This might be way too much info so strap in!
Basically URL
https://sendico.com/ - Obvs create an account.
Once your account is created it time to start hunting for plastic crack...
At the top next to the search bar where it says "all" you can change what storefront you are using, I use Mercari exclusively so can't comment on how good/bad the others are. I would imagine if you were to use Auction one you could potentially get even better deals but I'm not sure what it's like with the bidding as you need money in your wallet to place the bids etc, it just seems like to much chew on for me.
When you are searching, it is always worth searching for a few variations as for example "Hello Kitty Gundam" will get you different results to searching "Gundam Hello Kitty". Once you press search it'll translate your search into Japanese, if you happen to know the Japanese name for the item you may get different results again. Another example is I like the "MG RX-78 3.0" kits. if I search for that I might get around 60 results, but if I just search for 1/100 RX-78 or MG 1/100 RX-78 I could get quite a few more.
Again (for
@Musty Pie) with the RX-93 you got the other day, you might want to search RG RX-93, 1/144 RX-94 Nu Gundam and other variations. For each search look through the results and open the ones you like the look of into new tabs. Once you done that move onto the next search variation. There's been a couple of times when I've searched on something and then done another search a cheaper listing has shown up.
Also when you search, I generally always sort it by highest to lowest as while you get the OTT priced kits or group of kits when you go lowest to highest you might have to wade through a lot more as it'll be people selling trading cards or just the leg etc. Another thing is sometimes after searching press F5 to refresh the page, you can sometimes search and it say no results but once it refreshes it'll show a bunch. The Searching can feel a bit janky at times, if I'm honest it's not as good as it was when I first started using it but it still works.
Once you have your listings, what I'm generally looking for are in the description it saying unused and pictures of the runners still in the bags. I have bought listings that haven't had those pictures but just said sealed in the description and it's been fine. Also take note of the rating, if someone has a fresh account or too much negative reviews you'll get a prompt when you view the listing saying it's blocked. You can either hide the warning or click the button to request an unblock. It then raises a support ticket and they'll unblock it for you and send a message once it's unblocked.
I bought this the other week (
https://sendico.com/shop/mercari/catalog/m81083896837) and at the time this had 0 feedback but the description was clear and I could see the runners were still sealed and when going through the listings it clearly wasn't someone stealing the pictures and listing something they didn't have, so got that unlocked and bought that. If you were to look on Ebay for the same item, I think the cheapest on there at the minute is this one which is £135* (compared to the £16 of the one I got)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/335924485256?_skw=RG+RX-78+GFT&itmmeta=01KCPR35T7B7B5ZRTPAAN1VTXS&hash=item4e36a8dc88:g:4~8AAeSwfWloBwzK&itmprp=enc:AQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1f/ekQQpwIq/+eYfVuhPfAtX+TNtnbExMFiPkloEKtoHaQeAs+lNuYHhM17j/GPNUnJV4GscAoOedOMRU+te6RJGrxtb6YwVGJI3XAV4SJUMUzIzdyxsIvDix2nLbwZudKoq1/8YUokv+mDx07S5gIH0Qkd2mnA6pSqi/rsK3Esf0c2A4wJSEMHvhjOKrcGDIp3Cg6aY+pCQu56PV9gh7zYiKuwz5JicdJL88toAeZmgm/Wsei1FoNuuKTm3xN4oUOnnvOiQihQxjiQ2Kv/7oA3f7pHFTO5kOtB3nS3/mYenA==|tkp:Bk9SR7DdjNjlZg
Before we do the buying, Sendico charge fees for every purchase. It's always 500 yen so if something is 1500Y you need to add another 500 on to the total price (it's about £2.40 at the moment). You also need to keep an eye on the listing as some listing will have an additional inland shipping charge. Mandarake I think is always 660Yen for that so means your 1500 is now 2660. So it's worth keeping in mind if you have 2 or 3 listings that all basically the same price. One could be way cheaper as it doesn't have shipping, which to be fair most don't. It only seems to be shops like Mandarke rather than private sellers that have the shipping charge.
Now the fun part of buying... You need to load your wallet with Yen before you can buy anything. To do that, click your name in the top right > Click Wallet > Add Funds to Wallet > Select how you want to load the wallet, I've only ever used PayPal as it's the easiest for me. When you're adding the the funds you need to add the Yen amount so for the image above I'd add 1850 into my wallet. When you're adding Funds Sendico again charge a fee but I think it's like % so it's normally tiny and Paypal will charge whatever their currency fee is again it's tiny but you won't see that until you get further into the PayPal confirmation. 1850 is £8.88 at the moment so can kind see what the fee is there.
Once you've loaded your wallet up flick back to the listing (I normally open the wallet in another tab so I don't lose it) and press Buy it Now (you might need to F5 so the refresh updates your wallet against the listing).
Once you've clicked buy it'll take you to this screen:
I've never picked the contents check as it's an additional charge and I don't see the point, if I've been had why do I want to pay more for it
If you now click on your orders you'll see this:
As Japan is well ahead of us time wise, it'll take a bit for that to update, but it's them basically buying the good for you and telling the seller to send it to them. I've only ever had one item cancel, and I got a message saying it was sold elsewhere and the just refunded me the money.
Once that's sorted it'll go to 'Awaiting Arrival' and when it turns up you'll see it go to 'In Warehouse', they'll also put the weight of the item so you can guess of shipping costs as weight is a factor. The price you see here as well is the listing price + fees which is important.
The final bit is obviously then shipping your stuff across to you, here there is some
REALLY important information. Basically as long as the order you are shipping be it 1 kit or multiple kits comes in under £135 you won't get hit with any import charges or tariffs (
https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty). This is 28,130.86Yen at moment but the general rule of thumb I play by is that my 'package' wont go over 25500 to 26000 Yen. With that I've never been hit by the rates changing. If you did get stung for customs, on 135 it would usually be 40 on top which depending on what kits you got would still bring you well under what you'd pay just normally in the UK.
The way the shipping works is that, they'll give you an estimate as you build the package then the next day or two they'll say it'll be X. I've generally found the actual price is normally under what is quoted when you're building the parcel.
From the top click the In Warehouse button and it'll just you just what is ready to ship.
At the top will be a button to put everything into a parcel that's in the warehouse but if you have a problem like I do and need to break it down into separate parcels, simply tick the items you want to put into your parcel and you'll see another button appear that will say put X items in to Parcel and it'll tell you the Yen total so you don't go over the magical 135 limit.
Click that then pick you're address, I have multiple purely as I get stuff sent to work and we've moved office not long ago and one is my home address.
On the next screen I always just clicked Used (I think junk would do the same) but I never tick the bottom two options. Depending what's in the parcel you might have multiple lines to tick for the used/junk bit.
Next screen, here is where you'll get your first kind of idea as to how much it'll cost to shop. I click to enable contents insurance and I've only ever use EMS. The reason for this is EMS when it hits the UK goes to Royal Mail/Parcel force as as I get them shipped to my office I know they'll always arrive as other couriers are a bit hit and miss to where we are based.
Next screen as I've always ordering a few kits I always tick the protective packaging option which is just to bubble wrap some of the bits inside. Sendico use pretty heavy duty boxes though so the risk of something getting damaged inside is low I'd say but I don't like to chance it. I also tick to say to take an item out if it won't fit. Click confirm
Then if you click the parcel option from the right you'll see your order sat there. Once they know the cost to ship it, you'll get an email notification and in this screen it should also say the amount. You just need to put that amount into your wallet and click the icon to pay.
Give it another day or two after it's been paid and it'll then get dispatched. The Tracking ID, I normally get a text off Royal Mail to say they are aware of it once it's been sent in Japan and you can click that link to track where it's at (you'll also then be able to put that number into the Royal Mail site to track it).
You'll know if its been snagged by customs when it lands here as if you click the tracking link in the Sendico page you'll see "In Customs" you'll see this like 3/4 days before you get the letter/email saying you owe something. But I've only bit hit with it twice, once when I very first used the site and was aware of the limit and another time where I pushed my parcel right to the edge of the 135 and the exchange rate changed a bit so they snagged me for it.
I think that pretty much covers it, if you're sensible you won't get stung and there are some insane bargains and gems to be snagged. I'd also recommend always check what kits are going for in the UK so you know you're getting a bargain and if you are wanting a more expensive kit, say something special you know you'll get hit by customs for have a look on ebay first to see what they sell on there. Just if you know you'll get hit by customs if you just go over 135 I think it's another 40/45 on top so something much more expense would obviously be greater and you might find someone in the UK has already taken the customs hit for you. Some of the pics are a bit pants as my screen was trying to do HDR for some reason when snipping.
For the gems though you can find listings like the below which is £28 before fees and shipping (will come to say 45 to get to the UK)
Shop Japan effortlessly with Sendico! Mercari Japan, Amazon Japan, JDirectItems Auction (Yahoo Auctions), Rakuten, Surugaya, Second Street & more are only a few clicks away! From anime figures, to retro games, to brand fashion, anything you want, we've got.
sendico.com
but already here in the UK they are £33 and £40 plus shipping (5) on top
The new edition of RX-78-02 Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island movie. Set contents:Beam rifle (early / mid-term)Hyper BazookaBeam SaberShieldShoulder Cannon
kidultverse.com
“Cucuruz Doan”Driven by a veteran warrior, Zaku From the movie "Mobile Suit Gundam Cucuruz Doan's Island", the Zaku piloted by Cucuruz Doan appears in the HG series. The impressive head, peeled armor in various parts of the fuselage, missing power pipes, etc. are reproduced with new modeling. A...
kidultverse.com
Any questions or if you need help finding listings just shout, I'm happy to go through things I've bought to give you idea of costs as I've generally always ship 4/5 kits at least and I like to look out for things like above where it's multiple kits in one listing.
