Joint European Order to US?

[chadbag]

I want to get something from Modellbahn Kramm (http://modellbahn-kramm.com/).  But not enough to want to pay 35 Euro flat rate shipping to the US.   If anyone or multiple anyones also have stuff they want and want to pool the order to minimize the Germany --> US shipping, I could order it all together, we split the shipping, and then we also spread the inner US shipping out so that it is fair, and should be cheaper for smaller amounts of stuff.  My 67 Euro item is not worth another 35 Euro in shipping.   Maybe you have the same problem?    Reply here and I will contact you through the private messages.   Probably need to act fast as the thing I want is a special deal and will probably go fast.

 

Chad

 

[chadbag]

I've gone ahead and ordered so for now, this is closed.    I would be interested when and if anyone wants to make a joint order at a European train store for US delivery in case I need anything.    They (almost) all seem to have very high flat rate shipping to the US so small orders don't make sense unless pooled.

[cteno4]

We use to do this now and then with our club and ordering books thru amazon jp as they had a $12 for the first book then like $2.50 for each after that with Dhl shipping. Was great when we would do like 10 books at once, but it took some doing to get it arranged, ordered, handed out and settled up and that was all local picking them up or getting them at the monthly lunch. Timing was also the issue, as many just were not thinking about it whenan order would get started. I just go to where if there was something I wanted I would put it out to folks and say the order was going in a week so get them in. Usually worked but not always.

 

Worth a shot though, especially if like only one or two others involved to keep it simple. But shipping ain’t cheap w.in the us no more unfortunately.

 

jeff

Edited February 22, 2018 by cteno4

[chadbag]

Yeah, it takes time to arrange this sort of thing.  In this case, I figured it was worth seeing but I had to act relatively quickly since the major item is a close out and they tend to go fast.

 

You can still ship a reasonable amount of stuff inside the US with priority mail and stuff like that.  Either flat rate or region A/B boxes.  Compared to the 35 EUR typical flat rate from Germany.  Someone wants a wagon or two, but doesn't want to double the size of the order with shipping.  I imagine books, being heavy, are more expensive to ship compared to lightweight wagons or models.

 

Anyway, I am still open if someone has Euro needs to see if I need anything from whatever vendor they are using.

 

PS:  I know this is mostly a Japan modeling group, and most of my trains and all my scenery are still Japanese, and I do have 3 Kato Japan freight engines coming :)  Even though most of my recent posts have been about my German rail acquisitions :)   Don't want anyone to think I am losing the faith or apostatizing  

[cteno4]

Lol, it’s a pretty promiscuous group here and I’m sure many want to see your new toys from germany!

 

yeah hope you can find a few that may make it possible.

 

Good luck with it!

[chadbag]

1 hour ago, cteno4 said:

Lol, it’s a pretty promiscuous group here and I’m sure many want to see your new toys from germany!

 

I've been posting pictures as I get things, though it has mostly been eBay stuff so far :) .  There are 3 packages from Germany and Holland, plus a small package from Germany with some DCC boards for Tomix cleaning cars, in the postal system somewhere.  One of them, after a week, showed up yesterday in New Jersey (and the Tomix DCC boards showed up in NY) in the tracking.  No clue on when they will show up here.  But you'll see them (and some Japanese stuff when it shows up)! 

:)

 

 

[Yavianice]

i find it quite interesting what the charges are that some stores ask for shipping around the world, since SAL shipping is quite cheap. I guess they just don't want to bother with the hassle that may come from uninsured shipping, while not turning customers away at the same time.

 

I know Japan has a "buyee" equivalent for european eBAY stuff, maybe U.S. also has something like that?

[disturbman]

11 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Lol, it’s a pretty promiscuous group here and I’m sure many want to see your new toys from germany!

 

We do, we do. Even if we live in Germany.

[chadbag]

8 hours ago, Yavianice said:

i find it quite interesting what the charges are that some stores ask for shipping around the world, since SAL shipping is quite cheap. I guess they just don't want to bother with the hassle that may come from uninsured shipping, while not turning customers away at the same time.

 

I know Japan has a "buyee" equivalent for european eBAY stuff, maybe U.S. also has something like that?

 

Yeah, most of the stores want a flat rate from 27,50 EUR to 39,30 EUR.  dm-toys.de only charges 10 EUR (or free after 300 EUR order) but they won't take the VAT off, which at 19% for Germany is a lot of money.  That is also why a buyee type thing is not that interesting -- the shipping point for the store is inside the EU and hence the VAT would apply.

 

Some German eBay sellers are smarter though.   I just ordered 10 various used coaches and while he was asking 7,50 EUR for shipping one, he said 12,50 EUR is enough for all 10.  Which is reasonable in my book.

 

Still doesn't beat amazon.co.jp. I just ordered a Tomix Shinkansen set (6 cars) and some 12 or 14 Tomix freight cars.  Total DHL wicked fast shipping is about ¥ 2500 and they take the 8% sales tax off too.  But we can only wish.

 

If you can spread that 30-40 EUR over $500 or more of an order, it is not that big of a deal, but for a couple items, the cost is prohibitive.    I found a shop that had the DCC conversion PCB board for the Tomix cleaning car in stock.  They had 40 EUR flat rate to the US.  I had it sent to  my friend in Munich (I had to pay VAT) for 4,59 EUR and he sent it to me for 6 EUR.

 

[Yavianice]

14 minutes ago, chadbag said:

Some German eBay sellers are smarter though.   I just ordered 10 various used coaches and while he was asking 7,50 EUR for shipping one, he said 12,50 EUR is enough for all 10.  Which is reasonable in my book.

ebay sellers, if the are honest, should adhere to the SAL rates from Deutsche Post (flatrate for any country). https://www.deutschepost.de/de/b/briefe-ins-ausland.html

 

I always use it as a reference and ship many, many packages abroad. For EU it sometimes makes more sense to ship with DHL however depending on weight and most of all insurance.

Edited February 23, 2018 by Yavianice

[chadbag]

1 hour ago, Yavianice said:

ebay sellers, if the are honest, should adhere to the SAL rates from Deutsche Post (flatrate for any country). https://www.deutschepost.de/de/b/briefe-ins-ausland.html

 

I always use it as a reference and ship many, many packages abroad. For EU it sometimes makes more sense to ship with DHL however depending on weight and most of all insurance.

 

yes, I would (mostly) agree.   There are costs like packaging material (if they buy a box, etc) so I if I see minor, reasonable, variations, then I have no problem.   10 cars for 12,50 Eur looks fine to me.  I suspect that is under 1000g, and probably done as "Einschreiben" for safety (though it really slows things down in the US as it is treated as "Registered" and they have to keep a chain of custody on it).  So that is 9,50 Eur . I'll give the guy 3 Eur to cover his PP fees on that shipping, plus any tape, box, or packing materials he might use, and his time.

 

Actually, I just went and weighed a Fleischmann car I have in the original packaging.  It came to 80g.  So assuming they are all about the same, that would be 800g.  That leaves only 200g for a box, some bubble wrap, etc.  I hope he did not cheat himself as the next level is 17 Eur for 2000g.  An additional 10 Eur.

[Need for High Speed]

I ordered an HO Marklin Hamo 8371  ICE exp.  and have bought new circuit boards for it from Digital Bhan with a Digi tracks decoder plugged it in didn't work so now I am now just soldering it all directly. I ordered the train on the German Ebay for about $ 120 and about $ 40 in shipping the train is usually worth about $ 200 so $ 170 isn't bad but I wasted 50 bucks on circuit boards that didnt exactly work.

I'll post pictures of my High Speed trains at a later date. Bullet trains are an obsession or I should say high speed train in general. The Jr 500 is especially Hot I mean its just sexy looking. I do not mean it in a sexual way,  not to be weird but the 500 my favorite bullet train.

[chadbag]

3 hours ago, Need for High Speed said:

I ordered an HO Marklin Hamo 8371  ICE exp.  and have bought new circuit boards for it from Digital Bhan with a Digi tracks decoder plugged it in didn't work so now I am now just soldering it all directly. I ordered the train on the German Ebay for about $ 120 and about $ 40 in shipping the train is usually worth about $ 200 so $ 170 isn't bad but I wasted 50 bucks on circuit boards that didnt exactly work.

I'll post pictures of my High Speed trains at a later date. Bullet trains are an obsession or I should say high speed train in general. The Jr 500 is especially Hot I mean its just sexy looking. I do not mean it in a sexual way,  not to be weird but the 500 my favorite bullet train.

So far, my eBay from Germany has been good.   eBay is a hard one to follow up on sometimes.

 

I'd like to find an N-Scale original ICE for a decent price.  I remember in the late Spring of 1986, sitting on a train in Offenburg, waiting to leave the station towards Freiburg, when the original ICE prototype pulled into the station on a publicity tour.   They were not yet in service or anything but were touring Germany.  We only got a glimpse of it for a couple minutes as our train was about to leave and left.   The way it settled down on its air suspension was way cool in 1986.

 

[Gryphr]

On 3/3/2018 at 12:03 AM, chadbag said:

So far, my eBay from Germany has been good.   eBay is a hard one to follow up on sometimes.

 

I'd like to find an N-Scale original ICE for a decent price.  I remember in the late Spring of 1986, sitting on a train in Offenburg, waiting to leave the station towards Freiburg, when the original ICE prototype pulled into the station on a publicity tour.   They were not yet in service or anything but were touring Germany.  We only got a glimpse of it for a couple minutes as our train was about to leave and left.   The way it settled down on its air suspension was way cool in 1986.

 

The model of it (late eighties Minitrix) is pretty often on ebay for okay prices, there's several up currently as far as I can see.

Be careful though when buying, as you might get some extra/unwanted cars. There are:

-Basic set 12996, containing both Powerheads (410 001-2 / 410 002-0) and the Test Coach (810 003-4)

-Add-on 12997, Demonstration Coach D1 (810 001-8)

-Add-on 12998, Demonstration Coach D2 (810 002-6)

 

There's also Add-on 12999 which is the Test Coach 810 003-4 from the basic set sold seperately for some reason, so unless the one from the basic is missing or broken you won't need that one to form the prototype 5 car train.

[chadbag]

1 hour ago, Gryphr said:

 

The model of it (late eighties Minitrix) is pretty often on ebay for okay prices, there's several up currently as far as I can see.

Be careful though when buying, as you might get some extra/unwanted cars. There are:

-Basic set 12996, containing both Powerheads (410 001-2 / 410 002-0) and the Test Coach (810 003-4)

-Add-on 12997, Demonstration Coach D1 (810 001-8)

-Add-on 12998, Demonstration Coach D2 (810 002-6)

 

There's also Add-on 12999 which is the Test Coach 810 003-4 from the basic set sold seperately for some reason, so unless the one from the basic is missing or broken you won't need that one to form the prototype 5 car train.

 

On eBay I found a Fleischmann one that had the two power cars (front and back) and 2 intermediate cars for 139 Euro plus 29 Euro s&h (and I could order more stuff from the guy for the same S&H).  A guy in Paris.   I have not pulled the trigger yet as I am over budget with other stuff, but if it stays up (it is in his eBay store) I may go for it.  Compared to the other ones I find on eBay, the price is the best I have seen though the shipping makes it steep.  The seller is in Paris.

 

I also found a guy selling 6 Fleischmann ICE cars, but marked Amtrak in addition to the normal German livery.  I did some research and they had shipped a whole ICE train over and converted it to run on the US system around 1993 and it ran for 2 months on the NE corridor of Amtrak.  It also did a tour of a ton of US cities, being pulled by diesel engines.   Germany was trying to sell the ICE to Amtrak for what eventually became the Acela service.

[Gryphr]

8 hours ago, chadbag said:

 

On eBay I found a Fleischmann one that had the two power cars (front and back) and 2 intermediate cars for 139 Euro plus 29 Euro s&h (and I could order more stuff from the guy for the same S&H).  A guy in Paris.   I have not pulled the trigger yet as I am over budget with other stuff, but if it stays up (it is in his eBay store) I may go for it.  Compared to the other ones I find on eBay, the price is the best I have seen though the shipping makes it steep.  The seller is in Paris.

 

I also found a guy selling 6 Fleischmann ICE cars, but marked Amtrak in addition to the normal German livery.  I did some research and they had shipped a whole ICE train over and converted it to run on the US system around 1993 and it ran for 2 months on the NE corridor of Amtrak.  It also did a tour of a ton of US cities, being pulled by diesel engines.   Germany was trying to sell the ICE to Amtrak for what eventually became the Acela service.

 

The one you saw in 1986 (which Minitrix produces) would have been the InterCityExperimental / ICE V set which was used to test concept and components first and as a public/press demonstrator. It has some noticable differences like fully covered connections between coaches, a slightly different nose design and the original ICE logo.

That one you mean on eBay would be an ICE 1, which were the first Mass Production trainsets and were built/started their testing  in 1989/1990. The one that toured America was also an modified ICE 1 set.

 

Edited March 5, 2018 by Gryphr

[chadbag]

2 hours ago, Gryphr said:

 

The one you saw in 1986 (which Minitrix produces) would have been the InterCityExperimental / ICE V set which was used to test concept and components first and as a public/press demonstrator. It has some noticable differences like fully covered connections between coaches, a slightly different nose design and the original ICE logo.

That one you mean on eBay would be an ICE 1, which were the first Mass Production trainsets and were built/started their testing  in 1989/1990. The one that toured America was also an modified ICE 1 set.

 

 

Ah, OK.  I should have been paying more attention :)   I did not realize there were significant differences between the ICE V and the ICE 1.  I'll look for the Minitrix version.  Thanks!

 

I may eventually get an ICE 1, someday, and I am waitlisted for the ICE 4 from Lemke/KATO :)

[chadbag]

On 3/5/2018 at 3:35 AM, Gryphr said:

 

The model of it (late eighties Minitrix) is pretty often on ebay for okay prices, there's several up currently as far as I can see.

Be careful though when buying, as you might get some extra/unwanted cars. There are:

-Basic set 12996, containing both Powerheads (410 001-2 / 410 002-0) and the Test Coach (810 003-4)

-Add-on 12997, Demonstration Coach D1 (810 001-8)

-Add-on 12998, Demonstration Coach D2 (810 002-6)

 

There's also Add-on 12999 which is the Test Coach 810 003-4 from the basic set sold seperately for some reason, so unless the one from the basic is missing or broken you won't need that one to form the prototype 5 car train.

 

 

Interesting, the set I bought had 810 --2-6 as the coach included.  So good to know the number for the 810 003-4 separately.

 

When an eBay lists "ohne Kupplung" I assume that means the hourglass shaped piece that holds the cars together?

 

Thanks

 

[Gryphr]

On 3/19/2018 at 6:00 PM, chadbag said:

Interesting, the set I bought had 810 --2-6 as the coach included.  So good to know the number for the 810 003-4 separately.

 

When an eBay lists "ohne Kupplung" I assume that means the hourglass shaped piece that holds the cars together?

 

Thanks

 

Yes, ohne Kupplung means no/without coupler.

[chadbag]

1 hour ago, Gryphr said:

 

Yes, ohne Kupplung means no/without coupler.

 

Thanks.  I figured that was it but the auto-translate in eBay calls it a "clutch" (which is probably correct in a generic sense).  I purchased a "defect" motor wagon for the ICE-V as a backup and the second wagon.  So I should get a coupler piece with the motor wagon and be able to use it with the second wagon so now I am just missing one wagon for the full 5 car set.  Thanks for the help with this.

 

[Gryphr]

On 3/22/2018 at 3:48 PM, chadbag said:

Thanks.  I figured that was it but the auto-translate in eBay calls it a "clutch" (which is probably correct in a generic sense).  I purchased a "defect" motor wagon for the ICE-V as a backup and the second wagon.  So I should get a coupler piece with the motor wagon and be able to use it with the second wagon so now I am just missing one wagon for the full 5 car set.  Thanks for the help with this.

 Pretty much, a Kupplung is about any device that joins two pieces of something together :)

 

How is the ICE-V set btw? Especially in regards to detailing and running performance, I'm considering to buy one myself.

[chadbag]

5 hours ago, Gryphr said:

 Pretty much, a Kupplung is about any device that joins two pieces of something together :)

 

How is the ICE-V set btw? Especially in regards to detailing and running performance, I'm considering to buy one myself.

 

Yeah, that was how I understood "Kupplung" but while I know what a "clutch" is, it gives me other ideas than the couplers...  Thanks.

 

The ICE-V is very nice. The quality of the manufacture and the detailing is quite good.   I've only test run it one day (several runs on the straight test track) as I've been busy.   For some reason it would only go "forward" on DC.   When put the other way on the track, it would only go "forward" with the power pack in reverse.  I don't know why.  Something I read in another eBay ad for another one labeled as "defekt" implied it had to do with the "Kupplung" as he said his did the same but came without "Kupplung" and it should work the other way if you have it.   Did not make sense to me.  I ended up buying another pair of the "Triebköpfe" (driving cars) that were sold at a good price without the couplers, so sold as "defekt".  I bought them as a backup / spare parts.  I have not test run them yet.  I also bought a second wagon (different Betriebsnummer) so now I have two wagons.   I also, somewhat accidentally, as I had not tracked what I had bid on, ended up with another single motorized Triebkopf driving car (for spare parts) at a good price.    I have bid on a set of 2 wagons that include the one I don't have which will give me a complete set if I win.

 

When I finish a side job I am working on for a guy (a few more weeks) I will put this on a "test track" device I have that has rollers and I will power it up and let it go on the rollers while I probe with my volt meter and see what readings I get where.   I plan on hard wiring a DCC decoder in which may fix the direction problem if it is related to a bad PCB board or something.  We'll see.

 

To be honest, all the Minitrix, Fleischmann, and Arnold engines I have are very well made in terms of the outer shell detailing and attention thereto.

 

[Yavianice]

I am curious, does the ICE-V not have standard coupler mountings like other modern trains from Minitrix, Fleischmann, Arnold etc., or do they use some special type of coupler?

 

Fleischmann ICE's come with a custom sort of "stick" coupler that Minitrix also uses on their train sets (for example Koploper sets). However I never use them and exchanged all of them for magnetic couplers since those are far superior.

 

I wish my Arnold ICE3 also had this instead of having the most horrible stabhappy bleeding fingernails couplers ever imaginable it has now.

[chadbag]

4 hours ago, Yavianice said:

I am curious, does the ICE-V not have standard coupler mountings like other modern trains from Minitrix, Fleischmann, Arnold etc., or do they use some special type of coupler?

 

Fleischmann ICE's come with a custom sort of "stick" coupler that Minitrix also uses on their train sets (for example Koploper sets). However I never use them and exchanged all of them for magnetic couplers since those are far superior.

 

I wish my Arnold ICE3 also had this instead of having the most horrible stabhappy bleeding fingernails couplers ever imaginable it has now.

 

This is how the Minitrix ICE-V couples.  I have not seen this before but I am not that familiar with other Minitrix or Fleischmann coupling systems except the "Rapido" style all my freight cars and locomotives have installed.

 

The coupler itself I am going try and fabricate using thin hobby plywood and some thin metal sheet, as I have extra cars/driving cars.   The metal strip on it is on both sides so it looks identical on both sides.