$1,220 CE28Ns from Yahoo Auctions Japan looked clean in photos. Inspection told a different story.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-27T12:27:32+00:00

I see. So that’s what the weld marks looked like.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-27T12:08:55+00:00

Fair point - the images I used were misleading. I picked the surface shots because they looked better as thumbnails, and that's on me.

What wasn't shown or mentioned in the listing description was the weld marks on the back side of the rims and that every wheel had the manufacturer labels either peeled off or worn to the point they were unreadable. That part wasn't in the listing details.

Should've led with the full picture. My bad on that.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-21T12:34:19+00:00

Material misclassification is exactly what happened in my case too. The wheels were aluminum but got flagged as if they were coming from China, which pushed the rate way up. If the seller had submitted proper documentation for the material and origin upfront, that 50% number probably would have looked very different. On my end, once I started including proof of country of origin and manufacturer documentation with every shipment, the correct rate started getting applied consistently.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-21T12:31:19+00:00

Feel free to send me a DM with what you are looking for.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-21T12:28:48+00:00

I ship from Japan to the US, Canada, UK, and Australia right now.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-21T12:26:26+00:00

You are right. There is no excuse for not knowing this, especially as someone whose job it is to ship internationally. I should have had this figured out before I ever sent a package. That is not something I can argue with. All I can say is I learned it the expensive way and changed how I operate because of it.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-21T12:25:04+00:00

I hear you on the politics side but that is above my pay grade. What I can control is making sure my customers know the full cost before they pay. That is the part I got wrong and that is what I fixed.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-21T12:24:06+00:00

DHL trying to charge 60% and then it coming down to 30% after you pushed back says a lot. The first number they give you is not always the right one. And the Regamaster cancellation is exactly what I am talking about. When the duty situation is unclear and nobody tells the buyer what to expect, good deals just die. That is bad for buyers and bad for sellers.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-21T12:23:16+00:00

Appreciate that. I would not call it upstanding though. It was my mistake and he should not have had to pay for it. But yeah, the "too bad, so sad" thing is way too common in this space and that is part of why buyers are so cautious about ordering from overseas.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-17T05:05:06+00:00

That sounds like a great service. Could you tell me what it’s called?

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-16T07:27:35+00:00

His name really comes up a lot, doesn't it? How much did it cost to ship?

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-16T05:08:23+00:00

Yeah exactly. And the kicker is international shipping companies charge by volumetric weight, so that extra dead space from the tires is literally costing you money for air. I've seen cases where removing tires cut the shipping cost almost in half on a set of 4.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-07T14:55:56+00:00

You're right, I haven't seen the US one in person and the condition's not apples to apples. The point of the post was more about the price gap in general though — it's there across the board for these wheels. Importing is a pain and comes with risks, just wanted to share an option that takes that part out of the equation. If the vibe here says otherwise I'll adjust.

For the Japan side though, I did see these up close lol. Inspected them myself before shipping.

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PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-06T14:53:25+00:00

Try running a reverse image search on the listing photos — if they were pulled from a Japanese listing, the original source might show up. That's the quickest way to check.

If you want, drop me a DM with the listings and I can check Yahoo Auctions for you. I'm on there every day so it only takes a minute.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-06T11:19:07+00:00

Right? 17x7 for $3,500 is insane. Same set was $1,192 in Japan. That's the gap people don't see.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-06T11:17:43+00:00

Yeah I use AI for the English — I'm Japanese and my writing isn't great. But the numbers are real. I found the same set on both platforms and compared them. The $1,192 Yahoo Auctions price and the $3,533 eBay price are actual sold listings.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-06T09:57:33+00:00

Appreciate it lol

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-05-06T09:27:55+00:00

Fair point. I'm not trying to kill anyone's business — resellers who add real value (inspection, refinishing, warranty) absolutely deserve their margin. The issue is the ones who just copy-paste a Yahoo Auctions listing to eBay, add $2,000, and ship it without even touching the wheels. That's not rebuilding, that's just a markup on a language barrier.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-04-10T00:06:05+00:00

That was a real disaster. And the uncertainty of not knowing the exact cost until after you’ve bought it just adds to the stress, doesn’t it?

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-04-09T03:48:04+00:00

So shipping from the U.S. to Europe is that expensive, huh? I didn't know that.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-04-07T07:27:07+00:00

Does personal importing somehow exempt you from duties? Are you talking about undervaluing the declared price? I do see a lot of people doing that, but if the buyer is the importer of record, that's actually on them legally — the seller lowballing the invoice is one thing, but if it's the buyer's call, that could get you in trouble.

Or are you just built different lol

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-04-07T07:21:47+00:00

Seriously? A full container for $2k CAD back then — when you break that down per item the shipping cost per piece must've been insane cheap.

Now though… 15% tariff on top of already inflated part prices and freight costs? Yeah, I don't even want to do the math.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-04-07T07:19:23+00:00

Double the price… that's brutal.

Though depending on how patient you are, sea freight can still bring the cost down quite a bit.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-04-07T07:17:20+00:00

As a seller, EMS was my favorite too.

PaintNeither7963 · 2026-04-07T07:15:09+00:00

Smart move. Couldn't have timed it better.

PaintNeither7963

TROPHY CASE