Model-Junkie

So I finally shipped my package from Japan, it arrived in about 3 days and I was charged $11.70 in tariffs at 15% for goods from Japan and the UPS brokerage fee was $19. However, UPS originally sent me an e-mail with a notice of $42.70 was due for fees and taxes, I could either pay the driver or pay online. I opted to pay online but they only charged me $30.70 with the breakdown as mentioned above, I'm not sure if a $12 discount was given because I paid online but I'm not complaining.

I had a friend buy something from China a couple of weeks ago, the package was delivered by DHL. Once the package cleared CBP, DHL notified him the of the tariffs to be paid before they'd make the delivery. I have a $76 value package from Japan I need to ship out soon, I'm currently trying to find out which courier has a lower processing/brokerage fee. UPS shipping is the cheapest at about $27.70, Fedex is $34.43, and DHL is $42.25. I'm assuming it makes sense to go with the lowest shipping cost regardless.

So I got suckered into buying from Hobby Search (HS) again, they have a sale going on right now. I get charged 6% MD sales tax but to offset the tax HS discounted my shipping costs by 20%. As mentioned above, not sure if Hobby Search is sending the taxes collected to the U.S. and appropriate States. Other Japanese retailers are not collecting tax from U.S. buyers. I am fine with paying taxes for the area I am spending my money in, any time you travel you pay taxes on goods or services local to the area you are in. For example I travelled to England and Hong Kong in February and

There was a thread about Chinese eBay sellers posted almost exactly a year ago, the main sellers listed were: https://www.ebay.com/str/auroramodelshop https://www.ebay.com/str/flymodel https://www.ebay.com/str/xfreehobby https://www.ebay.com/str/fancykicks https://www.ebay.com/str/peaceful2018 From my experience, the sellers ship the kits in styrofoam sheets cut to exactly fit around the kit/s and then either placed inside a plastic mailing bag or wrapped in tape and shipped that way. The majority of the time the k

A bit more Google search yielded this result: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/infodetails Looks like they are collecting the TX sales tax early as it was due to go into effect on April 7th. I'm not sure if they updated their website over night, but the link I originally posted shows the two newly impacted States (Texas and Colorado) in the list. I usually only buy from Hobby Search when they run a sales promotion but that may now change. I make my main purchases from HLJ or AmiAmi, the former has a private warehouse for your purchases and both usually have lower prices f

Crap, I never paid attention to them collecting sales tax. Apparently this has been happening since late 2022: https://www.1999.co.jp/tax_collection_e.html

Hasegawa have released many new kits in the last few years, they have mostly been focusing on subjects that interest their domestic market for a while now. Their 1/12 resin figures are expanding fast, they have released several new and retooled sci-fi kits in multiple scales and are focusing on their 1/24 car kits a lot. They are financially sound: https://www.tipranks.com/news/company-announcements/t-hasegawa-reports-strong-sales-and-profit-growth

A lot of the Chinese model kit sellers on eBay run similar prices and offers, sometimes it's worthwhile to add the items to your eBay cart and see if they offer combined shipping for additional savings. Below are some of the eBay stores mentioned above as well as ones I've bought from: https://www.ebay.com/str/auroramodelshop https://www.ebay.com/str/flymodel https://www.ebay.com/str/xfreehobby https://www.ebay.com/str/fancykicks https://www.ebay.com/str/peaceful2018

Under fuselage Data link pod according to navalnews.com

For Hasegawa kits, I believe the F-14D chin-pod only came in F-14D specific boxings on Sprue R. However, the F-14D boxings also came with the chin-pods for F-14A & B variants on Sprue J so hopefully someone with an F-14D boxing and wants to build an F-14A or B can help you out.

Zvezda's Su-34 kit calls for the underside to be painted in Humbrol 23, duck egg blue. A color conversion chart can be found here

I've bought from Ali Express several times over the years, some of them knock-off toys, and I always received what I paid for. There are lots of knock-off items listed on there but they are clearly listed as knockoffs or off brand. Legit brand items are sold on there but I have not found any real good savings buying those from Ali Express versus other online retailers. For example, I was looking for Academy's new 1/72 F-14B model kit earlier this year, they were being sold for a somewhat reasonable price on Ali but I bought from another online retailer for a similar price instea

HLJ only shows shipping costs of true in stock items, I do not recall for in stock 3-5 days items but they do not estimate shipping for pre-order items. Once you start using the private warehouse option it becomes harder to estimate shipping. Buying from Japan was cheap pre-covid but even with the low Japanese Yen right now, shipping costs are very high.

I think what I wrote is not being understood. This is not a COD situation, the additional cost is either due to taxes or fees and the courier did not correctly explain the situation. I find it very unlikely the extra cost goes back to HLJ.

It appears COD is not fully understood by some folks. COD stands for Cash on Delivery or Collect on Delivery, it is a method of paying for the goods at the time of delivery versus paying before being shipped out. The courier did not explain or fill out the form correctly, and by refusing the package the buyer will most likely have to pay for shipping from Japan a second time.