shants

i totally just bought one. -- well, i formally agreed to purchase it.. i just have to send the money order

Bikeophile

Be careful guys...its not ONLY customs you're gonna get blasted on...You're also going to get blasted on separate importing duties.

You need to get a customs agent. If you don't get one then whomever is the shipper will charge you the handling fees, which can be quite a bit.

jrowe

How does this work? If a bike shop is shipping me something from Japan, and I've already paid shipping, at what step would I get hit with duties?

shants

duh, the frame is totally a "gift." that's always worked for me with intl shipping

TNCLR

There was no mention of any duties or additional fees outside of the flat shipping fee when I ordered my frame from them. Just an FYI.

jrowe

A "gift", eh? Cool, "thanks".

Next question: under what circumstances would one have to pay duties (other than at customs at the airport)?

jrowe

That was my understanding. I ordered my frame a couple of weeks ago when I was there. But bikophile's post concerned me.

shants

i just meant that i've always had packages declared as gifts to avoid tarrifs and such. i imagine that e-framebank does a low-enough volume of shipments to avoid detection. i mean, they're a small used bike store.

when i ordered, they also just said that i need to add $120 for the shipping. someone, earlier in this thread, said that they had purchased a vivalo or some such from them a while ago and received it. i wonder if they had any customs issues, etc. that would perhaps be the most informative source.

Bikeophile

I've been buying and selling for years and have had a lot of experience with "GIFTS". Don't be surprised if you still get hit for substantial duty. If these guys are a reputable company (if they aren't I would be scared to buy a frame from them anyways), they will insure the product with either their cost of the frame or the price you paid.

When products come across even as a gift you can end up paying duty depending on its value and what the customs declaration is.

For example. I had an order I placed for one of my suppliers. The order was $750USD. He declared it as a gift (this was our first big order, so he did this as a favour). He did declare the value though for insurance reasons..

The result...nearly $200 of duty...and that was USA to Canada...

The E-framebank people will have no control over that the customs agents do when the product gets here...and the lovely thing is that customs isn't consistent...so one person may get burned while a second person gets lucky...

oh the fun!

I don't want to discourage anyone from doing the overseas buying...But don't do it based on price alone, because you could very easily be disappointed if that's your only motive for purchashing from these folks.

crust & crumb

well, crap.

HexagonSun

i bought a 3rensho from shinji a while back, and we had it mailed to a friend of mine in japan and brought back on a plane simply to avoid all this confusing customs crap you're talking about now. i don't know how the duty is calculated, or how easy it is to get around it, but i couldn't find anywhere that could give me a difinitive answer so i didn't want to risk getting shafted an extra $100 or something. try emailing shinji again and ask him. or try asking the guy on fgg who had the nagasawa shipped to him.

crust & crumb

pics.
i emailed him the same day that his nagasawa premiered on fgg. he failed to respond.

HexagonSun

these are the pics from e-framebank.

i'm still in the process of building it up. right now i have superbe pro cranks and hubs, hatta headset/bottom bracket, selle san marco regal saddle in white leather. still waiting on nitto bars, stem, seatpost, and some all white velocity razors (if they're available).

the last photo is my roommate's friend. she's in the JET program and i had the frame shipped to her in japan and flown back with her boyfriend.
i instructed her to pose next to it like funkmaster flex would with his 20" spinners.

crust & crumb

hexagonsun: fantastic 3rensho. did the hatta hs/bb come equipped on the frame, or did you purchase them separately? all of the frames seem to be pictured with them, and i've always wondered about this...

shants

i am going to go ahead and give it a whirl -- i'll post back to let others know how it goes.

cheers, aaron

Ceya

Most frames come with headset.

S/F<
CEYA!

Mouton

goddamn that thing is hot! If too many of you guys start picking up $300 keirins ill have to cry a bit about buying mine from reload! (i am still amped though, regardless)

shants

i'm wondering -- has anyone ever purchased a frame overseas via eBay or some such? i imagine that one's experience with a single frame sent over that way would likely be similar to the e-framebank situation

TNCLR

This site shows the duty fee of a bicycle frame to be 3.9%. So a $340 dollar frame from Japan would have a duty fee of $13.26.

mcatano

Also the duty on used items will generally be substantially lower than on new items. If the customs declaration reads, "USED bicycle frame," you're less likely to get hit with duty. Furthermore, if you do end up getting dinged you can usually get most of your money back by going to your customs office and showing that the item is used and that the insurance value is not the actual value of the item but the replacement value of a similar new item (ie, for insurance purposes). It's a pain in the ass, but they're usually pretty good about it and you'll get the money back a few months later.

m.

shants

how does it work if something you have shipped gets hit with customs charges? do they contact you? the shipper? do you then have to give them money before you get the item?

sorry for all of the questions -- just curious

mcatano

You'll be notified of the charges upon delivery and they won't release the package to you until you give them the money. I think some shipping agencies (fedex maybe?) will put the customs charges on their web tracking info, but that's the exception as far as I know.

m.

dolface

good lord that's a beautiful bike!!

teadoggg

absntr, i'm thinking pretty seriously about getting one. are you still considering it?

absntr

I am but I'm a little wary of the customs dealio and whatnot. I don't have too much to spare budgetwise. I'm in the $500 ballpark figure at this point, which is already stretching things more than I really want for one of these.

juvi-kyle is definitely interested so if you want to go ahead and split it with him, do it.