Shipping costs

I am interested to know what u guy's have paid for shipping from orders made with HLJ or Hobby search. May serve as good reference for future orders depending on country it went to ofcourse.

I've just paid £34 shipping on my order containing 5 models, 6 wheel sets and GTwing set. This is my first order from Japan and it seems a bit much to me, so please let me know what u have paid in the past and the number of models it contained.

I'm interested in this as I about to do an order from HLJ. Fly on the Wall, which shipping method did you use? Also, did they tell you the shipping cost before you placed the order, or only when the stuff turned up... I don't mind paying but I like to know up front. That said £34 does sound a bit on the steep side to me...

34 pounds?! damn that is alot, isnt that like $75 canadian? i paid about $15 cdn for my last shipment, for 1 model, wax, 2 masking tape, gt wing set, seatbelts and some rims. i realize that this is a lot less than you ordered but 34 pounds does seem expensive. i live in toronto, canada btw.

Sounds alot to me !!!
Here's a list of the last few things i have brought. I have changed the cost into pounds for you already :)


2kits/2 wheel sets 6.97
1 wheel set 2.61
5 wheel sets 4.24
1 kit 4.79
1 kit/3 wheel sets 6.42
1 kit/1 wheel set 4.79

As you can see there price changes a few bit
$34uk = $112nzd :eek:

Wow, 39 pounds. that's a lot. I've heard about customs and duty fees when shipping to European country but never that much. Maybe it was because you ordered 6 kits and the box was so big. Here in the US HLJ has made a deal with UPS (American based package shipper) so we pay 1080 Yen per pound of goods shipped. For my recent purchase (3 kits, 2 wheels, various putty/tape) I'd guess it was around $8-10 shipping. Sorry to hear you got screwed so badly..

Originally posted by lotus_man
I'm interested in this as I about to do an order from HLJ. Fly on the Wall, which shipping method did you use? Also, did they tell you the shipping cost before you placed the order, or only when the stuff turned up... I don't mind paying but I like to know up front. That said £34 does sound a bit on the steep side to me...

I opted for their cheapest method, SAL I believe. They do not tell u the shipment cost before placing order, i only know the price after viewing my bank account. Should i have received a notification from them as to the amount of shipping??? I only ordered items last week so i have not recieved them and i may incur more charges from customs or whatever too:(

Originally posted by primera man
Sounds alot to me !!!
Here's a list of the last few things i have brought. I have changed the cost into pounds for you already :)


2kits/2 wheel sets 6.97
1 wheel set 2.61
5 wheel sets 4.24
1 kit 4.79
1 kit/3 wheel sets 6.42
1 kit/1 wheel set 4.79

As you can see there price changes a few bit
$34uk = $112nzd :eek:

Is that just the shipping cost you have listed there Warren?

Originally posted by flyonthewall


Is that just the shipping cost you have listed there Warren?
The cost is for Shipping only

Well, the yen value jumps up or down every now and then so that makes a diff. maybe not much though. One of my last orders (4kits, muffler tune set, 4 sets of rims) had a shipping total of about 2500yen which is about $18-20USD

I recently received two kits from HLJ and paid just over £7 in postage to get them back here to good ol' Blighty. I didn't pay any VAT, although I'm sure you're supposed to - did your £34 include any VAT charges?

Originally posted by flyonthewall
I am interested to know what u guy's have paid for shipping from orders made with HLJ or Hobby search...
I've just paid £34 shipping on my order containing 5 models, 6 wheel sets and GTwing set....

Chris,

Try to keep the total weight of your order under 2kgs
so it can be sent as a Small Packet rather than a Parcel.
Small packets usually cost under 2000 yen to ship to Europe,
a Parcel costs some 6000 yen or more.

See the Rainbow 10 shipping pages:
http://www.rainbowten.co.jp/english/ship.html
http://www.rainbowten.co.jp/english/shipping.html
I never had any excessive shipping costs with R10.

A 2kg Small Packet typically holds 3 1/24 car kits
and a few small things like wheel sets, PE sets or
decals.

You can't keep HLJ from trying to send all things
you ordered at once, other than ordering only a
few items at a time and wait with ordering new
stuff until the backordered stuff has shipped.

HTH,
-- Eric.

Originally posted by erix7


Chris,

Try to keep the total weight of your order under 2kgs
so it can be sent as a Small Packet rather than a Parcel.
Small packets usually cost under 2000 yen to ship to Europe,
a Parcel costs some 6000 yen or more.

See the Rainbow 10 shipping pages:
http://www.rainbowten.co.jp/english/ship.html
http://www.rainbowten.co.jp/english/shipping.html
I never had any excessive shipping costs with R10.

A 2kg Small Packet typically holds 3 1/24 car kits
and a few small things like wheel sets, PE sets or
decals.

You can't keep HLJ from trying to send all things
you ordered at once, other than ordering only a
few items at a time and wait with ordering new
stuff until the backordered stuff has shipped.

HTH,
-- Eric.

Thanks Eric, thats really useful. Wish i knew it before though:rolleyes: I emailed Hobby Search last night and got a reply this morning, the package is indeed some 3.5kg:eek: hence the huge cost. This is my first ever order from Japan so from my experience i know now that i should not be so greedy and get over excited... "I'll have one of those, one of those... and that...oh and one of those...":D

I recently received two kits from HLJ and paid just over £7 in postage to get them back here to good ol' Blighty. I didn't pay any VAT, although I'm sure you're supposed to - did your £34 include any VAT charges?

I only ordered last week so it hasnt arrived on these shores yet i assume. Therefore i don't know if i will incurr VAT charges or not - does it depend on if they check your parcel or not? If so they are more likely to check the bigger ones arent they?

I think it is just down to pot luck, I don't suppose they can check every single parcel that comes in from abroad so they probably pick the odd one here and there and slap on a hefty tax charge :angryfire

They certainly charged me when I imported my car :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire

We all have at least one or two typical Japanese kit, so adding some packing and protection material, you can kinda guesstimate the weight.
If you can, check the rating on Japanese Postal Service site to figure out the shipping cost.

http://www.post.yusei.go.jp/p_guide_2001/index.htm

Check <1> Air, <3>EMS and <5>SAL. Those are most common methods.

That's really useful Hiroaki, i've bookmarked it for future reference.

Jay - perhaps this link could go in FAQ somewhere???;)

Never had these problems, but then again I don't have a credit card so never bought anything from hlj e.t.c!!
:D :D :D :D