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Buyee - your thoughts please

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I have been browsing Buyee for a few months (Japanese Yahoo auction website) and it has some amazing deals. I previously brought a Vanquish for about £50, however do not be fooled. Getting things posted back to the uk once you add buyee's fee, postage fee and import duties is no laughing matter. I recently tipped my toe in again and won a large lot of stuff. The quote for the postage is 1.5 times what I paid for the items. I think that by the time it arrives in the UK the sale price will be roughly 30% - 35% of the overall cost. 

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I'm also often looking for international offers. But most of the time I didn't buy anything due to the huge amount of additional costs. If I want buy something for 20€ and then have to pay more than 30€ only for shipping I try to buy it local or at least from a national or European dealer. Interesting is that shipping from East to West is cheaper than West to East. And how it is possible to offer free shipping from China to Europe for products which cost less than 5€ is a complete mystery to me. :blink:

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2 hours ago, Hairyjon313 said:

I have been browsing Buyee for a few months (Japanese Yahoo auction website) and it has some amazing deals. I previously brought a Vanquish for about £50, however do not be fooled. Getting things posted back to the uk once you add buyee's fee, postage fee and import duties is no laughing matter. I recently tipped my toe in again and won a large lot of stuff. The quote for the postage is 1.5 times what I paid for the items. I think that by the time it arrives in the UK the sale price will be roughly 30% - 35% of the overall cost. 

depending on budget/pocket.. and things that you really like and things that you want.... really difficult sometimes.

Don't buy things you already have, which i tend to do so.

I love the varieties - a friend of mine got something parts/kits at really good price $100-$200 but end up paying $100 for domestic shipping, another 30-40 for fee then other issues with shipping as it contains an Engine had to arrange shipping for $400.

so got to be careful what you can bid and the cost that comes with it.

I also learnt the hard way, don't buy little parts like gears for a few dollars end up paying $30-40 for shipping lol! and buyee fee...

 

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I buy quite a bit from there. Shipping usually tops out around 40 US for a car with some extras. I really try to stick to items that just are no longer available. This weekend I purchased a 190E DTM body set of the 2000 Olympics. As you know very hard to acquire new in box. Paid about 100 US and shipping will be around 40. Not cheap but even if was found on Ebay in the states a seller would want 200 or even more. I gotten several good deals on old TA02/03 cars with some hop ups. Even lots of parts cars. Since they are not runners they sell for maybe 20 US and shipping is lower since the box is smaller and weight is lower. It can be very addictive though....Also here in the states we don't have the import fees

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I've always used JAUCE. 

Cost wasn't so bad until Sterling dropped like a stone. Now I only buy rare stuff from Yahoo auctions. I have a Jordan 191 NIB waiting for the Parcel Force ransom note to arrive. 

I would add 35-40% to the winning bid for UK landed cost. I put together an Excel spreadsheet that would give a fair idea of the final prices.  I was buying 4/5 cars at a time then. 

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Yeah Buyee tends to get expensive. But it's got some cool stuff and while I do feel bad about having some rubbish i bought shipped halfway around the globe, sometimes it's cheaper. Everything under 20 Euros is free of customs fees in the EU, so it can be lucrative to order cheap stuff in Japan, even if shipping is expensive. It's always a calculation and a headache, though. And don't bid 70 Euros on a VeilSide gear knob. That might seem cheap but it going to bite you in the behind. Apparently drunken bidding can also happen when you're sober.

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I won't use Buyee again! 

I checked restrictions on posting batteries and only Lipos came up. Bought two nicads and had an email to say batteries can not be sent! To add insult to injury they charged me to chuck em in the bin😯. Plus the postage estimates are way out. 

Today a received a nice new 1600sp nicad battery from Japan via ebay instead 👍 and it was cheaper. 

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I’ve used Jauce a few times over the past 3-4 years. Service (and packaging) is generally good so long as you understand and factor in all of the extra costs and guarantee of paying customs. Great in that it gives access to Yahoo japan auction and other sites. When I find something rare I want and I win it, i then buy a few other rarities at cheap prices, and sell these once everything is received, which leaves me with the item a really wanted, but at a great price. Bit of a hassle, but then that’s collecting for you!

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49 minutes ago, futureworks said:

I’ve used Jauce a few times over the past 3-4 years. Service (and packaging) is generally good so long as you understand and factor in all of the extra costs and guarantee of paying customs. Great in that it gives access to Yahoo japan auction and other sites. When I find something rare I want and I win it, i then buy a few other rarities at cheap prices, and sell these once everything is received, which leaves me with the item a really wanted, but at a great price. Bit of a hassle, but then that’s collecting for you!

Just had a quick look at jauce, unsure if they will send batteries either!? 

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I looked at this site a while ago but couldn't make heads or tails of it:blink:.....but that probably says more about me than buyee?

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26 minutes ago, moffman said:

I looked at this site a while ago but couldn't make heads or tails of it:blink:.....but that probably says more about me than buyee?

It is confusing 

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Japan still holds the bulk of Tamiya rarity and these sites are all pretty much the same - noting they’re normally brokers / export warehouses piggy backing on local Yahoo auctions, which doesn’t work like eBay because:

1. All bids are Japanese Yen, with no foreign credit card or currency exchange option on checkout;

2. You normally have to pay a broker when you bid not if you win - which, if you lose / ask for your cash back is pita because you burn PayPal plus currency exchange fees every time;

3. Prices reset with each higher bid during the last 10 mins, each time for 10 mins more;

4. Sellers can cancel at any time - so there’s a fair bit of market testing best price with no intention to sell ... which is infuriating when you lose out on every failed bid (see 2);

5. Some sellers refuse to deal with brokers / exporters - which you might not find out until after you think you’ve won ... again, v annoying (see 2);

6. Business sellers add 10% local VAT to final prices;

7. Local postage costs are on top - and often aren’t clear when you bid;

8. Brokers / exporters are currently  hamstrung by international post rules - so don’t even think about buying batteries as @svenb says ... or anything remotely flammable, even glues / greases in NIB kits. If you do, it will get opened, destroyed and you’ll often be charged for the loss 🙄

On top of that, Japan postage has (like almost everywhere) become v expensive recently - and sometimes won’t ship to places where Covid cases are high because of potential returns ... so parcels can sit for months in a local quarantine before being sent 

All this makes any Japanese auction purchase a high risk gamble for Western buyers at the moment and many are understandably holding off until things calm down - which is forcing some local sellers to recently start looking West to eBay and other sites to replace lost sales 

That would ordinarily be great but the issue is they’ve currently little experience of international markets - so currently think grossing everything up = good value, when it’s actually horrifically expensive 

That may change - and prices could drop as things sit unsold - but, personally, I doubt it as rare stuff is still changing hands locally, just for less w/o Western pressure on price 

In short, buyers beware - at least for now 👍

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3 hours ago, svenb said:

Just had a quick look at jauce, unsure if they will send batteries either!? 

I would say definitely not. They are very strict in applying  Japanese rules relating to sending combustible materials, so even if you bought a kit, the damper oil and tubes of greases get removed before sending. 

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59 minutes ago, SuperChamp82 said:

2. You normally have to pay a broker when you bid not if you win - which, if you lose / ask for your cash back is pita because you burn PayPal plus currency exchange fees every time;

When I’ve bid using Jauce, but lost, and then withdrawn the funds I’d deposited with them (in order to be able to bid in the first place) back to PayPal, my net cost financially has always been zero.  Ultimately though, these are costly sites to use, and the fees aren’t always what they appear to be. I only use them when I can’t find items anywhere else.

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Interesting @futureworks 

How did you deposit cash ? And where are you based ?

I’m UK and PayPal charge me a handling fee plus 3.5%

Or the clearing banks are normally close to 2% each way - which is worse 

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1 hour ago, SuperChamp82 said:

Interesting @futureworks 

How did you deposit cash ? And where are you based ?

I’m UK and PayPal charge me a handling fee plus 3.5%

Or the clearing banks are normally close to 2% each way - which is worse 

I’m in the uk as well. I deposit funds with Jauce via PayPal,, which they (Jauce) charge their fee for. Assuming I don’t win the auction and choose to withdraw the funds, they arrive back in my PayPal account (takes a good week), basically as a reverse of the deposit transaction, so no fees charged, same exchange rate, 100% refund. Don't quite understand why you say PayPal charge a handling fee as in my scenario, I'm the customer, Jauce is the merchant, so no fee for buyer from PayPal.

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What do Jauce charge to deposit cash  @futureworks ?

That may be the fee I’m seeing ? 

And it surely isn’t the same exchange rate if you bid 6 days before the auction ends ?

I seem to lose out (rarely win) in every currency shift 🙄

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38 minutes ago, SuperChamp82 said:

I seem to lose out (rarely win) in every currency shift 🙄

I just don’t have this experience. Jauce charge 40 yen + 3.9% of the deposit amount, I.e. they get you to pay their PayPal fee plus a bit.

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Bought an alloy BATTERY RETAINER for my Mini-z and had fun explaining to the buyee staff fhat something containing the word "battery" didn't actually classify it as unsafe to post. Fortunately they saw sense when the product arrived with them for evaluation / international shipment. I was worried for a moment as they threatened to dispose of it for me!

I see some really nice Mini-z body sets and even JGTC 1/64 scale diecast models but I'm fearful of the end cost of actually getting it to my door. 

God knows what the JDM 1:1 car fans end up paying for rare bodykits / exhausts and engine parts!

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46 minutes ago, ChrisRx718 said:

God knows what the JDM 1:1 car fans end up paying for rare bodykits / exhausts and engine parts!

things like that gets shipped in shipping containers :). and usually combined with more stuff to get most out of the shipping cost.

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Since I'm In the US where every third person has Covid now Japan Post has not been shipping since April. I have quite a stash of stuff that I either leave in the Buyee warehouse or send by sea mail or DHL which is insane money

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i have not tried Buyee, but i have tried Sumurai Buyer and White Rabbit Express which i think is something similar. it is not something to use if you are looking to save money, but can be good to get something hard to find or only available in Japan. the fees and shipping quickly adds up.

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