What online shops based in Japan would you recommend purchasing from?

[Kyoto28]

Hi, I'd like to add to my collection of Japanese fountain pens, but I've grown tired of the somewhat limited selection in the UK. I'm willing to buy from Japan and pay the import tariff but I don't really know where to start.

 

Only place I've seen so far is Rakuten which is proving to be somewhat hard to follow (my Japanese is elementary). Do you know of any good, reputable retailers that offer international shipping?

 

Thank you for reading, apologies if this topic has already been answered, I tried a search but couldn't find an answer.

[Karmachanic]

https://eboyashop.com/

[stan]

Why need a shop? Go to Buyee or other proxy service and you can buy from almost any store with an online presence and Yahoo Japan for auctions. They charge you for shipping plus a proxy fee. 

[Kyoto28]

1 hour ago, Karmachanic said:

https://eboyashop.com/

Oooo I've never had a pen to order before, interesting!

 

1 hour ago, stan said:

Why need a shop? Go to Buyee or other proxy service and you can buy from almost any store with an online presence and Yahoo Japan for auctions. They charge you for shipping plus a proxy fee. 

Oh that's a good shout. I mean, I don't know any Japanese stores either, could you tell me some?
Thank you!

[seven4times]

https://www.kingdomnote.com/

 

https://www.nagasawa-shop.jp/

 

https://www.pen-house.net/

 

https://honto.jp/netstore/search_0219040020000.html

[A Smug Dill]

3 hours ago, Kyoto28 said:

Only place I've seen so far is Rakuten which is proving to be somewhat hard to follow (my Japanese is elementary).

 

You came too late to the party (and not necessarily of your own fault); Rakuten wound down its ‘English-speaking’ Rakuten Global Market progressively over a period of 18 months or so, and finally shut that side down entirely some time last year.

 

2 hours ago, seven4times said:

https://www.nagasawa-shop.jp/

 

I've bought from Nagasawa Stationery Centre (via Rakuten Global Market) several times in the past, and they were decent in all ways. If they are open to accepting overseas orders directly, then I'm more than happy to trust them.

 

I've bought from Pensachi directly more than once before, and they've been reliable and decent too, but their pricing these days are generally nowhere near as favourable as I remembered from 2019 by a long shot.

 

If Amazon.co.jp will accept and ship orders to the UK directly, it's an option worth exploring. I'm very pleased with the customer service I got from it; but it is Amazon's policy not to accept and ship orders to Australia directly.

[peroride]

 

4 hours ago, Kyoto28 said:

Do you know of any good, reputable retailers that offer international shipping?

 

I had a positive international shipping experience with https://bungubox.shop/en/  but this was before she added the online shop

[Karmachanic]

7 hours ago, seven4times said:

https://www.nagasawa-shop.jp/

 

https://www.pen-house.net/

 

 

 

I've done business with these sellers, and would happily do so again.

[Linger]

I purchased three pens from the tokyo pen shop quill and vouch for their customer service - it is impeccable.

 

https://www.japanshop-quill.com

 

And here is a thread with some more opinions.

 

[sam3k]

On 1/9/2021 at 2:51 AM, A Smug Dill said:

If Amazon.co.jp will accept and ship orders to the UK directly

 

They do, and they prepay all customs fees and VAT (and tell you what they will be in the checkout process), so no 'handling fees' from the delivery company. They use DHL and it's usually in your hands pretty fast.

 

You can set the interface to English too, but finding things isn't always straightforward, and generally speaking there isn't much exotic on there, but rather the more mundane but at standard Japanese retail prices (i.e. much cheaper than the UK).

 

You do need to make sure that the item is shipped by 'Amazon Japan' rather than a marketplace seller to take advantage of the prepaid customs/VAT, and even then some items don't ship outside of Japan.

 

If there is anything specific you're looking for I might be able to help you with search terms or links.

 

I've also bought a few items via Rakuten / Bungubox via a forwarding service, this is a bit harder as you need to use often need to use Google Translate and/or understand a bit of Japanese.

 

 

[A Smug Dill]

27 minutes ago, sam3k said:

I've also bought a few items via Rakuten / Bungubox via a forwarding service, this is a bit harder as you need to use often need to use Google Translate and/or understand a bit of Japanese.

 

I can get by ordering from Rakuten Ichiba in spite of everything being in Japanese, but I was having issues with Rakuten Global Express (RGX) refusing to send the fountain pens it has received on my behalf, and demanding that I provide them with Material Safety Data Sheets for such. I asked Pilot, Platinum and Sailor in Japan for that, and got absolutely no response from Pilot and Platinum, whereas Sailor promptly replied and told me it has never produced MSDS for its fountain pens since it is not required for that kind of product, and it was ridiculous for RGX or Japan Post/EMS/DHL to demand that. 

[aimi]

I’ve bought from Pentonote via proxy service, and it went very smoothly. I noticed that they tested the pen for me as well (there was a little bit of water leftover in the piston).

[RJS]

On 1/11/2021 at 3:38 PM, sam3k said:

 

They do, and they prepay all customs fees and VAT (and tell you what they will be in the checkout process), so no 'handling fees' from the delivery company. 

 

 

Are you absolutely sure? I spoke with their customer service team and they were not sure whether UK VAT is included in the sum mentioned at checkout. 
 

Take a 10,000¥ pen (below UK duty threshold) and add it to your checkout and it'll say it can be shipped to the UK for about 1,500¥ more. Unless they first subtract the Japanese sales tax before adding on the UK tax (20%), the 1,500¥ fee seems too low, considering they have to pay for the shipping with that as well...

[RJS]

I read up on it... you were right, and Amazon were wrong, @sam3k!

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201910710

 

If they underestimate, that's on them, and you don't have to pay any more.

[sam3k]

23 hours ago, RJS said:

Are you absolutely sure? I spoke with their customer service team and they were not sure whether UK VAT is included in the sum mentioned at checkout. 

 

You have to make sure that there is a line item for "Import Fees Deposit" on the final checkout page. If there isn't one you'll end up paying import fees later.

 

E.g.

 

This Sailor King of Pen Pro Gear: https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B008HMBJNU/ costs ¥55,110.

 

But if I ship to the UK I pay:

 

Items:	¥50,100
Shipping & handling:	¥1,477
Import Fees Deposit:	¥11,554
Order total:	¥63,131

You can see that they have removed 10% tax from the items total.

 

 

22 hours ago, RJS said:

If they underestimate, that's on them, and you don't have to pay any more.

 

Even better, if you get overcharged customs they refund you, I've had that happen a few times.

[RJS]

Thanks, you explained that much better than Amazon! 
 

Any ideas how it might work for sub-£135 items? Post Brexit there's no import duties or fees from outside the EU so long as the seller charges UK VAT at point of sale...

[sam3k]

5 minutes ago, RJS said:

Any ideas how it might work for sub-£135 items? Post Brexit there's no import duties or fees from outside the EU so long as the seller charges UK VAT at point of sale...

 

🤷🏾‍♂️

Who knows!

 

I should probably point out that the numbers I posted were just cut and paste from the Amazon checkout page, but it only tells you that info once you get to the final page of the checkout.

[RJS]

I played around with my basket in Amazon JP just now.... added that pen you linked to, and a few more pens delivered by Amazon through GlobalShipping, and the import fees estimate remained just the same despite the sale price more than doubling. Very very odd. Seems a bit of a (bleep) shoot.

[Olya]

47 minutes ago, RJS said:

Thanks, you explained that much better than Amazon! 
 

Any ideas how it might work for sub-£135 items? Post Brexit there's no import duties or fees from outside the EU so long as the seller charges UK VAT at point of sale...

From what I gather (through the Brexit threads here for instance), British shoppers are pretty fcked.

 

Britain has implemented a tax system like no other country, wherein the seller has to charge UK VAT and pay that to HMRC, which means seller must register in the UK for tax and sales and that's a bureaucratic nightmare.

That's mostly the reason why all the mess and some shops explicitly say they'll ship "everywhere in the world.... except the UK".

 

Brexit, putting the "Great" back in to "Great Britain".... 🙄🤦‍♀️

[sam3k]

26 minutes ago, RJS said:

Very very odd. Seems a bit of a (bleep) shoot.

 

Yep.

 

At the end of the day importing items directly from Japan has the potential for large savings (or access to hard to get items) in exchange for taking on more of the risk ourselves, either through hidden costs or the lack of warranty.

 

Just to note as well, Amazon Japan is a good source for notebooks too, Life, Midori and Graphilo. Also excellent for 'unusual' stationery items as stocking fillers / gifts for the kids...

 

20 minutes ago, Olya said:

Britain has implemented a tax system like no other country, wherein the seller has to charge UK VAT and pay that to HMRC, which means seller must register in the UK for tax and sales and that's a bureaucratic nightmare.

That's mostly the reason why all the mess and some shops explicitly say they'll ship "everywhere in the world.... except the UK".

 

This is definitely going to be a nightmare for the smaller sellers... if there is an upside, it at least means an end to the £8 to £15 'handling fee' that the delivery companies charge when you have an import fee to pay, or at least an end on items costing less than £135 (where the handling fee is a substantial proportion of the entire bill).