So I’ve decided to start-up my blog again. A lot of things have changed since my last blog post, but I realized to me, certain content is better in a written form versus in a video form. I hope guys will follow me through this journey as a content creator!
Before I start my review on my massive order from Buyee.com I want to give a brief intro on what Buyee is. Buyee is sister site to Tenso, which should sound familiar to you if you order from Tokyo Kawaii Life for Liz Lisa. Buyee offers shopping services to Yahoo! Auctions, Rakuten, Amazon Japan, and other various online stores. I specifically used Buyee for Yahoo! Auctions and Rakuten for my massive order.
So around early January, Buyee had sent out a coupon for Tenso users as a thank you for signing on Buyee. The coupon was a free international shipping coupon that was worth up to 10,000 yen. The moment I got the coupon I knew it was time for the shopaholic in me to run free.
I’ve never ordered from Y! Auctions until now because the service fees from any shopping service never made the purchase worth the time and effort. But with the coupon in hand I put aside my biases and went wild. Luckily, Buyee allows you bid on items in real-time and allows sniper bids, which makes the entire process easier. I also ordered through Rakuten on Buyee’s interface, which was all right but slightly confusing because you couldn’t search by stores.
Payment
You can pay for your items in two ways, link your PayPal account or link your credit card. I ended up linking my PayPal because it's just easier for me. For bidding on items on Y! Auctions, Buyee won't charge your PP/card until you win the auction. The moment you win, they'll deduct the winning amount + Fees. Buyee will foot the domestic shipping fees for you first and then when it comes to ship all your items you'll pay domestic shipping fees + international shipping fees together.
For buying items on Rakuten, you'll authorize a payment with your PayPal and when you receive an e-mail confirming that Buyee has successfully purchased your items, that is when your account will charged. Similar to Y! Auctions you'll pay for domestic and international shipping fees together ^^.
Fees
First off, Y! Auctions fees add up really quick. The fees are as follows:
Item + 200Yen Bank Transfer + 150yen OR 5% of the item you won if it’s over 3,000yen
At minimum you’ll be tacking on 350yen to each of your successful bids.
Fees for Rakuten as of 2016 is any amount less than 3,000 yen is 150 yen and anything over 3,000 yen is free.
Packaging
Everything was packed really nice, plain and simple. For size reference, I compared the box to my 50cm Alpacasso and as you can see, it was the same height
(Excuse my room)
They managed to fit all 19 of my orders in here and added a lot air packets (?) for the empty space. I didn't add the protective packaging option so the extra padding was a nice touch. Honestly, if you’re not ordering fragile items I don’t see a point in protective packaging but that’s just me. For some reason they used fragile tape on my box but I only ordered clothes, shoes and tsum tsums LOL
As you guys can see, I'm actually Rilakkuma in real life, and my style is fab (just kidding)
Consolidation
I used Buyee’s consolidation services because I wanted to use the free international coupon to its’ maximum potential. Consolidation costs 500yen for two packages, and 1000yen for 3+packages. I ended up consolidating 19 packages (yes, even I think I went overboard LOL). I was worried that when consolidating my packages, Buyee would include the original shipping packages of my items, but thankfully that didn’t happen.
Shipping
The total weight of my giant box was 8400grams (~18.5lbs). I wasn’t there when my package was delivered but I’m 100% positive my mailman hated me haha. But I love my neighborhood post office, they’re always on top of their job and I’m grateful that I’m one of the lucky ones to have such an awesome post office. Because my package was 8400grams and I wanted to ship it by EMS, I ended up paying additional monies because I can’t control myself.
Overall, it’s really hard to calculate how much your total shipping would be because you can't calculate the domestic shipping fee. Some times the seller will list how much the domestic shipping will be on the listing and other times it’s a free for all. From what I’ve realized, dresses usually cost 700yen to ship while blouses/skirts are 500yen but unless the seller states how much shipping will be just be prepared to set aside at least 1000yen. Buyee will pay for the domestic shipping for you and when it comes time to pay for international shipping, you’ll pay both at the same time.
There’s not much to say about international shipping other than that you a choice between EMS, SAL, AIR, Seamail and UPS.
Customs
Because of the amount of items I ordered, the size of my package, and the amount I spent, I was really afraid I would get hit by U.S. customs but I didn’t –knocks on wood-. So yay~
My overall experience with Buyee has been really positive. The fees do add up, but I guess you have to pay more for convenience. I’ll definitely use Buyee again, but in moderation (unless they send another coupon my way which I’m down for ;D)
Here's a preview to part 2, which is when I’ll actually show you the pretty stuff I got ^^
