has anyone bought off the yahoo japan auctions ,any dramas /things to look out for with service charges ,shipping ,payments etc looks like can get a cbx250 parts cat in jap fairly easy but a bit of a leap of faith first time as discriptions etc are all in jap so any previous experience would be helpfull
Havnt used the Japan Yahoo but we have bought FZR stuff from these guys ... you tell them wat u want and they send u a "quote" http://www.jp-parts.com/index.html http://2fiftycc.com/index.php?threads/online-sites-for-parts-and-accessories.3736/
thanks ,just sent them a request so should be intresting to see their reply ,also asked about carb diaphrams
well found a English version of yahoo japan auctions, (just goggle yahoo japan auctions English version ) plenty of cheap cbx250 parts but postage is very exie , eg new carb diaphragm us$10 ea postage us$57 ,jap version of parts catalogue (same size as a owners manual ) us$5-24 postage us$55 ...got to be a cheaper way..also descriptions of items are in very much broken English (maybe computer translated) and hard to understand ,might have to go to a cairns backpackers for a nite and round up a jap backbacker to show how to use the site properly and cheaply
Try messaging them to check the freight cost ..... sometimes on ebay it must be auto estimated as its way over the top ,especially from the US
I used Rinkya a month ago. It's pretty easy to figure out but they don't calculate the shipping until after you order. The plus side is they let you buy items and they will store it in Japan for up to a month. That means you can bulk buy stuff for yourself, or add some extra stuff to eBay off later for profit. I've only looked up NSR/CRM stuff but you can get pretty good deals. Rinkya have translations for the auctions but it's hard to get what they mean sometimes. Also, all prices are in USD and Yen. Another service is Jauce but I haven't tried them yet. All I know is the cost of parts is 1/3 as much as the stuff on eBay. And plentiful.
I've bought heaps of stuff through Buyee on Japan Yahoo. The Japan Yahoo site gives you an option for overseas buyers to use Buyee. They do take a bit of a whack but they are very reliable. You can set up all sorts of options to bid on items. The only thing you have to be careful of is if you buy multiple items they will ask you if you want to consolidate the packages into 1. They then charge a "package consolidation fee" which makes no sense at all. It's actually cheaper in the end to have all the packages sent separately. I'm not sure how long they will hold packages for you but I've won an auction and not elected to ship the items for a few weeks on more than one occasion. If you use Google Chrome, it will do pretty much all of the translating automatically.
Forgot to add, there are some items they will not ship; such as engine parts. I bought a used oil pump for my bike and had to argue with them to get them to send it. If they won't send it you are out of pocket.
Let me know if you need help translating anything. For the most part Japanese postage is expensive, and the Japanese typically won't negotiate very easily. For the most part, they are mostly trustworthy though, unlike suppliers from other countries in SE asia (china etc).
I have used Webike a few times for new stuff. Spend enough and the postage is free. http://japan.webike.net/products/21752981.html
