Difference between revisions of "International shipping guide"

Revision as of 16:54, 23 January 2016

International shipping info for buyfags

"Public" services

EMS (express mail service), SAL (surface air lifted), airmail and surface mail/seamail These are handled by the national postal service of the country a package is in (Canada Post, United States Postal Service, Royal Mail, etc.). These services are generally weight based and subject to some size restrictions. SAL and EMS cannot ship to APO or AP addresses (PO Box addresses are OK).

Q: Registered mail?

A: EMS is registered; SAL, airmail and surface mail have registration options. That means you get a tracking number and some insurance. The package must be signed for by you, someone you live with, your neighbors or your post office if you have a PO box. If you miss the delivery, you can arrange a redelivery online in some countries and leave your signature outside, or pick up your package at the post office.

Q: How much does it cost to ship X and Y?

A: There's no way of telling for sure until the store actually packs the box with your things in it, and also dependent on the service you choose. Some stores will give you estimates if you ask. The most you can do is estimate the weight of your products based on things you've bought before and add in a couple hundred grams for the shipping container and packaging, then consult the following shipping chart: Average 1/6-1/8 figure: 1.0-1.75 kg Small size poseable figure (Nendos, figmas) 0.5-0.75 kg Books: Varies wildly, but generally heavy.

See http://www.1999.co.jp/ems.asp for some conversion estimates. Here's the unnecessarily long version with air/surface mail: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Aoyni8_xhtD7dC1XWTV6V1A1d1JHWlU3b1FjTGRRcGc&output=html

Some insignificant trivia:

*SAL: '"Surface Air Lift." It's sometimes called "ISAL" for "International Surface Air Lift." It's basically economy air mail. The packages are carried over the ocean by air cargo, but when they're not on the plane, they're treated as surface mail (sea mail) shipments. At the airport, they also fly "standby," only getting loaded on the plane if there's space. Otherwise, they wait for the next plane.' Small packet and printed matter have the same rates, but the weight limit is higher for printed matter. Parcels are more expensive.

*Surface/sea Travels by ocean between continents if there's space on ships, that's why it takes so long.

Q: Where do I track registered packages?

A: Enter the provided number at the following websites

While the package is in Japan: Japan Post

After you see "dispatch from outward office of exchange: Your country's postal service website (USPS, Canada Post, Parcelforce/Royal Mail, and so on and so forth).

Here's track-trace if you're dumb: http://www.track-trace.com/ Note: Updates can take 24+ hours to show up online. Updates for EMS packages are generally pretty fast, and updates are faster on the website in the same country as the package.

For registered SAL packages, Japan Post sometimes won't update after the package leaves Japan. Use your country's website instead.

Q: Is the registered version faster than unregistered?

A: In some cases, yes. According to anon,

"They do give priority to RSAL Packages, basically this is how it works: 

Packages are piled together, then start filling labeled bags with the registered packages keeping track of the packages in. Once they are done with them they fill the rest of the huge bag with the untracked leftovers. At each "stop" read customs, and postal offices, the packages are reprocessed depending on the delivery address, so the process is repeated numerous times. Now, since they have been keeping track of the trackable packages and what bag they are in they may know if a certain package is lagging behind, and they want to avoid that. While the untrackable ones might lag behind without anybody noticing, so, 3 or 4 bags can be processed and since your package is not tracked there's no way to know if it has been left behind until they clear completely the package queue. That said, if the postal service has too many packages the SAL packages will lag way more than RSAL ones, while if the postal service has little work load the speed should be the same."

Private Companies

It’s illegal to ship flammable items such as batteries by normal mail options above (some people buying PS Vitas may have run into this problem), but some private couriers may be cleared to mail them. Contact the merchant for details.

DHL

Amazon Japan uses this for all international orders. It's fast (1-5 days usually) and has tracking, but pretty expensive and you probably will get taxed for it if your country rolls that way. Cost depends on the type of item you bought and the total number of items in your order. Amazon's DHL is based on a flat rate per order based on the type of items plus 300 yen per item. It's great if you're buying a lot of heavy items at once. http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=1039606#international This is also one of the options at Mandarake if you buy from the Nakano store.

It's at least as fast as EMS, and can be cheaper in some cases. DHL from Mandarake seems to be size based, so small and heavy items like books generally are good deals. According to UKbros, DHL means you’re practically guaranteed to be hit by customs there, but unlike Parcelforce, they don’t hold your package hostage while waiting for the snail mail invoice to arrive, and DHL’s customs fees are significantly cheaper.

Fedex

There are a lot of options depending on the store. Fedex has their own customs office to speed up processing so you'll probably have to pay customs taxes outside the US. One limitation though--they can't ship to PO Box, APO, or AP addresses.

• HLJ uses International Priority which is based on the box size, not weight. For Americans, it's awesome for small and heavy things (i.e. books), not so great for figures. Speeds are comparable to EMS and for small boxes, Fedex is often a lot cheaper. All packages have online tracking and e-mail delivery notification, and you can choose to divert them to the nearest Fedex office if you know you won't be home at delivery time. More expensive in other countries. Similar services offered at CD Japan (use their pricing calculator before checkout).

• Honto offers Fedex to N. America. Their rates are weight based. Speeds are comparable to EMS. After 1.0kg, it becomes cheaper than EMS. After 2.0 kg, it's cheaper than SAL parcel. http://www.bk1.jp/docs/help/He-0201-07

• Otacute has Fedex available, but for the most part it's more expensive than EMS. http://www.otacute.com/images/fedex/EMSFEDEX.pdf

• Some American stores like Anime Island offer Fedex and Fedex Smartpost for big and/or heavy packages. Overnight/2-day options available.

UPS

I haven't seen international shipping with this yet, though Toylet uses UPS Priority Ground for larger domestic shipments (pretty expensive by domestic shipping standards). Probably likely to be taxed outside of the US.

OCS

http://www.shipocs.com/ bk1 offers this. Prices on par with EMS, other details unknown. Probably likely to be taxed outside of the US.

How do I avoid paying customs taxes?

• Use (unregistered) SAL services.
• Small packages.
• Some stores will mark your items as gifts and lower the declared value. However, if your insured package is lost, you can only be reimbursed up to the declared value.
• Buy from stores in your country.
• Live in the US.

Random shit

Q: I'm worried about my packages being stolen if I'm not home to receive it. What do I do? A: You have a couple options.

• Use express mail.
• Get your package registered.
• Add restricted delivery (allows you to specify who can sign for your package).
• Get a PO box.
• Have it sent to your office/workplace.
• Send it to a local friend or family member you trust.
• Tell your post office you're going out of town for a while and ask them to hold packages/mail for you.
• Leave a note for your mailman to put the packages behind the house or something
• Move to a more secure neighborhood.

General domestic shipping

Check the shipping FAQ of the store you're buying from or consult your post office.