Japanese Auction Proxy Services/ fromjapan.com?
 

Does anyone here have experience (good/bad) with the proxy services that allow people from foreign countries to buy from Japanese auction sites?

In particular I am curious about fromjapan.com, which seems to be one of the lower cost services...

I see OEM Toyota 4.56 gears on sale for 43,800 yen - about $416 plus $100 in shipping/fees vs the Cusco $1100 price :confused0068:

japanparts sells for ~$580 plus ~$100 in shipping, but if I can save another $150 it would be great.

Thanks in advance...

Weir is more cheap

Yes, but not helical cut OEM gears...

Keep in mind most sellers won't ship outside of Japan.

This is a good IP Hider program which will get you to bypass country restrictions. It's free for 3 days so use it wisely.

The nice thing about this one is that it doesn't slow the connection speed like a lot of those crappy web proxies.

http://www.iphiderpro.com/

Not sure about the US but here if the Customs guys decide it is worth it they will slap a bunch of duty, tariffs and taxes on that price. These can easily exceed $200 on your $400 purchase. They may even not let it into the country without a broker and that can be even more money. The thing is that they don't always do it so it is sort of a gamble. That is why some place such as Japanparts cost a bit more since they actually cover some of those costs.

Hmm... I can see uses for that and I did not know about it. The fact that most Japan auctions and many stores will not ship outside the country is the whole reason for the proxy service! The seller ships locally to a warehouse in Japan that inspects the goods to make sure they match the auction description before shipping to the real buyer.

As Tcoat mentioned, there is always customs to be dealt with, though I have faced that before buying from China.

I ordered a $70 rear diffuser from the US. Since it was made in China it was subject to duty and tariffs. For some reason customs decided that it was a good item to slap all the charges on. By the time it arrived here and all the customs fees were added with exchange on top of those I had the only $240 cheap plastic diffuser in town.

Ouch! I have resisted the urge to put on a diffuser - would be interested to hear your opinion on it... Seems sort of cosmetic/non-functional (not that there is anything wrong with that - I lean towards the TRD spoiler - equally cosmetic!)

I have ordered non-car related items from both Japan and China in the $400 range and never been hit with fees or customs - but it may just be a case of "luck of the draw". Never used the auction proxy service though - and so far it looks like no other members have either. If I pull the trigger I will post on the experience.

Completely and totally cosmetic. I just did not like seeing the muffler hanging there and it blocks it a bit.


I have bought 100s of model kits from Asia and never been dinged once on duty/taxes. I have bought 4 from the US that were made in Japan and got hit for fees on all of them. It is bizarre how they pick what they are going to charge for.

Btw, you got it installed?

Way back in the spring. It looks great.

Thanks for the picture - I assumed the gap under the TRD tips would look terrible, I may consider this now. On the other hand you may have just cost me $70!:paddle:

I think the design is more towards the TRD tips than the regular ones anyway since it sort of flattens out like they do. The small regular tips would look downright silly in there.

Dont really notice the gap unless you really close. I love my cheap plastic diff.