Has anyone tried selling, say, foreign goods on mercari? The markup for foreign products here is ridiculously high…which made me think, maybe I could make some money coming back to japan from holiday and sell things here. Has anyone tried selling foreign goods from back home for ¥¥¥? Are there any roadblocks to this?
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My guess is that there are customs fees and taxes That will eat into your margins if you do this properly as a business.
The mark up is high because it’s not like the products just manifest themselves here. Getting them to Japan, paying taxes/customs/fees etc makes them expensive.
When you occasionally go back home, where there are many popular products among Japanese people, you buy some items and sell them on Mercari to make some money, which is fine. However, doing this on a business level must be really hard since you would need to pay a lot for customs taxes, delivery services, storage charges, etc.
Of course u need to sell those goods in higher prices here, you have to include those extra fees like what the other guys mentioned.
Have you not seen the plethora of foreign goods sold by SOFA members secretly on Mercari?
The opposite is true as well, a lot of Japanese stuff is popular overseas, and much more expensive. You can see Chinese tourists buy up crazy amounts of Japanese makeup, etc.
Even non Japanese stuff like iPhones and computers are cheaper in Japan than most Asian or European countries. I often see people from Australia load up on electronics. I’ve also traveled Asia a lot, and can tell you that everything from Nike to LV to Sony costs a lot more in places like Philippines and Indonesia than in Japan.
Based on that, I would say that the mark up in Japan is actually lower than a lot of places.
At any rate, legally speaking, you’d need to declare stuff you brought in to customs, and specify the purpose. Assuming you bring enough to make it worth your while and tell the truth, there would be a lot of taxes to pay.
If you decide to lie, then you won’t be able to bring much, as it would become obvious you don’t need 10 bottles of whiskey for “personal use”, etc.
There are some things that could still be profitable, though. For example, fancy whiskey makers found that in Japan the higher the price they charge, the more units they sell! This isn’t because of taxes imposed by the government, but just people wanting a more “premium” product. (If you’re buying a gift for someone, you are going to buy the $50 bottle, not the $5 bottle).
Foreign Pokémon games actually fetch a nice price for whatever reason
Shipping fees from your home country, Import taxes, shipping, Mercari 10% commission fees etc… I run the numbers on many goods from my home country and you barely break even. Oh, and you need to pay income taxes too.