Jauce Japan Auctions HELP..

[ripley802]

Hello, I wanted to start a thread to get some help/advice on the yahoo auctions. I know several of you have had success in bidding and winning some nice things on there. I have looked at some of the help links on the site, but knowing some tips and tricks may be nice.

My fist qustion is regarding the cost of shipping. Is this calculated by the seller, Jauce, or both? I was looking at a listing but could not decipher what shipping would cost. That would affect my bid amount obviously. Is shipping reasonable or is it inflated?

Any other tips you may have would be great or anything to say away from. Thanks..

[Super]

First thing you need to know is that Jauce has no Auctions. Because the Yahoo Auctions of Japan are only for the Japanese we who are not privileged to live there and bid need to go into a partnership with a middle man, an agent for us to use to do our bidding. Jauce is one of these middle men and so is another called Japamart. Both these middle men will charge a commission for this service which will also need to be taken into account with what you want to bid. Since we are not in direct bidding with the seller and since the Yahoo Auctions are for the Japanese only, you will pay the shipping from the seller (if you win) to your agents warehouse. There you can store your purchases to ship to you in one box or ship when they receive it. From your agents site you will chose the method, speed, insurance etc. Cost of your package which will be determined by size and weight. So, in answer to your question, you will pay for shipping within Japan to your agents warehouse and again from their warehouse to your home. For this reason some choose to only use the Yahoo Auctions of Japan for rare or those hard to find items that can only be found there.

I had thought this old thread was in the old forum but there may be something that helps. http://www.blueplastictracks.com/showthr...ight=jauce

[ripley802]

Cool. Thanks for the information. It sounds like you could rack up quite the bill if you are not careful.

[ripley802]

Sodor example on this lot:

http://www.jauce.com/auction/m137764930

How could I calculate the "total shipping" cost to get it to my door, or is it a bid and then take it for what they say after the auction? Some of these seem like they would be great lots, but not I'd shipping will be crazy high.

[Ucwepn]

historically its very expensive once you factor in shipping, so be careful because what seems like a bargain can end up costing much more than the item itself to ship. What many buyers do is wait until they have a few items together and then ship them combined to reduce cost although the cost is still high. The Japanese have some lovely stuff on there, not just trains but Transformers too

[Super]

Also keep in mind that if you win a large lot of say tracks, buildings and trains the weight of such a heavy purchase is going to drive the International shipping costs way up.

The best advice given by the Members here for me and what I can confidently pass on to you is to jump right in and give it a try. Just purchase a few smaller things and see how it works. I know for those of us in the USA the rate of exchange is very favorable right now for us in the Yen to Dollars which wasn't this way when I first started. In fact, the rate of exchange was quite the opposite..

I'm not sure what its like for the USA, but on top of the shipping cost if it was to the UK for a large shipment like that I'd be worrying about getting hit for customs/import duty.

That's assuming the sample listing there is for the bundle in the pictures and not just one item, I couldn't really figure out what was what even with the translation

[Super]

Also with that particular seller an 8% sales tax is added to your total. This is not that common as only the Japanese stores seem to charge this. Most sellers I have found do not charge any Japanese tax. I am probably one of the few here that does not use Jauce so I am not sure how to calculate postage but I thought there was a link on their Homepage for that but I assume you would need the total weight to calculate correctly. Oh and what Nigels says too. I am not in the UK but it seems to me that someone else mentioned that the UK has customs/duty on everything bought outside the country but would like to here how that works.

Basically Super if we buy anything from the EU and have paid the VAT at source then there's no import duty or customs.

But if we buy from any country outside the EU technically anything of a value greater than £17.99 is subject to customs duty, VAT and import charges, plus a handling fee. This can almost double the cost of an item. It's one reason why I buy the Tomy trains from Japan one at a time as then they are exempt in separate packages - madness I know, but hey...

I'm touchy about this as have been caught out a few times in the past...

[Super]

That actually sucks. Sounds like they don't want you to buy anything from the world unless its from the EU.