Importing Questions

[Californication | 1,477]

Thinking  of bringing in a large set of games from Europe and have two questions. 1. If seller ships from England will I be responsible for any import fees? 2. Is there a better way to make international payment than paypal? The total paypal conversion rate looks at least $50 higher than the exchange rate.

Edited August 30, 2020 by Californication

[OptOut | 8,871]

1. Yes, import fees are applied by your country, and will be charged to you. Sometimes you get lucky and they don't bother slapping you for import fees, sometimes you don't.

2. PayPal is the safest and most convenient way to make international payments. Other methods such as wire transfer are cumbersome and insecure, meaning that once the payment goes through the seller could just keep the money. You might be paying an extra 50 bucks through PayPal, but if anything goes wrong with the deal, you will be glad you did.

 

Another thing to consider at the moment is the general fuckedness of USPS and the entire international postage system. I haven't made any international purchases since January, and I don't intend to for the foreseeable future, until all this Corona shit dies down. You should make yourself comfortable with the possibility of an extended wait for your goods to arrive.

[fcgamer | 4,717]

@OptOut's right regarding the current situation due to Covid-19. Luckily the stuff I've been shipping abroad has been arriving at destination within a reasonable time (though at the moment the number of countries I can ship to is limited), but in the reverse, I've ordered  stuff from about three or four different people, from different countries, and none of it has arrived yet. 

I trust all of these folks, as I've dealt with them many times over the years and would consider them somewhere in that realm between acquaintence and friend;  therefore, I refuse to get bent or worried regarding the situation and figure it'll feel like Christmas day if, or when, the items do show up, and if not, that's how it is, I'm not going to force refunds or something as these are trying times, postal wise, and I know my contacts did their part.

I try to be optimistic, and I imagine after all the pieces fall, the majority of the parcels will show up... eventually. But you gotta be prepared for delays or the chance it doesn't show up, if you're willing on those terms, I'd go for it, sometimes the biggest risks pay off the most.

[Tanooki | 4,929]

I gave up on international shipping too, the delays and risks of random close downs putting goods in some office purgatory that could be lost forever if it sits and gets misplaced for too long isn't worth it.

Ideally though, buy with paypal or an equal that'll back you up if shenanigans happens, even some credit cards like Amex will do this.  Import fees, never once I've paid them in 25 years coming into the US from both Japan, yet what stopped me was Japan.

 

I bought this Nintendo Pokemon Mini cart, and it appeared lost to only show up 2 1/2 months later.  I got it like April 1st which was about when Japan closed their doors to US shipments as if the virus was going to be some in the mail boogieman.  I have to wonder with all these mail shut downs across the board if it's just taking advantage more than good cause.  I'd get it with priority and overnight, but anything that'll take a week plus isn't going to be plaguemail.  In the end I refunded the Japanese guy his money, he was thrilled thinking he lost it.  I don't want to have to do that wait and repayment thing as routine.

[JVOSS | 1,762]

Yep and the take i have o International shipping. I ask the seller if they would hold until it is safer to ship. most have said yes.  But others are just outright rejecting any international shipping. 

i look back at what i bought last year as compared to last year and the numbers are way lower as much as 50%.  this really hearts when the "world set" hard to get in the first place.

i guess ill go back to  collecting photos and trolling for undocumented games. 

 

[Strange | 1,698]

Has anyone had any more experience importing things to the US? There’s a Japanese game I want, and it’s $30 cheaper to import from Japan. I’m wondering if it’s worth the extra $30 to not have to deal with the potential shipping issues, but I’ve heard from others that things are back to normal?

[Deadeye | 1,595]

Not recent, but it seems to be improving.

1. Ordered an item, right before Japan shut down exports, it took months to get the item.
2. Ordered an item, in July / august, took 8 weeks by sea to arrive.
3. Ordered a bunch of stuff, in September, arrived in 4 days.

Planning on another order in maybe 2 weeks, I'll update here how that goes.

[DK | 258]

I have ordered many things from Europe to the US since the start of the pandemic and the shipping is still generally fairly quick. 2-4 weeks. Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, France all seem to be functioning at close to normal.

I just ordered something from China with an estimated delivery date of 2 weeks. I doubt it will arrive by then, but we will see.

 

[Tanooki | 4,929]

I had that same problem from Japan having bought a game on the first of april and it took like 2 1/2 months to show up, even filed a case to get my money back.  I felt bad for the guy, messaged him and got his paypal and refunded him and I swore off import any since.

 

But a 2 year hunt ended getting a GBC game I couldn't source, annoyingly popped up in Australia, and it showed up exactly in two weeks. (10-3 to 10-17)  Not the same country obviously, but distance is about the same and that's a massive improvement.

[drxandy | 3,225]

I haven't imported much since covid but dhl is killer from Japan even though you pay the price, suuuper quick.

I am ready for cheap shipping to come back before I start making purchases.

[Strange | 1,698]

Well, the copy here in the US that I was looking at sold so I went ahead and bought the copy from Japan last night. Will update here how long it takes to arrive.

[Strange | 1,698]

Okay, my answer probably won’t be helpful because the item just arrived. Either that’s the fastest shipping from Japan ever or they’ve got a warehouse here or something.

[DefaultGen | 5,385]

9 minutes ago, The Strangest said:

Okay, my answer probably won’t be helpful because the item just arrived. Either that’s the fastest shipping from Japan ever or they’ve got a warehouse here or something.

I use Fedex from Japan, takes 2 days every time. Fedex packages from the US take longer to arrive.

[Sumez | 2,927]

Always pay with PayPal, and don't use "friends" transfer, if they want the fee covered just add that manually.

You don't have to use PayPal's exhange rate. You can just set it to charge the original currency, and you'll be using your bank's exchange rate instead. But the PP one tends to be pretty fair in my experience.