I’m hoping someone here has info on a cost-effective way to regularly ship packages from Japan to the US. Some background: one of my friends runs an antique/collectibles business in the US and I thought it’d be a fun hobby to source interesting stuff in Japan and ship it off for him to sell, mostly in his local market. The prices for I’ve seen shipping via mainstream options (Yuucho, Yamato) are pretty steep, though, and it would seem to make little sense to pursue this.
Are there any options beyond the post office and big carriers like Yamato? As I said, this would mostly be a hobby (a way for me to fund my vintage tool habit, really), but it would be cool to figure out a way to make it viable, especially for bigger packages/larger items. Any guidance is appreciated!
3 comments
You can try getting quotes from SF Express. They service USA and do local pickup/delivery in Japan. But if you don’t like yamato/jp post prices, SF is not going to be much cheaper (but still cheaper than fedex/dhl/etc).
Sea mail from the post office. Takes 3-6 weeks but you can ship a ton for 5000 yen
You have to find the balance between size, weight, and the value of the item. Small items that aren’t too heavy but that have a reasonable value are what you need to be looking for. Those items can absorb the cost of EMS shipping and still be profitable.
Anything big & heavy is not likely to be practical to ship unless you do this in enough volume to ship via a 40ft container, but if it’s a hobby, that’s not hugely likely.
You are unlikely to find the private carriers to be cheaper than EMS, unless you can find someone who will let you use their business account. Even then, in most cases it won’t be *cheaper* than EMS, at least not by enough to really matter.