Oh that's interesting. I placed the order Monday east coast time and as of this post no tracking number yet. FedEx was 1-2 dollars cheaper but I was afraid of the brokerage fee, etc. And since John Moore vouched for his experience with DHL I went with it. If you have been following my thread on trains in Japan, you can see what I was confronted with in person. If you think Plaza Japan has good prices, in person is even cheaper! Yes, I do realize you have to get there but if you are there for vacation or passing by or have a friend who's visiting... I brought back two Shinkansen sets. No duty since it was under the allowance by US Customs. One set was 60% cheaper than if you buy it in the US. The other one, being Tomix, is simply not available here.
Been lucky a couple pof times, and with some help, located several items on my want list. An Atlas MILW SD7 from their 2003 release. A Micro-Trains M&St. L green outside braced box car. A Walthers MILW Difco dump car. Now if by some miracle my luck continues, I might also have a couple of other wish list items in hand very soon!
General hobby items also will be used on the N Scale C&L 2'x4' layout. Smart phone tripod, thank goodness I can take pictures and videos of my train, airbrush, kits, etc... finally a Pin Vise, and airbrush nozzle remover And a new tire for the 2000 Blazer J/K about the tire I couldn't help it, but we did get a new tire Was driving the brother-in- laws 2005 Benz and had one of those kind of blow outs, think 18 wheeler, where the rubber came off smacked the bumper putting a hole in the plastic bumper and scared the S**t out of me as I was the only one in the car and driving. I've seen this on the expressway when a tracker trailer throws the rubber, never on a car? So while he was getting 2 new tires asked them to check the Blaser, and sure enough. Mod can edit if need be Sorry!
MK- Reading through this post I see you mention no duty for imports under a certain amount. I have not ordered from overseas vendors before but have a set I am considering that is about $290 and was trying to find out what US Customs charges might be. Is this under the amount you refer to meaning all I would pay is vendor quoted freight? thx, Chuck.
Just purchased several of the Safe-Pak auto racks from Roka Models https://rokamodels.com/ Picked up NW, UP, WP and FEC roads. They are having a 20% off Cyber Monday sale, which appears to be still on,
Received my Operator N Scale GE ET44C4 Tier 4 GEVo, BNSF/Heritage III / 3787 / DCC Equipped Locomotive from Scale Trains. First impression just by looking at it is . There is a small package of small detail parts for the customer to apply. They look intimidating !! The cold weather and snow should break by Monday or Tuesday. Can't wait to get out to THERR RV and run this thing
Chuck, this was when I hand carried the two sets back in the luggage when I flew back from Japan. Current US Customs allowance is $800 per person for stuff that you buy over seas and bring back personally. I have no idea if that's the same dollar they will use when you order stuff and it gets sent to you. With that situation, I don't think they check every package (just like they don't check every suitcase at the airport). It might be a random thing or size of the box or the weight, etc. These are all guesses. Having said that, I have not heard of anyone getting dinged by Customs ordering model trains from Japan, Europe or the UK. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen as my data points are few compared what goes on at our borders on a daily basis. You may not get picked. I am still waiting for my order from Japan. It's only been a week and I'm getting fidgety. The last time I ordered was about 15+ years ago for a Tomix Thomas. That came in a week with no duties levied but it was like $75 or so. I'll let you know what happens.
Happened upon 1 package of Atlas 3D printed Pick Up Truck tool boxes. They fit the RPS F250's as well. Wish they would have had more. Out of the package
The ones from All Scale Miniatures are pretty nice.. https://www.allscaleminiatures.com/miniature-gallery/anvil-single-tbjzs
MK- Thank you for the response and clarification. Depending on how much I really want the item I might just order and see what happens. A week from Japan doesn't seem too bad, I've ordered from the east coast (I am in NV) and had it take a week and a half. If there was a sticker attached at every stop it made the package might have given Rick Steve's travel bag a run for the money! Thanks again, Chuck.
Are you sure there's enough room for all those stickers? Plaza Japan and Hobby Search are the go to's for ordering from Japan. Plaza has slightly better prices while Hobby has better inventory, especially parts and esoteric items. Be forewarned, the shipping will be high from either place. That's not because they are padding, but it really does cost that much to ship things around the world. Certainly it's cheaper than a plane ticket (about $1600 round trip Economy from east coast). Don't wait too long because Plaza bills in Yen and I'm guessing Hobby does too. With the exchange rate between the two currencies, you are coming out way ahead.
MK- This is actually an item on Ebay and the listing shows free standard shipping to the US. Sounds too good to be true so I am proceeding carefully. Chuck.
Just ordered another Kato C50 from a new Japanese dealer. I gotta quit getting these delightful little locomotives.....
I went to a train show yesterday and found these items, all from the same vendor. This is the same variation set but there’s a fourth switch included These trees will find a home on my upcoming layout I also found this FEC boxcar and two sets of MT trucks/couplers. Last week I ordered this Kato Maxi-IV set on Amazon. It was supposed to arrive tomorrow but made its appearance this afternoon.
A lot of times "Free Shipping" to US from Japan on eBay is built into the price. I noticed a lot of Free Shipping from Japan are typically $20 more (if you look up the same item on Plaza or Hobby Search). You can also check Amazon Japan. Yes, there is a Amazon Japan that US folks can access by creating an account there. Unfortunately you can't use your US Amazon account as they are two different systems. You'll see a lot of Japanese items (not as much as Plaza or Hobby) with shipping quoted (often $20 or so). Just gives you additional comparison data points.
It looks like one set was purchased in Japan with all the Japanese writing and some how wound up in the US.
