Shipping services

[CaptOblivious]

I know some members here have used various auction services for ordering stuff from Yahoo Auctions, but has anyone used any of the options for shipping services? For example, Rakuten has apparently partnered with Tenso, which provides members with a Japanese shipping address. You pay to have items shipped to that address, and then Tenso fowards it for 490円 plus EMS shipping fees. That sounds like an awfully good deal. They will also bundle multiple items together for an additional (somewhat steep) fee.

 

http://event.rakuten.co.jp/borderless/tenso/english/

 

Anyone use them or something similar? Of course, you still have to find shops that take non-Japanese credit cards, and that will deal with non-Japanese speakers (if you don't happen to speak the language). But this could open up a lot of internet shops that had been closed to us…

[Kabutoni]

I've used Japan Auction Centre for similar use, but they do combined shipping in one box for about ¥1,300 IIRC. I think if you order from one sender on Yahoo! Auctions it's cheaper to go by Rakuten (Tenso), but when ordering from multiple senders it's better to go by JAC.

 

Some simple math should do the trick IMO, but that differs per order of course...