Rail Gallery Rokko

[mags_minibuilds]

Just curious, since I will be going to Japan in June and possibly visiting RGR too...can you order and pay for all the items beforehand to get tax-free? Then pick it up at the store?

[chadbag]

3 hours ago, mgar2112 said:

Thanks Lessigen. He was totally transparent about the sales tax and not being duty-free. He broke down his pricing for me and it's better than I can find on-line with shipping to the US. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do any train shopping in Tokyo before I visit his shop so I won't be able to compare.

 

You may want to ship your stuff from him now or whenever and visit his store to pick up any incidentals and stuff you may want.  That saves the hassle of having to carry it around and bring it back and saves the tax etc.  That's what I've done in the past.  Had the main stuff shipped and then visited and bought a few more things while I was there.

 

 

[chadbag]

2 hours ago, mags_minibuilds said:

Just curious, since I will be going to Japan in June and possibly visiting RGR too...can you order and pay for all the items beforehand to get tax-free? Then pick it up at the store?

Probably not but you could ask him.  I know in the US as a sales tax ID holder, (since I fall into the don't have to collect sales tax outside of my state as I don't due enough business), that if I hand the goods over inside my state I have to collect the tax, even if the recipient is from out of state.  I would guess other places have similar analogous laws.

 

[Lessigen]

Just received a package from Masaharu-san a few minutes ago (I will post the haul in the corresponding thread later 😉). I have to say I was pleasantly surprised about what he did this time around. I was waiting for details about paying through WISE as I had emailed him before his days off, and when he got back to me (Thursday morning), he sent me the necessary details and let me know that he was sending the order in advance of my payment. That kinda shocked me. I ended up paying this morning (Friday) once I got it transferred and converted into my WISE account and got the package already in my hands that afternoon. Fortunately Fedex didn't give me the runaround for an extra day this time. Unbelievably good guy and won over my lifetime loyalty for sure.

 

Thanks to @Yavianice for their work on getting WISE set up with him. Definitely the way to go for me and it saves us both money in the end. As a word of advice, the best method seems to be depositing your money into WISE as your local currency, and then converting to JPY (this way has less fees than depositing directly into JPY). If your bank offers free electronic funds transfers (EFT), initiate the transfer from them as Wise charges a little bit to do it themself. Make sure to account for WISE transfer fees when converting and also paying in JPY, by my calculations this was 0.46% (CAD > JPY) and 0.24% (JPY > RGR) of what I sent to Masaharu-san.

 

For reference, in case anyone searches this thread by keywords in the future, I asked him a few questions about some other vendors:

• He can order from Hobby Center KATO, offers up to 20% discount
• He can also order from KATO Kyoto Station, but does not offer any discount (only list price)
• TOMIX Tec Station is not wholesale, therefore you will have to pay Japan sales tax (10%). He will acquire it for you as a middleman at no profit.
• Popondetta pre-orders are offered at a 10% discount