Price USA | Shop where you want
Used Carolina for buying from US. Excellent service.
FROM JAPAN: Japanese auction and shopping proxy service
For buying from Yahoo Japan, etc.
I just did a price comparison on the Price USA site versus the US postal Service
For a 1.5kg parcel, the post office wants $83.90 USDfor express tracked shipping with delivery in 3-5 days
As its coming through the chance there's a chance that you won't get stung for inbound GST, and taxes, and not likely that you will face brokerage fees
For Price USA they want $124 USD for express freight.
they use UPS and from personal experience in my business they will ALWAYS collect the GST and duty and a brokerage fee and will withold delivery until it is paid
And you still have to freight to one of their collection points
the only way these services are of any use is if you are shopping for an item that is only available from an organistion that will not ship internationally
Seems to be an unlikely scenario for any watch transaction through this or any other forum.
If you were to book the pick-up yourself using UPS online they would only charge you $76.30 and that's in AUD. You'd still have all the GST, duty and brokerage issues, but at least it is direct, not through a middleman
Insurance is on top of that again.
These on-forwarding places are a business. They need to make money to do what they do and the profit is substantial by the look of it.
Sure if it is a critical item that you absolutely have to have, then its cheaper than a plane ticket.
But I'd rather save the extra and put it towards another watch.
I didn't bother checking the Japan numbers, as I don't deal there, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't a similar story.