Ordered some zoids from Japan and planning to have it shipped to Singapore? vPOST Japan seems to offer a good alternative to ship your prized zoids back. But is it a cheap alternative? Think again.

Many Japan online stores often have zoids at incredibly cheap prices. Some even offer free Japan domestic shipping. A good example would be shopping from Rakuten online stores. Let me illustrate with an example of my recent purchases.

S$96.64 was indeed too good to be true for the whole haul of zoids! I even went as far as to weigh every piece of zoid to estimate the total weight - approx 5kg. With some experience of shipping from Japan via EMS, how expensive can vPOST get? I was wrong.

According to vPOST invoice, the total weight of my purchase was 5.3kg (not too far off from my estimate). But the total dimension of my purchase, in terms of volume was 58X46X24cm - that gave me a "possible" weight of 10.7kg based on a volume of 64,032 cm3.

So instead of paying for a 5.3kg weight, I ended up paying for a possible virtual weight of 10.7kg. Yes, I know the logic of paying for space and one need to pay an extra charge even for shipping a huge empty styrofoam box, but the multiplying factor is too much.

In the end, shipping for my zoids valued at S$96.64 ended up with a cost of S$127.58. Total cost was S$224.22

Fortunately, these zoids were sold for S$235 - giving ZP a profit of S$10.78 to keep the website going.

Lesson learnt : I will ship through Japan EMS with Abidko. Shipping cost calculated from actual weight is definitely cheaper than volumetric weight.

We have seen many Zoids from Hasbro and Zoids 2 series fetching higher than normal prices on Yahoo Japan Auction site. Thinking of posting your Zoids on Yahoo Japan and make some extra cash to "finance" your hobby? Here's one way:

Using Celga's Selling Service
For Celga Gold customers, Celga charges 20% of the final auction price plus 700yen listing fee per auction.
Hence, if your zoid is auctioned off at 50,000yen, Celga will charge you 10,700yen.

For Non-Gold customers, Celga charges 25% of the final auction price plus 1000yen listing fee per auction.

Besides the Celga's fees, Yahoo Japan Auction also charges its own listing fees and the optionals such as larger scans and highlightened text etc which Celga will have to pass on to you.

Celga will also require you to ship your zoids to Japan in advance to have the items on hands before listing.

Once Celga receives the payment from the winner, Celga will send you an IPMO in Japanese yen. Of course, when you receive it, it will be in your country's currency. Celga will substruct its fees in Yen before issuing your IPMO.

An example
A recent MIB Zoids2 Ultrasaurus was successfully auctioned off for 20,000yen on Japan Auction.

To Ship the Ultrasaurus from Singapore to Japan: 5,000yen.

Celga's Commission: 5,000yen (25% of 20,000yen) + 1000yen listing fee.

Yahoo's miscellaneous fees: 1000yen (approx).

I bought my Zoids2 Ultrasaurus for S$130, hence my net profit is a miserable S$14 if I choose to sell my US on Yahoo Japan. And this excludes the high fees charged by bank for your money orders. It may even be a loss!

Conclusion
If you are still keen to try to earn some money from the rich Japanese,
1. Be a Celga Gold customer
2. Sell rare and small Zoids to save on shipping

About Celga Gold: http://www.celga.com/gold.html