Plaza Japan - what it's really all about

[alvinlwh 8244]

38 minutes ago, Pylon80 said:

I think I got lucky and all my items were SSS.

So I assumed you did not (or not bothered to) redeem any of these 'free items?

https://www.rcmart.com/discount-coupon

The last time I tried to redeem one, it knocked me out of SSS and tried to charge me tax on a 'free item.

[alvinlwh 8244]

2 hours ago, nowinaminute said:

t's a real shame. Before Brexit and when there was still a gift allowance, 

I actually prefer post Brexit. Pre Brexit, 50% of my JP orders (PJ or 1999) got taxed. Post, 0% of any orders got hit, although some sellers now charges VAT.

2 hours ago, nowinaminute said:

The postage stings the most because I'm pretty sure Chinese business still get subsidised domestic postage and favourable rates here, because you can still buy something on Aliexpress for £3 with free postage when it would cost more than £3 in postage alone just to send to the next city within the UK!

HK is not China and operates on a different postal system (although still significantly cheaper than RM). Calling HK part of China can be as offensive as calling Scotland part of England. 😉

Now regarding AE, they have some kind of deal with RM which means they have a massive postage discount, much to the anger of UK businesses.

https://ciltuk.org.uk/News/Latest-News/ArtMID/6887/ArticleID/7576/Royal-Mail-and-Alibaba-deal-helps-Chinese-sellers-ship-to-UK

2 hours ago, nowinaminute said:

If you have any tips, let me know!

Best I can see at the moment is Asiatees but seem to be a lot of stuff out of stock at the moment.

Yes, AT's stock is not the best. However, just a few weeks ago when the news of PJ'S price increase broke, I did a trial order with AT instead and compared directly, like for like between the two, on a popular item often bought from PJ, a Super Stock motor. Here is the difference, which is not insignificant. 

 

One more alternative is RCJaz, they are the most expensive (sticker price) of the HK3, but still cheaper than PJ now, or RCM with VAT applied. They also charge shipping by weight with no minimum (although they are a little more expensive than AT).

As I said to you before, when shopping at these places, you have to ditch the old PJ 'get as close to £135 as possible mentality but adopt a 'buy only what you want/need when yoy need it' thinking. This past month, I made frequent orders of just 1 or 2 items (in fact a single pair of shocks just arrived today) on items that I need when I need them. Now, I am also going for their free wheel hexes for every order, so I am still quids in with slightly more postage. Unfortunately, this hobby is getting more expensive with shipping and VAT, which is why I am planning a trip out to buy in store instead. I am building a shopping list at the moment on Google Sheets. 😁

@Sogogi I am surprised that your order never arrived. Every single order I made above arrived, the most recent one today. I suspect it maybe just a rare beep with yours.

[Pylon80 4422]

1 hour ago, alvinlwh said:

So I assumed you did not (or not bothered to) redeem any of these 'free items?

https://www.rcmart.com/discount-coupon

The last time I tried to redeem one, it knocked me out of SSS and tried to charge me tax on a 'free item.

Haha correct, I didn't bother with the RCM trinkets

I knew about them from one day searching "RCM Discount Code" and they gave me a good laugh. 

Thank you RCMart, I don't need a T-shirt, but an ESC would do nicely!!

[alvinlwh 8244]

35 minutes ago, Pylon80 said:

I don't need a T-shirt

The worst thing is even a 'free sticker giving them free advertising will knock yoy out of SSS! Not sure how a sheet of sticker will cost that much to post?

[Pylon80 4422]

3 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

The worst thing is even a 'free sticker giving them free advertising will knock yoy out of SSS! Not sure how a sheet of sticker will cost that much to post?

I hope they don't do it to purposely get you to pay shipping. They can't be that evil! Or can they? 🧐😜

[Juggular 5492]

erm... it's a bit embarrassing, but I must confess my ignorance.  

See, I have been building up items in the cart.  But they kept disappearing.  I finally asked PlazaJapan, and they said the cart is stored in my browser. Whenever my browser refreshes, I'd lose the items in the cart.  What's stored on their website is the wish list.  I knew about it, but didn't know how to use it. 

Did you guys know that the little heart was the wishlist button?  Is this a common thing?  A heart being a wishlist button?  Was I the only one who didn't know?  I feel so old now, I need a beer or two to rejuvenate. 🍺🍺

 

[toyolien 6955]

2 hours ago, Juggular said:

erm... it's a bit embarrassing, but I must confess my ignorance.  

See, I have been building up items in the cart.  But they kept disappearing.  I finally asked PlazaJapan, and they said the cart is stored in my browser. Whenever my browser refreshes, I'd lose the items in the cart.  What's stored on their website is the wish list.  I knew about it, but didn't know how to use it. 

Did you guys know that the little heart was the wishlist button?  Is this a common thing?  A heart being a wishlist button?  Was I the only one who didn't know?  I feel so old now, I need a beer or two to rejuvenate. 🍺🍺

 

Yep i use their wishlists a lot. I have about a dozen saved. Each time I'm interested in a build i save that particular car and add all the parts and hop ups associated with it and save it. 

[Juggular 5492]

58 minutes ago, toyolien said:

Yep i use their wishlists a lot. I have about a dozen saved. Each time I'm interested in a build i save that particular car and add all the parts and hop ups associated with it and save it. 

That confirms my fear... I'm becoming ancient!

 

[alvinlwh 8244]

5 hours ago, Juggular said:

Did you guys know that the little heart was the wishlist button? 

Yeah, I have multiple wish lists to sort the items as well.

Same on amazon. 

[Juggular 5492]

16 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

Yeah, I have multiple wish lists to sort the items as well.

Same on amazon. 

I'm curious as to what' are on your static list.  33 is a lot of kits.  I've been trying to whittle down 19 items into half.  It's hard (I don' t mean hard because they don't sell 9.5 kits).  

 

[alvinlwh 8244]

5 hours ago, Juggular said:

I'm curious as to what' are on your static list.  33 is a lot of kits.  I've been trying to whittle down 19 items into half.  It's hard (I don' t mean hard because they don't sell 9.5 kits).  

 

It has a lot of out of stock kits, added because I fancy them at one time. While I can clear them out of my watch list, I kept them there as a reminder to have a quick look every now and then to see if they are in stock. They get cleared out when I no longer fancy them or the particular theme.

[chris.alex 2118]

To get back to the original topic of this thread: My first order from Plaza Japan brought a little unicorn to my desk. 😍

[Pylon80 4422]

50 minutes ago, chris.alex said:

To get back to the original topic of this thread: My first order from Plaza Japan brought a little unicorn to my desk. 😍

Now that beats a packet of tissues with Mount Fuji pictured on the wrapping!

[jonboy1 3805]

1 minute ago, Pylon80 said:

Now that beats a packet of tissues with Mount Fuji pictured on the wrapping!

Agreed. That is undoubtedly the unicorn model......

I'll get my coat.

[wolfdogstinkus 2097]

6 hours ago, chris.alex said:

To get back to the original topic of this thread: My first order from Plaza Japan brought a little unicorn to my desk. 😍

I see you have the Scottish national animal in your possession, all unicorns must be returned to Scotland without haste as they belong there.

The kind people at Plaza have just started the journey, but if you Google "Scotland's national animal" you'll see there is some truth to my story. 😆 

[alvinlwh 8244]

1 hour ago, wolfdogstinkus said:

I see you have the Scottish national animal in your possession, all unicorns must be returned to Scotland without haste as they belong there.

The kind people at Plaza have just started the journey, but if you Google "Scotland's national animal" you'll see there is some truth to my story. 😆 

I will argue that the national animal of Scotland is the Haggis, or thr Loch Ness Monster. At least people had see, or even ate, either of these animals. No one had been recorded to have seen an unicorn, ever.

[wolfdogstinkus 2097]

8 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

I will argue that the national animal of Scotland is the Haggis, or thr Loch Ness Monster. At least people had see, or even ate, either of these animals. No one had been recorded to have seen an unicorn, ever.

Google it. It's the Unicorn. 

It surprised me too.

[chris.alex 2118]

10 hours ago, wolfdogstinkus said:

I see you have the Scottish national animal in your possession, all unicorns must be returned to Scotland without haste as they belong there.

The kind people at Plaza have just started the journey, but if you Google "Scotland's national animal" you'll see there is some truth to my story. 😆 

I think you're right. This morning it was standing at the window enjoying the summer rain. Was it a coincidence that it was facing northwest? However, unicorns don't know stress or time pressure because they are timeless beings. I'm happy that I have a unicorn staying with me at the moment. 

[alvinlwh 8244]

2 hours ago, wolfdogstinkus said:

Google it. It's the Unicorn. 

It surprised me too.

It's a joke mate.

[wolfdogstinkus 2097]

28 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

It's a joke mate.

No, honestly the unicorn is Scotland's national animal. 😂 😆 

[alvinlwh 8244]

19 minutes ago, wolfdogstinkus said:

No, honestly the unicorn is Scotland's national animal. 😂 😆 

I mean what I said about haggis and Loch Ness Monster is a joke. I know the official national animal of Scotland, I live in Scotland. It is even on the national crest.

 

[wolfdogstinkus 2097]

14 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

I mean what I said about haggis and Loch Ness Monster is a joke. I know the official national animal of Scotland, I live in Scotland. It is even on the national crest.

 

It was a joke, sorry, I know text doesn't translate well, but I was laughing.

[Bwaaatch 630]

I ordered a bunch of Mini 4ed cars and parts to the UK last week.

Thought I would report back on my experience:

Overall, super impressed. Although it took them a week to pack my order, once shipped it arrived from Japan to my door in 48hrs. Amazing!

I got a creepy baby doll eraser as a gift.

Prices were cheap, and shipping via FedEx was also very reasonable indeed. My shipping box was 12x12x14 inches and the shipping cost £40. For contrast, today I also paid £20 to ship one tiny envelope from the US to the UK.

i was delighted that the site remembered my address in between cart updates, and calculated shipping costs in the fly. Sinai could add things and see how it affected shipping, which was super cool.

Final note for mini 4wd fans. Most cars are £6-8. I found that if I loaded up my basket with 40 cars I would pay only about £80 shipping on top. So just £2 per car. So total cost including tax and shipping was only about £8 or 8.50 per car! I think this economy was similar even with only 15 or 20 cars ordered. These things cost at least £15 in the UK!

[alvinlwh 8244]

13 minutes ago, Bwaaatch said:

loaded up my basket with 40 cars

My order from 2 years ago.

i happened to be going to Asia to attend a wedding and ordered them to be delived before I arrive. Picked them up to fly back with me. Cost <£10 each including postage and no tax. Along with other kits (RC, static, etc...), the savings covered my flight.

[Jason1145 4689]

On 7/11/2024 at 3:13 PM, chris.alex said:

To get back to the original topic of this thread: My first order from Plaza Japan brought a little unicorn to my desk. 😍

My FOMO is kicking in, I’ve never bought from Plaza Japan either, so I need to break my cherry it’s too bad I’ve missed the good pricing from previously!

I did visit Japan in March earlier this  year just in time for their cherry blossoms, it was my first visit and I spent a couple hours in Super Rajikon  in Akihabara, lovely Tamiya shop… I even got 10% tax relief as a tourist so bought a Kyosho Turbo Scorpion for about £150 ( UK this costs £280) plus a few hop ups.

( know it’s not the done thing to post yourself on the internet but I’m getting to an age where I just think, ah whatever!)

Check out this Tokyo Drift road if ever there was one!

Anyway back on topic, let me check out PJ site right now!