Buyee vs ZenMarket: shipping to United Kingdom

Taking a typical order — a ¥10,000 item from Mercari Japan, about 1kg once packed, sent to United Kingdom by EMS — Buyee works out cheaper by ¥877.

Totals include the proxy's service fee, packing, domestic shipping inside Japan, international postage, any deposit or payment fee, and import tax. Where a service collects tax up front it appears in the “pay the proxy” column instead of “pay on delivery” — the tax is the same either way.

Where the ¥877 actually goes

Part of it is the service fee: Buyee charges ¥500 against ZenMarket's ¥800. The largest single difference on this order is the tax collected up front, worth ¥2,880. Line by line: ZenMarket pays ¥2,880 more in tax collected up front; ZenMarket pays ¥577 more in deposit / payment fee; ZenMarket pays ¥300 more in service fee.

Does this hold for other orders?

The answer is stable for this pair: Buyee stays ahead if the parcel is three times heavier, if you buy three items instead of one, or if the item costs five times as much. That is not true of every pairing on this site, which is why each combination is calculated separately rather than assumed.

What each includes for the money

Buyee: no extras bundled at this plan level (Light — no cover). ZenMarket: no extras bundled at this plan level. A cheaper total with no inspection and no insurance is not the same product as a dearer one that includes both — on a second-hand auction item, where the seller's description is the only thing you have to go on, that difference is worth more than the gap above.