Why is shipping to and from Japan so damn expensive?!?!

[STICH666]

I just don't get it. I might as well get a ticket to Japan, buy a Neo Geo AES and then take it back with me. It's ridiculous. I want to buy one from Lukemorse on youtube and shipping will be at least $100.

Edited November 20, 2009 by STICH666

[the.golden.ax]

I'm fairly certain it is the use of EMS and other registered insured services that causes the price hike. Paypal is requiring tracking and insurance for seller protection in foreign countries now. Unless you get a real trusting seller like all those cheap item Hong Kong peripheral sellers, international shipping is an arm and leg.

 

AX

[busterm]

I'm fairly certain it is the use of EMS and other registered insured services that causes the price hike. Paypal is requiring tracking and insurance for seller protection in foreign countries now. Unless you get a real trusting seller like all those cheap item Hong Kong peripheral sellers, international shipping is an arm and leg.

 

AX

 

 

Yea it has to EMS they are using which is alot like USPS Priority International. $100 is alot for a AES shipping wise I just sent a 11 lbs package to Tokyo for about $70 and he got it in 6 days

 

And I just got a PCFX boxed with 8 games and two controllers from tokyo and only paid $80 shipping for all of that

Edited November 20, 2009 by busterm

[GOJO]

I'm fairly certain it is the use of EMS and other registered insured services that causes the price hike. Paypal is requiring tracking and insurance for seller protection in foreign countries now. Unless you get a real trusting seller like all those cheap item Hong Kong peripheral sellers, international shipping is an arm and leg.

 

AX

 

 

Yea it has to EMS they are using which is alot like USPS Priority International. $100 is alot for a AES shipping wise I just sent a 11 lbs package to Tokyo for about $70 and he got it in 6 days

 

And I just got a PCFX boxed with 8 games and two controllers from tokyo and only paid $80 shipping for all of that

EMS has always been $$$ I used to send back and forth from my friend in Japan auctions won from ebay (US) and yahoo Japan(him)and we would eat up alot in EMS so we would send things all at once in a big box.

[Blur2040]

I just don't get it. I might as well get a ticket to Japan, buy a Neo Geo AES and then take it back with me. It's ridiculous.

 

Neo Geo Stuff is big and bulky (though not really heavy). Japan is far away. EMS is really really really quick. I think a quote of $100 is a little bit high, but the package will be big and it will get to you fast. So...maybe more than you want to pay, but not ridiculous.

 

I mean...you don't want to wait a month for it, do you?

[ninermaniac]

EMS=EVIL=$$$$=loss if reselling in the US. It's hard telling how much money I have lost just because of the shipping from Japan. When I recently sold my Import Dreamcast stuff I can tell you I probably, NO JOKE EITHER, lost a minimum of $500 just because of the shipping I paid from Japan. That is why their prices to buy are relatively cheaper. They have to make up for the high cost of EMS shipping.

[STICH666]

Thanks for clearing this up guys. I guess I'll just have to face the charges.

Edited November 20, 2009 by STICH666

[Arkhan]

Thanks for clearing this up guys. I guess I'll just have to face the charges.

 

 

yeah, the alternative is the slow-boat.

 

USPS prices went up too. You should see how much it is to ship a 12lb box to australia, lol

[MN12BIRD]

Yep the package I sent to Luke cost me ~$130 Canadian and IIRC it didn't take much more than a week. But when I sent it out the post office only had a few options. The other option would have cost ~$60 Canadian and they said it would take months. They even said it had a higher chance of getting lost or stolen!! Forget that.

[darthkur]

Getting large packages from the U.K. is ever worse. It really is ridiculous how exorbitant shipping costs have become.

[AtariLeaf]

Wow thats insane. Glad I found my Megadrive 2 here locally.

[Austin]

I saw Luke's video regarding that, and he said shipping's not bad (I know this, because I've ordered plenty of single CD case games from Japanese eBay sellers), but once you hit a certain weight point (and it's not very high, mind you), the prices skyrocket.

[jboypacman]

Yeah shipping on big items from over seas is a nightmare and whats even worse is using Seamail to try and save money because its slow and you run a risk of getting damaged goods.

 

Some times you have to pay the big bucks to get what you want sad but true but worth it for you in the end if you really want the item(s).

[jeremysart]

Thats why I love Honk Hong! Cheap shipping, and they have everything under the sun!

[mattyg]

Thanks for clearing this up guys. I guess I'll just have to face the charges.

 

 

yeah, the alternative is the slow-boat.

 

USPS prices went up too. You should see how much it is to ship a 12lb box to australia, lol

 

LOL try being an Australian collector

 

For Japanese imports I use risingstuff.com

 

I have found those guys to be the most reasonably priced although shipping may be closer to 3 weeks than 1

 

 

 

 

 

[WilsonCat]

I won a white CIB Sega Saturn JP console on ebay months ago. Paid $50 + $19 shipping as stated in the auction. I then got an invoice for $50 + $70 S&H via EMS....after I already paid so I ignored it. The console showed up a few days later and I never heard from them again. It appears that this is one of the biggest scams on ebay for JP users. They list it with a low shipping cost in the auction and then in the description they post something completely different...F-those A-holes.

[NinjaWarrior]

How much does a AV Famicom weigh.I want to get one from japangamestock

[shadow460]

One thing about Hong Kong sellers, though. There is a small chance of getting counterfiet merchandise. I've purchased some electronics in person there and everything I've gotten seems to be of good quality, but I still wonder sometimes if everything I saw was real.

Also they'll break up packages if you need just part of what's in there.

 

It would blow your mind to walk into an electronics retailer over there. The walls are jam packed with the latest and sometimes the earliest gadgets. The shops are usually very small, perhaps about half the size of an average Radio Shack.

The malls were enormous back in the day with two and three large malls running together in places. You could literally walk straight on without turning anywhere for a full mile and still not exit the mall. The shopping over these when I went was just amazing. Prices were high in some cases, but always fair. The merchants were always willing to accept reasonable offers.

 

Just a cross section of what they had back then would include white Saturn units, portable DCC and Minidisc recorders, slim CD and cassette players, small camcorders, portable TV sets, phones, and tons of media.

 

My Dad has photos I took over there in 1994. They're in storage, but once he gets them out I should scan them and post them. I've got a few from 1996.

[MN12BIRD]

One thing about Hong Kong sellers, though. There is a small chance of getting counterfiet merchandise. I've purchased some electronics in person there and everything I've gotten seems to be of good quality, but I still wonder sometimes if everything I saw was real.

Also they'll break up packages if you need just part of what's in there.

 

It would blow your mind to walk into an electronics retailer over there. The walls are jam packed with the latest and sometimes the earliest gadgets. The shops are usually very small, perhaps about half the size of an average Radio Shack.

The malls were enormous back in the day with two and three large malls running together in places. You could literally walk straight on without turning anywhere for a full mile and still not exit the mall. The shopping over these when I went was just amazing. Prices were high in some cases, but always fair. The merchants were always willing to accept reasonable offers.

 

Just a cross section of what they had back then would include white Saturn units, portable DCC and Minidisc recorders, slim CD and cassette players, small camcorders, portable TV sets, phones, and tons of media.

 

My Dad has photos I took over there in 1994. They're in storage, but once he gets them out I should scan them and post them. I've got a few from 1996.

 

Yeah every Famicom I saw on EBAY coming from Hong Kong claimed to be the Japanese version but in fact they are the HK version witch is PAL not NTSC. They would say "Japanese Famicom" because the HK version was built in Japan. So it's a Famicom built in Japan but not a Japanese region Famicom!

 

They even have some new console clones that looks just like the real thing!

Edited November 24, 2009 by MN12BIRD

[tz101]

The biggest factor that no one has mentioned so far is the decline of the value of the dollar. In the USA people have to face facts that they are no longer the top economic power in the world. The Euro has far outpaced the dollar for a long time now, and China is now the world's leading economic power, like it or not. This basically means that residents of the USA have to get used to highly inflated prices on just about everything, international shipping rates included. It's not going to get better anytime soon. This is quite simply the chickens coming home to roost for our elected politicians' sitting back and allowing all the jobs to move to Mexico and Asia for more than a decade. Sad but true.