Purchasing in and shipping from Japan

[Seney724]

3 minutes ago, Number99 said:

If you understand how the no-stock resale system works, that's fine.

Too bad I can't move on to talk about the people who are selling and consulting on this system and making even more profit.

The matter you describe is but one component of this issue.

I acknowledge it exists and agree it is a big problem.

But, it is only one component.

 

I have a question for you which maybe you can explain.

Hopefully you agree that what you are describing is a scam.  And that this scam reflects poorly upon the pen sellers in Japan.

My question is if this scam is so widely recognized, and is a scam which is damaging the reputation of the pen sellers in Japan, why haven't the Japanese pen sellers used their significant selling block (power) to convince eBay to cease allowing the scam activities to occur on their e-commerce site?

Thank you.

[Merrick]

Generally as long as eBay gets their cut of a sale and the seller isn’t doing anything obviously illegal, they don’t care. 

[Seney724]

52 minutes ago, Merrick said:

Generally as long as eBay gets their cut of a sale and the seller isn’t doing anything obviously illegal, they don’t care. 

Absolutely!

That's for damn sure!

[inkstainedruth]

The worst trouble I ever had with sellers on eBay were both vendors in New York City.  

One was a business with literally THOUSANDS of transactions under their belt -- but did NOT have 100% positive feedback ratings.  I got stiffed and they were kinda a-holes about it.  So I filed a complaint.  And within hours the dispute was settled in my favor and I got my money refunded -- but as a result was NOT allowed to provide feedback!  (That's two mistakes I'll never make again -- in future I'll file the negative feedback and THEN file the dispute; plus you couldn't PAY me enough to trust that vendor enough to buy ANYTHING EVER AGAIN).  

The other seller?  Had 100% positive feedback but then cancelled the transaction 2 days after agreeing to my offer (it was a BiN or "Make an Offer" situation.  I heard from PayPal BEFORE I heard from eBay.  And eBay said "Oh, you got your money back you can't do feedback!"  And *I* said, "JUST WATCH ME!"  Because I don't know if the seller got a better offer, or it was a case where they didn't actually HAVE the pen in their possession at ALL.

As for the claims of "lots of bad actor sellers from Japan?"  Admittedly my experience is pretty limited but I had a GREAT experience the one time I bought a pen from a Japanese vendor on eBay.  I would HAPPILY buy from that seller again.  Got EXACTLY what I wanted -- and even with the extra $13 for Economy Air Mail Shipping from Japan?  I STILL saved money from what the jacked-up price from the US distributor would have been.  The irony now is that 5 years later I COULD have gotten that color in the US (well, THEIR LOSS thanks to their stupee "marketing decisions" [shrug]).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Merrick]

I literally just had a seller try to sell me counterfeit headphones and I managed to get eBay customer service to demand that they give me a full refund, they claimed the product was genuine so it was a “changed my mind” returned and were threatening to charge me for shipping and restocking and all this other BS. 

[Number99]

17 hours ago, Seney724 said:

I acknowledge it exists and agree it is a big problem.

But, it is only one component

I don't know what another component is.

 

17 hours ago, Seney724 said:

I have a question

This is not a question but an unreasonable demand, and it sounds as if I am part of a foreign no-stock reseller and you want me to confess.

Why should I, a non-party, make a judgment about it?

 

17 hours ago, Seney724 said:

this scam

What is the definition of deception and what are the specific elements of the crime in this case?

Calling someone a criminal without clear evidence of guilt is a crime in Japan. Slander without evidence also constitutes a crime.

 

However, if the original seller had set the copyright on the photo, it would be a violation of Japanese copyright law.

However, this level of infringement would not be punishable.

 

I am aware that it is sometimes tolerated in their country, although it is an immoral act in the sense of morality I hold. I am aware that there are areas of this world where people have to live for days on end on just a few dollars. They have to live.

 

17 hours ago, Seney724 said:

My question is if this scam is so widely recognized, and is a scam which is damaging the reputation of the pen sellers in Japan, why haven't the Japanese pen sellers used their significant selling block (power) to convince eBay to cease allowing the scam activities to occur on their e-commerce site?

Thank you.

Please sort out which writing materials vendor you are referring to. The ones whose photos are being stolen are individual participants, just like your family members, and they are ordinary citizens authorized to sell small amounts of goods tax-free.

Apart from that, of course I don't think huge manufacturers are affected by this.

 

In Japan, eBay is a very minor e-commerce site and very few Japanese know of its existence.

eBay Japan, which uses only English, is almost non-functional, and I don't know if it even has an office in Japan. There are no Japanese-speaking staff. Even if you want to list an item on eBay, the eBay app does not have a translation function, making it impossible to understand the complicated business rules, and I hear that they charge high fees from Asians. It is difficult for Japanese to list items on eBay.

 

Many used goods from Japan are sold overseas by foreigners who are attracted to the huge used goods market.

Why do you call them "Japanese" just because the goods are shipped from Japan?

Both eBay and the seller you accuse are outside Japan.

What on earth can the original Japanese seller do?

 

Edited July 16 by Number99
Correction of mistranslations.

[Seney724]

2 hours ago, Number99 said:

I don't know what another component is.

 

This is not a question but an unreasonable demand, and it sounds as if I am part of a foreign no-stock reseller and you want me to confess.

Why should I, a non-party, make a judgment about it?

 

What is the definition of deception and what are the specific elements of the crime in this case?

Calling someone a criminal without clear evidence of guilt is a crime in Japan. Slander without evidence also constitutes a crime.

 

However, if the original seller had set the copyright on the photo, it would be a violation of Japanese copyright law.

However, this level of infringement would not be punishable.

 

I am aware that it is sometimes tolerated in their country, although it is an immoral act in the sense of morality I hold. I am aware that there are areas of this world where people have to live for days on end on just a few dollars. They have to live.

 

Please sort out which writing materials vendor you are referring to. The ones whose photos are being stolen are individual participants, just like your family members, and they are ordinary citizens authorized to sell small amounts of goods tax-free.

Apart from that, of course I don't think huge manufacturers are affected by this.

 

In Japan, eBay is a very minor e-commerce site and very few Japanese know of its existence.

eBay Japan, which uses only English, is almost non-functional, and I don't know if it even has an office in Japan. There are no Japanese-speaking staff. Even if you want to list an item on eBay, the eBay app does not have a translation function, making it impossible to understand the complicated business rules, and I hear that they charge high fees from Asians. It is difficult for Japanese to list items on eBay.

 

Many used goods from Japan are sold overseas by foreigners who are attracted to the huge used goods market.

Why do you call them "Japanese" just because the goods are shipped from Japan?

Both eBay and the seller you accuse are outside Japan.

What on earth can the original Japanese seller do?

 

You seem to have a huge problem with managing your anger @Number99

It has been evident from your very first post in this thread.

I have no interest in engaging someone who is so hostile;  I will not in participate in any further dialogue with you.

Have a nice day; I hope you feel better soon.

 

[Number99]

35 minutes ago, Seney724 said:

You seem to have a huge problem with managing your anger @Number99

It has been evident from your very first post in this thread.

I have no interest in engaging someone who is so hostile;  I will not in participate in any further dialogue with you.

Have a nice day; I hope you feel better soon.

 

I am glad to get those words from someone who has insulted others so profusely. That is a very nice reward.

😁

[DesAstor]

4 hours ago, Number99 said:

I am glad to get those words from someone who has insulted others so profusely. That is a very nice reward.

😁

Would it be possible to turn down the temperature a bit. This is not why I had asked my original question. While fact is that there a plenty of fraudsters, it’s implausible that there is any particular ethnic group that will lay claim to it. Moreover, I don’t belief that there is a need to get personal in public as that takes away of the informational value of posts. If there is a need or desire to slug it out, why not do so behind the scenes, this way I don’t need to read about it

[DesAstor]

On 7/15/2024 at 9:49 AM, Merrick said:

I believe merchants are charged by US customs for items between $800-$2499 but I am not an expert and those rules can be difficult to parse. 

There are formal and informal imports, the latter referring to personal use and those are capped at $2499 as you mentioned. But, and I am speaking of personal experience, the interpretation of formal vs informal is left to the customs official at hand and their interpretation, even if running afoul with actual policy, is the word of god. I am just mentioning this bc I had to abandon more than one oversees package as purchase price and 6.5% duty fees had exceeded the actual value of the product. A very frustrating experience I wish to avoid. I will say I experienced similar issues shipping used things to a friend in Germany who was repeatedly charged tax for new retail, which clearly was not fact. But, time and effort trying to resolve issue were not worth it a she ended up paying. Just saying that customs issues may occur elsewhere as well.

[Seney724]

12 minutes ago, DesAstor said:

Would it be possible to turn down the temperature a bit. This is not why I had asked my original question. While fact is that there a plenty of fraudsters, it’s implausible that there is any particular ethnic group that will lay claim to it. Moreover, I don’t belief that there is a need to get personal in public as that takes away of the informational value of posts. If there is a need or desire to slug it out, why not do so behind the scenes, this way I don’t need to read about it

Hello @DesAstor

Thank you, I agree with you completely.

I am sorry that your very appropriate post devolved into this.......

I feel badly about this and was hoping that it was due to a translation related misunderstanding...... but it quickly became apparent to me that this was not the case. 

As you have seen, I informed him I was disengaging from any further communication with him.

But I surely welcome the opportunity to continue this dialogue with you or any other member.

Thank you again and apologies again to you and anyone else who has been, understandably, put off by these posts.

 

[Seney724]

13 minutes ago, DesAstor said:

There are formal and informal imports, the latter referring to personal use and those are capped at $2499 as you mentioned. But, and I am speaking of personal experience, the interpretation of formal vs informal is left to the customs official at hand and their interpretation, even if running afoul with actual policy, is the word of god. I am just mentioning this bc I had to abandon more than one oversees package as purchase price and 6.5% duty fees had exceeded the actual value of the product. A very frustrating experience I wish to avoid. I will say I experienced similar issues shipping used things to a friend in Germany who was repeatedly charged tax for new retail, which clearly was not fact. But, time and effort trying to resolve issue were not worth it a she ended up paying. Just saying that customs issues may occur elsewhere as well.

I may not be the best source of experience related information here because, to the best of my recollection, I have only "imported" one fountain pen into the USA with a value of > USD $800.

For that one, which as I recall had a declared value of about USD $1,300, I was billed approximately USD $45.  So, in the neighborhood of 4%. 

 

But, the point I am trying to make is I was billed for the US Customs import tax, not the merchant. 

 

"Knock on wood," I have never had to pay any import duties on any of the other pens, none of which had declarations for more than USD $800.

 

Here is a link to the most recent reference I have been able to find as relates to imports into the USA

https://www.dhl.com/discover/en-my/logistics-advice/import-export-advice/All-You-Need-to-Know-About-US-Import-Tax-and-Duties#:~:text=Do I have to pay,the De Minimis exception list.

[Number99]

2 hours ago, DesAstor said:

fraudsters

Choosing and adopting those words is the most offensive act, do not call a person a sinner without giving specific and objective examples. Such words should not be chosen unintentionally.

He did not stop despite being warned once.

I specifically explained it to him and he didn't explain anything. If this is an ugly fist fight, you are in it yourself.

 

P.S.

This is not a forum only for pen buyers.

Many sellers have shared their knowledge professionally and for free.

You should not use expressions that collectively imply a sinner against the seller. It should be explicitly exemplified with clear evidence.

Please do not non-explicitly refer to a specific profession as criminal without specific and conclusive evidence.

This is a moral issue for the contributor.

Edited July 16 by Number99