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For whatever reason, Rakuten Global Market is closing in two weeks. I have shopped a couple of times with them and must say I am unhappy with the news. Not sure what the alternative is exactly or where to go from here, esp if you're a regular shopper. Though they now have some country specific shops, Germany, France, US and Taiwan (alongside their native Japanese one, obvs). If you have alternatives or know anything more about this, please share. Last possible shopping: 1st June (2 PM JST). Last payment completion: 11th June (10 AM JST) Last shipment: 15th June. More info: https://global.rakuten.com/en/event/close.html

As Rakuten Global Market does from time to time, it is running another campaign where you get a fixed amount (in Japanese yen) discounted off the total if you meet the minimum threshold, on a single order from a single seller before international shipping is calculated. The current offers are: ¥700 off a minimum spend of ¥7,000¥1,200 off a minimum spend of ¥10,000¥3,000 off a minimum spend of ¥20,000¥10,000 off a minimum spend of ¥50,000so it's up to 20% off. For that kind of campaign, this is about as high a discount as I've seen in the past twelve months.

As it does from time to time, Rakuten Global Market is running another free international shipping promotion campaign, effective now until 22 March 2019 09:59 (Japan Standard Time). Australia and NZ are sadly not included (as usual), but UK, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Canada, USA and Russia are in scope. Minimum spend on a single order to qualify is ¥12,000 from a single shop that is on a somewhat limited list of participating shops; retailers of fountain pens and inks of interest are even fewer. I know AT-N Nagasaka and Nagasawa Stationery Center (of Kobe Ink Story fame) are among them, however. (Edit: Oh, and there is also Pen Gallery Hogado.) I've bought from both of those shops on Rakuten in the past, and the products I ordered were delivered just fine without incident. Now, I'm not really a fan of Nagasawa as a retailer myself, but I'm quite happy with the service I got from AT-N. Those of you in the UK and North America who may be interested in getting Japanese domestic market fountain pen models and inks could well benefit from this opportunity, in a way that I cannot.

Lucky me, Rakuten Global Express (RGX) – the Japanese reshipping service associated with Rakuten Global Market and Rakuten Ichiba – has activated another 30%-off international shipping charges promotion campaign in the last couple of hours. It's something RGX does from time to time throughout the year. I bought some items on Amazon.co.jp yesterday, and unfortunately these days the only way to get the goods here to Australia is to use a reshipping service, at my additional expense as the consumer; that often kills good deals on Amazon.co.jp and Rakuten for products that are difficult and/or expensive (due to profiteering by commercial importers) get here. It will still be costly, but that 30% discount could well amount to A$15 or more, and make a significant difference if one is just buying $150 worth of stuff. I think the terms and conditions of RGX's service is that it will hold goods it received on behalf of registered customers for up to a month, and I was hoping that something like this would come up soon. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait that long! Now, to see what else I might want to add to this shipment; there's essentially a 'flagfall' charge of ¥2,000 – about A$25.56 – for reshipping goods to Australia by EMS service, on top of weight-based charges. However, I've been very impressed with the speed of delivery on the occasions I've used RGX's service; both times the parcels were ready to collect in my Australia Post Parcel Locker within the week.

I just ordered ink from rakuten website. It seems order has been processed and ink will be dispatched soon. I want to know if the ink straightaway reaches me through post. It will be dispatched through Japan EMS with tracking (not small shipment). If so, how is customs paid? If not, who pays the customs and gets customs clearances? Anyone with experience in this matter please let me know what to expect. So that I prevent any impending problems. Thanks Sanjay Bangalore

I recently made couple of fountain pen purchases on the Japanese website Rakuten. I bought the following pens from the vendor Pen House: TWSBI (twice by) fountain pen diamond 580 AL brand (9400); Nib size : F; Price JPY 9,400 Pilot Fountain pen Custom Heritage 92 FKVH-15SRS-TB Transparent Black; Nib size : FM; Price JPY 11,248 The prices of these pens on Amazon.in are as follows: TWSBI: INR 9,000 Pilot: INR 12,000 The communication was prompt - I had made a special request asking the vendor to mark this as gift but the vendor refused. I think it was right on the vendor's part. The vendor did charge me an overseas correspondence fee of JPY 1,651 - this is something that others on this forum have also mentioned. I was charged an additional JPY 1,540 as shipping fee. The total amount I had to pay was JPY 23,839 (INR 14,105) that I paid using paypal website. The package was shipped the very next day after I made the payment, and it reached Indian customs office (Mumbai) within 3 days. I was impressed with the speed of shipping. I received a letter from the Customs office a day later informing me that the shipment exceeds the maximum import quota (INR 2,000 including shipping fee) for personal items and I need to report to Customs office with the bill receipt. I reached the customs office the next day - I was made to wait for around 45 minutes before they called for me. I met a junior officer who told me that the package will attract a duty @41.49%, along with a redemption fee and penalty. The penalty is charged for importing items more than INR 2,000 without having an import license. This was all new to me since many people in this forum seem to have mentioned only the duty charges. The duty worked out to INR 6,117, and the additional charges were to the tune of INR 3,000. A postal fee of INR 100 was also charged. I ended up paying INR 9,217 additional for ordering the items from Japan. The total payout turned out to be more than INR 23,000, which is higher than what I would have paid on Amazon.in. I do not think I will be making any purchases from Rakuten again. While arguing with customs officer, he told me that we should not use EMS as the shipping option as it attracts the highest duty and additional penalties. For using EMS, the maximum penalty free allowance is INR 2,000 for all items, except electronics, which has a maximum limit of INR 50,000. If you need to order from outside India, we should use courier services like Fedex or DHL - somehow they attract less penalty and import duties. I just thought of sharing this for the benefit of everyone who is planning to import pens from outside India. Please avoid EMS shipping if you can.

Most of the Chinese pens I own have been purchased on eBay. There are a few sellers I use most frequently because they've been extremely reliable. One seller, "jewelrymathematics", used to contribute to FPN. But almost all of my Chinese pen transactions on eBay have been positive, regardless of seller, and particularly when they have extremely high satisfaction ratings. During the last year I've become more comfortable with Rakuten when purchasing inks from Japan. But I have had a difficult time understanding Taobao, and have not yet tried to experiment with Alipay. Even with an English-language intermediary, such as Mr. Taobao, the Taobao service seems difficult to navigate. What has been your experience with the purchase of Chinese pens? Who has a high comfort level with Taobao? Advice? What about Alipay? I'm placing the thread on this forum because the question focuses specifically on the Chinese pen purchasing experience, not on all marketplaces in general.

This is the third of four mini-reviews of another really great and perhaps the best pen seller on the global Rakuten site. To give you an example and thanks to FPN member Algester, I was able to get a really unique Sailor pen with sparkles (not flashy, really elegant), gold trim and one of Sailor's legendary nibs. It was one of their last ones and they've been out of stock, in case anyone is interested, for a coupe of months (image below). http://www.pen-house.net/contents/html/images/pent/27598_top2.jpg Their selection of all the crazy and unique things I like is amazing, from Sailor Realo pens, Pilot Somes cases, gorgeous Obato glass ink pots, Life and Midori notebooks to Herbin sealing wax. Their logo'd boxes and efficient, lightweight packing keep the EMS costs down and believe me, you'll love getting their shipments, even if it's just a few tiny items. http://image.rakuten.co.jp/penroom/cabinet/pent/27903_img1.jpg If you are in the market for Sailor, Platinum or some of the unique brands like Onishi-Seisakusho, your first stop should be here! Here is their link: http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/penroom/global/en/pent/pen.html One hint is to use your points on follow up orders to reduce cost even further and realize that the web site does not indicate real-time stock status. Like they say, shopping is entertainment!

Here's the link: http://global.rakuten.com/en/search/?k=Iroshizuku&sid=voice&l-id=gs_product_search The pricing was incredible, even with shipping. Ten bottles came out to about $15 each! Each ink bottle came in a sealed plastic bag put inside of the original Iro bottle. The box then had a thin layer of high density foam all around the boxes, then put in the shipping box. Enjoy!

This is a first of four reviews of different Rakuten stores. Like they say: Weak Yen; Strong Dollar means shopping is entertainment! I placed an order for several Pilot Somes Cases (pictured below) at pricing that was almost 40% less than eBay sellers. I love these pen cases. The leather is exquisite and the finishing is professional. Even the zip around case can hold three King of Pens and a Midori Passport sized notebook The order was confirmed by email and then I reconfirmed the shipping charges, which were reasonable considering the package got to the US in a couple of days! Here are the items I purchased and the store links: http://item.rakuten.co.jp/komamono-honpo/sls3-01-b/ http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/komamono-honpo/cabinet/34/slpc-01-bn.jpg http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/komamono-honpo/cabinet/38/sls3-01-b.jpg http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/komamono-honpo/cabinet/38/sls3-01-b-02.jpg http://www.pen-house.net/contents/html/images/pilot/somes/sls3_01_bn/top.jpg

Looks nice, am curious. Cheers

While browsing Rakuten I came across these pretty little notebooks. http://image.rakuten.co.jp/eightrond/cabinet/bunbougu/img59678259.gif http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/eightrond/item/10000411/ Does anyone know if these are fountain pen friendly? Or if there is any other place to purchase them? My searches on Bing, Google, Ebay and Amazon have been fruitless. I did find one website (via Pinterest) that sells them wholesale only. Any information would be helpful! Thank you!

I'm so happy! It left on the 14th of April, and arrived today on the 20th! I didn't even know that things could ship from across the world so quickly! I'd like to do a review of them at some point, as I haven't seen any of these on the reviews sub or anything. Granted, it is only a recolor of the Clear Candy, but it doesn't seem many people have reviewed it, anyway. What do y'all think? http://i.imgur.com/LqyZcAR.jpg?1 http://i.imgur.com/vlYSAMx.jpg?1

I bought a custom heritage 91 from bunkidou stationery shop, rakuten global market. The consignment seems to have left japan but there's no sign of landing in india. please suggest what to do? earlier experiences with japan ems have been pretty fast. should i head to delhi foreign post office, ito? the delivery address is kalkaji,delhi 3/8/2015 11:30:00 AM JAPAN TOKYO INT BAG Send item abroad (EDI-received) Air DELHI EMS SPEED POST CENTRE

Has any of the following members bought anything from Rakuten. How much time do they generally take to ship order and how much time does it take shipment to arrive. Do we have to pay any custom...??? Also how reliable is this Ecommerce platform for international buyers....