bugmuthI know a lot of people don't like Solaris, but for someone who lives in Europe Solaris did a lot things right.
Amiami shipping times and prices are pretty wack, but after the Solaris switch to USD... Theres no way I can keep shopping with them. There is no longer a benefit to doing so.
The exchange rate really sucks now, I hope they change back to yen some day.
Anyone else in Europe, let me know what sites you love! Looking for more sites that use the Yen
Amiami shipping times and prices are pretty wack, but after the Solaris switch to USD... Theres no way I can keep shopping with them. There is no longer a benefit to doing so.
The exchange rate really sucks now, I hope they change back to yen some day.
Anyone else in Europe, let me know what sites you love! Looking for more sites that use the Yen
Comments19
I don't consider being able to undervalue to trick customs a win. Especially since new rules mean basically everything can be taxed if they bother. The reason why I don't use it is because in the case of damages, loss, etc. only the amount shown on the declaration is covered. Meaning if you lower the amount to a point where it actually helps you with customs fees/VAT, you risk losing the entire amount you lowered if the parcel arrives damaged or is lost.
The only reason I could imagine a use for such a system is if I'm close to 150€. So that I lower it by 5€ maybe to avoid the 5% customs. But that is rarely the case.
I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from doing that if it works for them but I'd rather try finding a shop that collects taxes before shipping since you then might save additional postal fees. Which can be huge. Like I pay 6€ for each regular Surface (or Air Mail if it was available to my country) parcel and at least 12€ for DHL Express/EMS, not to mention some other private couriers demanding at least 30€ just so that the carrier takes care of the VAT/customs payment for me. Most people can't even decide to do it by themselves because they aren't eligible to join the program.
That is a much bigger factor to me than undervaluing a figure. Because giving a lower value has to be believable as well. No one is gonna believe you that a 10kg parcel will have a low shipping cost and a worth less than 100€ with shipping combined. So in the end you might have to show up to the office and waste time and possibly transportation costs to hand in the receipt.
Add to that that Solaris isn't cheap. What good will it do to save maybe 20€ in taxes and fees if I in turn have to pay 20€ more for the item, have to take a risk of shipping damages and then also pay the postal fees for dealing with customs?
All in all, I'm just safer with proper insurance for my parcel and paying everything upfront at a store with good figure prices than going to Solaris, paying more for the figure, possibly more shipping, having to take a risk to even profit a little from the store and then having to pay the fees just in the hope that the customs officer won't be suspicious...
To give an example:
ITEM #1049502 Solaris wants 29,500¥ for her. They currently have her for 12% off but that works even better. Plus 10,300¥ for express shipping. (I'm choosing this for a reason so hear me out please.) So that would be 39,800¥ for her. Without customs. Let's say someone removes 30% off that price. I'm rounding it by 100¥ for ease of calculation but that would be 13,300¥ off, end price being 26.500¥. In my country, she would still require custom fees for being over 150€ but removing any more would be ridiculous for such a figure with express shipping and they know this too. For that amount, I'd currently be paying 46€ roughly, so roughly 24%. For the original price, it would have been 69€. So someone would save 23€. I would then also pay 12€ for DHL Express to deal with customs.
So roughly 255€ for the figure itself (since the original price is still paid of course), 46€ for reduced customs and 12€ for fees. So roughly 313€.
Amazon JP currently offers her for 13% off for 24,800¥ roughly before Japanese sales tax is removed. They charge 9,800¥ for DHL Express (I got a cheaper rate when I pre-ordered but paid more as a whole.) If I got her now, I'd be paying 36,600¥ (238€). That includes customs, I would be avoiding the 12€ fee and I'd still end up cheaper than Solaris even if I would have needed to pay no customs and was being super risky.
The difference right now would be 238€ for Amazon JP with all fees included and 313€ for Solaris with some fees excluded plus the risk of damages/loss not fully covering your losses.
Sure, you can pick cheaper shipping for Solaris and save a bit. But in my opinion it doesn't change the overall point. Even if I choose a cheaper shipping method, I'd still pay more or roughly the same as with Amazon JP.
And I know this is not an exception for Solaris. There may be items where it's just cheaper overall to get them somewhere else than Amazon since their shipping price is quite random at times.
I'm aware it may be different for other countries but since Europe was mentioned, I have to say that Solaris is just not that cheap even with the option of undervaluing. Especially because people overestimate what changing a certain amount saves them compared to simply paying the full amount somewhere else where the figure's base price is already cheaper.
I might have to look at it case by case, atleast till I can try out other sites like BiJ and Manda. Another thing I love Solaris for is that they are fast, I always get my preorders very quickly. There might still be hope for them after all... we will see
Didn't see that message at all! I have pages bookmarked with the searches I want so I never go on the homepage. My last order was in march and I'm sure it was not there then. I'm not sure now, but the title of the announcement is kind of weird too: "Mandarake is unable to undervalue entire shipments".
What does it even mean with "entire shipments"?
It's probably a new thing, as they probably used to write invoices by hand and now they have to do it online. Maybe someone who has ordered more recently might know more.
EDIT: seems like people talked about it on the forum and until beginning of april it was still perfectly okay threads.v4.php?...
Sugar123 • 1 month ago • #124392738Sorry for the late response, but you asked the wrong store. I have this old screenshot from a 4chan thread about which branches offer to undervalue - imgur.com/a/wZZ... . I know, it's from 8 years ago, but I made an order from Nagoya on the 1st of April this year where I asked them to undervalue and they did. Unless something changed since then as long as you ask the right store they should help you out.
Mine was from the 8th of March, with Sapporo's.
Interesting!! I see that large warning at checkout and so took their word for it that they don't undervalue. Next time I order something spenny from them might test it out.
Either way, their shipping prices are ass so even from the 10% extra jp tax and forwarding fees/shipping from BiJ, the total price isn't too different.
Thanks for this info both!
Regarding Mandarake, along with BiJ, it's my go to store. They do undervalue if you ask. They just tell you some warnings but then they do undervalue. Sahra doesn't because it's an automated system, it's not a physical store. When you order, it goes to shipping right away, so comments aren't even read.
Are you sure Mandarake still undervalue? Because they added a message in their front page about that (idk if it's recent but i'm sure it wasn't always there)
"Due to an amendment of taxation within Japan including the customs regulation, the declration value on all out-going packages needs to match your order payment. This is a result of electronic shipping declaration becoming obligatory. Undervaluing declaration value on commercial shipments is now strictly prohibited and has been subject to penalty charge on the shipper.
Please be informed that our store is unable to undervalue shipments regardless destination, and we may not be able to respond to your request / enquiry of undervaluing orders."
i placed an order few weeks ago and i didn't asked for undervaluing because of that. maybe i should have asked , in order to check if they still do
THANKS A LOT for the explanation and talking about yur experiences!! ^^
hmm...if they don't offer surface I might ask them before even making an order / buy a ticket from them. Just to make sure.
Hmm, when I took a look I considered that the yen is usually weaker than my currency while the dollar is usually stronger. Also the figures I am interested in had a bigger difference than that sadly
How much is BiJ as forwarder?
Did I see this correctly and it is just the 500 Yen ticket and no further fee?
Yup, sure! I'm glad to share my experience with others!
The full price of forwarding is a forwarding ticket (500 or 1500 without/with repackaging), PayPal fees and shipping price. The invoice you get from BiJ isn't detailed, it includes only one position for the shipping. Example: View spoilerHide spoilerBig_in_JapanThank you for your order on Big in Japan!
Payment For | Price
Order 123456 - 5 kg sea mail | 6,677.00
Total 6,677.00
You can pay by clicking on the following link:
*link*
The full forwarding guide is here: www.biginjap.co...
soja • 13 days ago • #125171502I also wonder:
I wanna order something on amazon.co.jp and forward it via surface.
But amazon's packages are always so very thin.
Does BiJ repackage into more stable boxes? If yes, how much does that cost?Yes, BiJ repackages stuff if you buy the 1500 yen ticket with repackaging. I bought once for ITEM #604482 from Suruga-ya (the shop hates padding their orders) to ship via surface. The box BiJ used was sturdy and a bit large for the figure and was padded with paper like AmiAmi boxes. I would put more paper in their position, but the figure box didn't jiggle inside the BiJ box and the padding did its job.
Ah, the surface mail isn't an available option when you buy the forwarding ticket. Be sure to include it in an order's comment.