Minizoo

[BlueKrono]

Does anyone have any experience buying from minizoo.com? I'm sure a lot of you do. I was wondering what the customs duties and shipping are like from Australia to other countries (I'm in the US). I know shipping from Australia is very expensive from Australia on eBay which is why I almost never buy from there, but for a big lot of stuff it might be worth it, especially at minizoo's prices. For instance, the Collecta Mosasaur can be purchased on eBay right now for ~$50, while minizoo sells it for $7.18.

[Flaffy]

No one really goes to ebay to buy CollectAs.

[BlueKrono]

Well you can say that, but that's where I've gotten all of mine. I've never seen them in a store. It would be nice to buy them at store prices, but acquiring them usually necessitates eBay shipping. If I could pay shipping just once for a big lot of them that would be good, provided it wasn't too outrageous.

[stargatedalek]

I've gotten very large packages from them shipped to Canada, extremely good shipping prices. And they offer complete shipping quotes before purchase.

[BlueKrono]

Ah, I see. Tried it out, and the shipping cost was over $50 (on about $150 worth of figures). I wouldn't call that "extremely good shipping prices", but maybe you get a different deal in Canada.

[Brontozaurus]

I practically only order from them these days, mostly cause they're the only local store that stocks WS and so I don't have to pay crazy shipping fees.

[suspsy]

Minizoo is good. Friendly, reliable, and efficient. They're my main source for CollectA toys.

[stargatedalek]

Ah, I see. Tried it out, and the shipping cost was over $50 (on about $150 worth of figures). I wouldn't call that "extremely good shipping prices", but maybe you get a different deal in Canada.

That sounds like a very good price from what I'm used to. Only way you'll get better is ordering directly from China because of the way their shipping is subsidized.

Do you make bulk international orders often? I'm just asking because those are the same sort of shipping rates I would expect on a large order coming from anywhere.

[Halichoeres]

I've ordered quite a lot of CollectA standard figures from MiniZoo, but I usually get my deluxes from DeJankins (and the giant Guidraco too), because the shipping cost rises quickly for bulkier items, coming from Australia. But their base prices are the best I've seen anywhere, and they're really wonderful to deal with. The US doesn't impose particularly stiff tariffs on shipments from Australia (for now), and unlike European users, you will never have a package held in customs.

[stargatedalek]

It's probably because I'm in Canada that those are the sort of rates I'm used to getting when ordering from anywhere. It makes sense there would be less expensive options in America for heavy/bulk orders.

[BlueKrono]

Ah, I see. Tried it out, and the shipping cost was over $50 (on about $150 worth of figures). I wouldn't call that "extremely good shipping prices", but maybe you get a different deal in Canada.

That sounds like a very good price from what I'm used to. Only way you'll get better is ordering directly from China because of the way their shipping is subsidized.

Do you make bulk international orders often? I'm just asking because those are the same sort of shipping rates I would expect on a large order coming from anywhere.

Yeah, I must be spoiled living in the States. Shipping from just about anywhere is almost always less than $10, even for medium sized figures. England can get up into the $15 range, and shipping from France is almost always around $30, which is kind of crazy and the reason I almost never buy things from France. $30 is what I pay here for shipping on huge, heavy Sideshow pieces that are like 20 inches long and 30 pounds. $50 is unheard of. Only Australia. It's funny because I usually pay $5 or less from similarly distant countries like Japan and Hong Kong. It can only be the tariffs on the European countries and Oz.

[Halichoeres]

Ah, I see. Tried it out, and the shipping cost was over $50 (on about $150 worth of figures). I wouldn't call that "extremely good shipping prices", but maybe you get a different deal in Canada.

That sounds like a very good price from what I'm used to. Only way you'll get better is ordering directly from China because of the way their shipping is subsidized.

Do you make bulk international orders often? I'm just asking because those are the same sort of shipping rates I would expect on a large order coming from anywhere.

Yeah, I must be spoiled living in the States. Shipping from just about anywhere is almost always less than $10, even for medium sized figures. England can get up into the $15 range, and shipping from France is almost always around $30, which is kind of crazy and the reason I almost never buy things from France. $30 is what I pay here for shipping on huge, heavy Sideshow pieces that are like 20 inches long and 30 pounds. $50 is unheard of. Only Australia. It's funny because I usually pay $5 or less from similarly distant countries like Japan and Hong Kong. It can only be the tariffs on the European countries and Oz.

It might be tariffs, but for China at least the government actually pays a large fraction of the shipping to encourage exports. I'm not sure about Japan, though.

[BlueKrono]

On stuff from Japan the shipping is almost always very reasonable. Unfortunately most Japanese sellers like to charge outrageous amounts for their stuff - it's hard to find stuff that's not triple digits. All I can say is I'm glad I'm not a serious kaiju collector. The smaller, more recent stuff like Kaiyodo generally isn't too bad. With the smaller stuff you'll have one Japanese seller selling it for $5 and another asking for $30. You can guess who gets my business.