buying from Yahoo Japan/Buyee/From Japan (16th parcel?)

[Foy(notFox)]

Hi folks.

Am pretty sure I'm not the only one who's thought Japan must be a good source of spares for old Japanese bikes but you never see stuff from there on Ebay. Well there's some NOS stuff popping up (for more recent machines such as CB125TDC) but nothing I can see for 70s bikes and never any used stuff.

Well I set about making a token purchase to see what was involved and it seems to be going ok. Here's what I did...

• search auction site, just like Ebay, after working out what your machine was called in Japan. eg AS3 was AX125 over there
• register with Buyee. they act like an intermediary and will arrange shipping etc
• when you see an item you want to bid on it will probably say the item is blocked and you need to ask Buyee to unblock it for you to bid. you simply click a button to do this
• next thing you'll get is an email from Buyee telling you that you can't bid on this for the following stock reasons. one being 'other'!
• you can then reply to email and ask them to review the decision. I was amazed when I got reply which means at least it isn't just a machine generating the emails
• if they agree it's shipable they will unblock it and you can bid
• if you win auction money comes straight out your Paypal including fees to Buyee. you therefore have to have sufficient money in bank for auction ending as there's no waiting period. no shipping is charged at this stage
• a few days later you'll get an email from Buyee saying package is ready to ship. I'm guessing it has been physically received by them at this stage. don't know who pays for shipping from seller to Buyee
• no money comes out your account here. you are directed to your Buyee account to choose from several shipping options and have a full 30 days to choose/pay - pretty reasonable
• the item I picked was a bag of used bolts and fittings from an AS3 and cost was £13.23 for that plus all the fees. Broken down as follows: item 1000yen (£7.16); Buyee fee 150yen (£1.02); payment fee 200yen (£1.36); plan fees 500yen (£3.40)
• now I have a few shipping options from approx £13 to £26 for a package weighing 1.4kg which doesn't seem too crazy

So I'll let you know how it goes. Not sure if the fees would be same for a cheap or expensive item but if you were only paying £6 or £7 each time it's not too bad and the shipping also seems ok.

The main problem is with their prohibited items I think. I saw an SS50 tank for a few £s which is a steal but they said it might contain oil so it's no-can-do. I tried to explain wouldn't have any oil in it as it wasn't an oil tank but they probably mean fuel.

Here's a link to their shipping costs http://buyee.jp/help/yahoo/guide/shipping-fees

[rsvr1000]

Thanks for this, I was looking the other week on the same site

[kawazonkey]

Interesting! Thanks for the tip.

[SupeRDel]

Other alternative is to make friends with another enthusiast you trust out there and get them to bid for you and post you items.

Method I have used to buy a few brochures.

Sold a couple of bits to a guy near Tokyo who turned out to be a English guy who lectured at a university
He had a Royal enfield out there

[Foy(notFox)]

Well I got my parcel from Japan. No dramas and despite picking the cheapest shipping method it came within a few days.

I didn't get any Customs charges from Royal Mail either. Not sure if this was just luck or that the shipper factors this in.  A bit like the Global Shipping Program (GPS) that some USA Ebay sellers use. Will check but I think it was just luck.

Anyway the P&P was £20.22 so all-in the box of bits costs me £33.48 which I'm fine with. I'll break it down further on my AS3 restoration thread but it's a strange feeling getting completely correct used parts for my bike from the Land of the Rising Sun more than 30 years after I found it.

As a 16 year old in rainy East Kilbride in the late 80s trying to get bits for a machine no-one had heard of if you'd said to me 'hey don't worry when you're nearly 50 you'll be able to get all the bits you need from a guy breaking one in Japan' I wouldn't have believed you lol


used parts direct from the country the bike was made in? only took 32 years to achieve



much like the buying fees the shipping comprises different parts. will need to convert this to £s



makes it sound like I bought my own stuff



£33.48 worth of bits and bobs for an AS3 

So that's my test case done. Next one will be to try and successfully buy a large or expensive or prohibited item. Like a wheel or XJR1300 cylinder-block or exhaust pipe. Not sure if that will be possible 

I'm also not sure if you can leave feedback (as on Ebay) or contact the seller since you aren't actually logged onto the site-proper.

I was thinking if you could contact the seller and ask them to remove a word from listing (eg tank) it would stop the item coming up on the prohibited list. My box of bolts came up as prohibited but I made a fuss about that. Am sure there was no particular damage to the environment by sending them to me

[Foy(notFox)]

Other alternative is to make friends with another enthusiast you trust out there and get them to bid for you and post you items.

Method I have used to buy a few brochures.

Sold a couple of bits to a guy near Tokyo who turned out to be a English guy who lectured at a university
He had a Royal enfield out there

Well I suppose Buyee are the equivalent of a friend in Japan for me SuperRDel but your man would certainly be handy for awkward items. Can't get over that SS50 fuel tank for £7!

Would he consider buying a whole AS3 for £700 and shipping it over bit by bit? Like the Johnny Cash song 

[Barnett]

ooooo! ultra rare seat stay in that picture!

[Foy(notFox)]

Yes Barnett

I did think about that as I seem to remember there was a thread on here some time ago about the difficulty people were having getting them and it got quite complex in that the bracket and bar differed between models so if you were getting a used one you might need to get one part off one machine and the other off another.

Bizarre as there must have been tons of them thrown away.

The stash is mostly bolts, screws, washers and nuts but there were a few other bits

 
L-R: cranckcase breather; seat stay; centre-stand link; fork-ear lower-seat; stop-switch bracket; throttle cable clip

[Motty]

ooooo! ultra rare seat stay in that picture!

Well spotted, I was looking at Graham's box of bits and trying to work out what was desirable

Sent from my Moto E (4) Plus using Tapatalk

[Foy(notFox)]

I forgot to say...

In my original post I wondered who paid for shipping from seller to Buyee. Well the buyer (me) pays for that when you pay the shipping to Buyee. It was broken down into 2 parts. Can't remember the split but will have the details somewhere

[Foy(notFox)]

so I got another parcel. Smaller than last one. This was the seat hinges & catch from an AS3 but they will fit some other models. I don't even need them but it was a test-case on some cheap parts and I could perhaps break even if I sell them.

No Customs charge again so maybe am lucky. 

Even tho the parts were pretty innocuous it wasn't easy getting them as the email exchanges will show. Basically just about everything you bid on seems to be prohibited. My approach is to ask them to look again and then you seem to get email saying 'ok we'll send it but be it on your own head' 


1st email from Buyee in response to clicking link on listing (Yahoo Japan) to unblock auction



my response asking them to look again at items in listing



email from Buyee saying they will let me bid on the listing but warning that it's not very good



This package was about 1/3rd weight of the previous one so shipping was a good bit less but postal fees the same. Wonder how it will work if item is a lot heavier. I've got 2 mudguards and a cylinder-head (XJR1300) coming next so we'll soon see 



big box for 3 small parts but wouldn't have added much to overall weight



used same service as last time and it got here in about a week



strangely package was 1kg lighter than previous one and 1000 Yen cheaper on shipping


So all-in it cost me £9.51 for the parts and £12.71 for shipping. The actual price of the item was £3.52 so a cheap item isn't necessarily a bargain. 

[Foy(notFox)]

So this is 'the big one'

I had a lot of trouble getting it and it cost nearly £170 in shipping and Customs charge but it shows that with a little perseverance you can get large prohibited items over.

My 4th parcel is a mudguard and I chose seamail shipping for that as it is much cheaper but I don't think we'll see that till February or so.

Yes so the XJR head. As usual it was prohibited item to bid on but you click the link to unblock and they say no and you ask them to look again etc and then I won the auction - great 

A few days later get email from Buyee saying they received the item but no shipping company will take it as it is contaminated with oil 

So a bit more emailing follows and they say will get warehouse staff to try to clean oil and to go ahead and pay for shipping.

Couple more days pass and I explain to them that shipping options not live for me for that item and they say still being cleaned. I was getting quite concerned but thinking 'well it's only cost me about £60 not a disaster if it doesn't come but at same time means I can't move this XJR headache out of my life' 

Eventually they say it's ready to go and I choose cheaper shipping option (the lowest two options aren't available after a certain size/weight limit) and it's still £124! 

So it gets on its way pretty quickly and I check tracking every couple of days and then it seems to get stuck in Customs then returned to courier then it goes quiet....

Couple of days ago however I got letter from Parcelforce re Customs charge which I wasn't too surprised at and the total cost was only £44.13 which I can live with. I've not crunched the numbers yet but all-in I think it's been just under £230




letter from Parcelforce and sticker on box re Customs charge. not as bad as I feared




finally here. it's been a journey!




usual shipping label. it gives value of part and cost of shipping which is I believe what Customs charge is calculated upon




2nd sheet of shipping label shows not postal fees. compare with same doc from last two parcels



The part does look in great condition and am 99% sure it's the right one for my bike but due to modest packaging it's got one damaged fin. Bit ironic as it had one before that was clearly shown in listing and has been repaired and now there's another to take its place 

I don't mind really but as I'm just using this as an insurance policy in case I ruin the original head when drilling the exhaust studs out (have I mentioned this before?) and then hope to sell it and it will definitely put buyers off



lack of protection at side of box has ended up with broken fin


head has had similar damage repaired in past

[Foy(notFox)]

So I've just got my 5th purchase but it's 4th parcel. Confused? well the 4th one is coming by sea so it'll be ages before I see it. My 5th purchase was a good used rear mudguard for the AS3 and despite being skint I opted for the cheapest airmail service rather than another seamail one. There was only about £20 difference in price. I'd let this one sit in the Buyee storage for almost the maximum 30 days free period and basically had to get it on its way.

I have to say it was very well packed despite not being that fragile. Wish the XJR head had had the same level of care taken with it. Might sound daft but I see the tape etc is identical to previous parcels so am wondering if Buyee do their own packing to a set standard or perhaps I'm just buying the things off a guy with OCD lol.

Anyway I'd been keeping an eye on the tracking and like the XJR head it was diverted to Customs but didn't show quite the same stages after that so I wasn't sure if I'd get a charge or not. Was pleasantly surprised tonight when there was a knock at door and a guy there with a large box. No Customs charge 


big box for a mudguard




very well packed





double-wrapped plus cotton-wool balls to protect the rusty underside




I think the outside will polish-up nicely. someone appears to have tried to machine-polish it if you look close




underside is more solid than picture suggests



The shipping was £67.34 in total and 7300Y of that was for Japan to UK and the other 1815Y was from seller to Buyee. The cost of the part was £11.09 so again a bargain turns out pretty expensive and could've been worse if I'd got Customs charge. Basically 6/7ths of the cost was shipping 



again no entry at Postal fees but def paid more than 7300 Yen. I think the 1815 Yen for seller to Buyee should be there

[Foy(notFox)]

So I made another purchase from Yahoo Japan - via Buyee

It was a YBR125 sidepanel (damaged) for someone I know whose current one is more damaged and held on with a tie-wrap and half a pound of silicon 

Anyway... the item was only 69p (104 Yen) but with 'Tax Included' that becomes 80p (114 Yen) then there is another £3.50 (500 Yen) for 'Payment Fee' and 'Buyee Service Fee' which brings the cost of the part to £4.30 which is not bad. This is all shown by clicking 'Details' button from 'package information' section on 'My Page'

You then need to pay for the seller sending it to Buyee and then for the shipping from Japan to UK.

The info is not all shown in one place so it would be easy to get confused about what you paid in total but there is a drop-down on the 'My Page' which shows the shipping fees: £9.86 (1496 Yen) from seller to Buyee and £14.49 (2200 Yen) from Japan to UK which is £25.92 all-in

So total cost was £30.22 which isn't great for what should be an easily obtainable part in UK but I couldn't find any on Ebay. The bike is a 2011 model and I think the sidepanel was specific to 3 years' production.

As usual the parts are pretty well wrapped with a definite consistency to packaging. Not sure how the seller packs it to Buyee but looks like there was some felt-tip writing to ID it under all the Buyee packaging.

I won it on Wed 21st April and it arrived at my door Tue 4th May so just under 2 weeks in total which is pretty good imo


under all Buyee packaging this is probably seller's basic info


familiar coloured sticker was also under packaging and may be ID for Yahoo transaction



original purchase price of 69p soon escalates



this shipping fee is just for Japan to UK

[Foy(notFox)]

Hi 5port

Buyee do actually offer a special/protective packing option but tbh with the amount of add-ons already there I never picked it and I have to say their packing for the mudguards etc was way more than necessary. Ironic that the cylinder-head got damaged but they are probably flung about like every other parcel.

I've not heard of Cruzinimage before. I take it that's just new parts 

Bummer about the RD350 head. Great that you got a refund but a waste of a rare part.

My next task will be to try and import a fuel tank or exhaust. I'm sure they will be on the prohibited list but surely if the tank hasn't had fuel in it for decades it should be ok.

I saw a CS2E tank on Yahoo Japan the other day, which is very rare, and have also seen AS3 exhausts