After creating my Buyee account months ago I’ve decided to finally make a few purchases. I’ve searched through old threads on here about Buyee shipping and got a mixed bag of results, so I was hoping someone who was in a similar situation as me could provide insight from their experience.
I have about 10 different orders either in the warehouse or on their way atm; it’s all raw cards totaling about 90 in all, with the largest order being about 40 cards. No sealed product or anything too large or oddly shaped. I’m assuming they’re almost all going to come in bubble mailer-type packaging or something similar. When I consolidate those packages, to my understanding Buyee is literally just going to take the packages they receive from the seller and put them in a box to eventually send to me.
My question is in this situation with about 10 smaller packages only containing raw cards, what can I expect to pay for shipping to the US? I know it’s pretty hard to judge and I did come across a guide estimating shipping costs based on weight, but I don’t really know what to expect. The main dilemma I’m facing is I don’t want to add a few more packages and make the shipping ridiculous, but if it’s already really expensive I might as well add to the order to get my money’s worth. Any type of insight or advice would be very helpful. Apologies if this thread belongs somewhere else, feel free to move it if necessary. Thanks!
They’ll put it together in a box / bag and send it all over to you. Probably anywhere from $40-60 USD tops to ship. I’ve consolidated like 20+ packages of raw cards or even binders and it’s never been above that amount
keep in mind that you can’t put 2,000 USD or more in one package. I know that sounds like something that might not happen to you, but I’ve had like 50-60 packages sitting in their warehouse before, and had to split into two consolidations and shipping which was probably like 115$ all thing said and done
I use FedEx which usually costs about $20-30 bucks to ship to me in California. It’s been the fastest for me and more reliable than DHL and EMS (although I know some on here may beg to differ). For some reference, the largest package I had had roughly 20ish packages with about 80ish cards and shipping was just shy of $30.
Buyee recently switched to EMS for “Air Delivery” and it’s actual ass. Taking around 15 business days for delivery for me. I miss that 3 week window where they offered super cheap fedex shipments. I hope they move away from EMS soon
Anyone know when they’ll bring back the shipping of mail to Canada? (not via FedEx or ups ) I know other Japan sellers ship to me and it arrives via Canada post…
I’ve have one too many bad experiences with FedEx and ups etc… Lol
Quite horrible. Once a package delivered and I signed for it. Weeks later I start getting mail asking to pay duties on the packages. And since it was weeks later they started charging interest even though it should have been asked for upon delivery… And their “processing fees”,which are just their fee for paying your duties really drive me nuts. Usually costs about 50% of total duty cost (so I would be paying 150% duty cost)
I’ve never had this problem with Canada post. And one or two bad experiences are enough for me to avoid ups / fedex
Ah ok. Yeh they usually hold the package until the taxes are paid but I have had to pay duties retrospectively, although that’s going back a few years.
I am not sure of the shipping options offered to you. These are my findings based on trials and errors.
FedEX and UPS → 0% chance of escaping import tax.
Japan Seamail → 0% chance of escaping import tax.
EMS → 50% chance of escaping import tax (but they are increasingly more stringent).
The remaining shipping options (especially for smaller packages) have a good chance of escaping import tax.
Don’t declare your package as gift. It’s instant gg.com. Choose something harmless without false declaring. Sealed products can be called toys, cardboards, children’s game, cards, paper products etc.
Separate your purchase into smaller packages. Bigger package attracts more attention. When I shipped 2 x Pokemon Gym boxes together, I always got taxed. When I shipped them separately, I escaped most of the time. The savings on combined shipping are nothing compared to the savings on import tax.
Hope you don’t mind that I tag onto this thread. Seperate question but on the same topic.
My paypal account is currently locked and I don’t have access to it. I had filled up a Buyee cart but then wasn’t able to complete the transaction because paypal seemed to be my only option. What alternative options do I have when using a visa card as payment for Japanese product?
@alovell I can’t say much for other services but I can tell you that vvJapan uses Wise (wise.com) now. It’s much better than PayPal as the fees are so much lower. I bought a 140,000 JPY item using them earlier this month and the transfer + currency exchange only cost me £6.65 - if it was PayPal I’d have had to pay £66.75.
I’m hoping more services move over to Wise in future. It’s a much better platform.
Referral links are bad and I wouldn’t usually share them, but if you sign up to Wise using a referral link they give you a first transfer of up to £500 for free, so if you want to use my link it’s:
