Experience with Buyee/Mercari/other Japanese sites

[blacksaintsaens]

I was wondering if anyone in the US has any experience buying horns off of Buyee, Mercari, Japan Yahoo Auctions, or other Japanese sites before. Their horns seem to be pretty reasonably priced to my eyes, and listings also tend to stay up for longer than eBay. Speaking of eBay if anyone has experience buying from those sellers who list Japanese site listings please let me know. Seems like there should be some catch here besides shipping an instrument internationally, but I'm not sure. Thanks!

[Finetales]

I have bought a few horns from Japanese eBay sellers and didn't have any issues. They do tend to ship the horns in just the case though.

I have yet to buy an instrument from Buyee, but just yesterday the bass trumpet gig bag I bought from there arrived at my door. Took a few weeks, but no complaints with the result, and the shipping cost wasn't too bad. If I ever buy a horn from Buyee, I'll report back on how much the shipping costs. That's the one catch with Buyee - you can't see the shipping costs until you've already won the item. The Japanese eBay listings, which are often straight from Buyee listings but set up with a Buy it Now price higher than they anticipate the Buyee auction will go, have free shipping which is nice.

[Chazzer69]

This is a good example of what Finetales was talking about in regard to putting up horns for sale on eBay with a higher price than the "Buyout Price" on Buyee.

eBay listing: https://tinyurl.com/3twyphnb

Buyee listing: https://tinyurl.com/57wuszv5

URLs were super long so I shortened them. Promise they are legit.

[HawaiiTromboneGuy]

I have been purchasing from Yahoo Japan Auction for years now, and not just trombones. My first NY 50B, which was beautifully gold plated and now owned by a member here, was purchased way back from there. At first I was using their inhouse “Buyee” service, but have since found another method to acquiring horns from Japan. With the exchange rate way in our favor, now’s a great time to purchase interesting horns at really discounted prices. I probably purchased 5-6 horns while I was using their Buyee service and each time the horns arrived quickly and as described. Being in Hawaii, horns usually got delivered to me within 3-4 business days, even with having to clear through Customs. That EMS shipping is no joke.

*Edited to add that when using their Buyee service, they will ship your purchases in a box with good protection/padding.