Since Brexit, the only package I got hit with tax is a RCMart one. I had ordered dozens from AT, PJ and AE, no problem at all. 

[Nwc100 462]

I ordered n XV01 and all the hop ups they had plus some other random stuff from PJ and 2 sports tuned motors, total was about £200 plus £30 shipping, got hit for £50 customs charges on Sunday making £280 in total, Uk price is between £205 and £240 for the kit and I imagine all the other bits are around £130, I think I saved around £50 and ordering to delivery took 8 days by FedEx, I’m pretty happy with that.

 I guess I could have ordered it all separately but I think the delivery charges would be double still and potentially still get some customs charges!

i did notice it appears to have been repacked by FedEx as there was no paperwork from PJ either attached or in the box, all the items I’d had before contained some form of PJ paperwork!

[BuggyDad 4481]

52 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

No, problem is most Tamiya kits are over the 2kg limit for regular airmail packages, so will go into the higher price bracket for postage like DHL, etc. Just do a trial checkout and compare it against FH and you will see it is better to just buy kits from the UK. Hopups are a different story though as they can often come by regular airmail package. 

 

Guess it depends on the kit then. XV-02 Pro triggers a $35 delivery charge which seems OK in the context of the relative prices. So I guess that's more like your MST chassis kits. 

[alvinlwh 5895]

41 minutes ago, BuggyDad said:

Guess it depends on the kit then. XV-02 Pro triggers a $35 delivery charge which seems OK in the context of the relative prices. So I guess that's more like your MST chassis kits. 

Yes, bottom line is always compare against FH and/or TTM. Also add in a "risk factor" of HMRC catching the package, as that will wipe any savings off. This risk factor varies depending on postage method airmail being the lowest risk and EMS being medium and DHL/Fedex being the highest. 

[BuggyDad 4481]

5 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

Yes, bottom line is always compare against FH and/or TTM. Also add in a "risk factor" of HMRC catching the package, as that will wipe any savings off. This risk factor varies depending on postage method airmail being the lowest risk and EMS being medium and DHL/Fedex being the highest. 

In this case FedEx is the cheap delivery option, with everything else $30-50 more. So it's all a bit of a bet then... 

[Nwc100 462]

Another side to all of this is I would prefer when possible to support a local business, generally I use TTM, not local exactly I’m in Essex and they are in Scotland or Modelsport, I like that they will solder the desired connector on many items for minimal charges!

I would hate to see them close so buy as much as I can through them especially kits and save PJ for hop ups and random Japanese stuff!

 

 

[alvinlwh 5895]

1 hour ago, Nwc100 said:

I would hate to see them close so buy as much as I can through them especially kits and save PJ for hop ups and random Japanese stuff!

You are absolutely right! I only buy kits overseas that I cannot buy in the UK. Actually, I made a mistake with my earlier statement, my 3R M4 was from SpeedRC rather than from 3R in HK. The price difference was just like £10 or something. 

However, the price difference for hopups are just too insane to ignore.