Buying a Guitar from Japan

[DuluthDank]

I want to say that you pay import taxes on anything worth over 800 USD, but I could be misremembering. I think it's somewhere around a ten percent. Also you have to pay a fee to the shipping company for dealing with customs on your behalf, and I think that was maybe around 50 dollars through UPS. If the item is valued below the cutoff line, I'm pretty sure you avoid all that. I only imported something from Japan once a couple years ago, so I'm no expert.

The bummer is that if you are buying through an american company (Ebay, Reverb), you also have to pay sales tax, depending on your state. If you can find a legit store in Japan to buy directly from, it's often better.

 

[ATLbassist]

Thirded on working with Danny at Bass Japan Direct. He not only found a Tokai Hard Puncher for me, but he also swapped necks on two models so I could have the cream body / maple neck combo I wanted.

 

[DaveParker39]

I've bought probably close to 10 instruments from Japan.

You want to make sure the seller is reputable. Ishibashi Music is great.

You will also want/need to use a forwarding service like TENSO Japan depending on the instrument, particularly if it is a new instrument for non-export being sold by a dealer.

 

[nitrofix]

I would be buying from Ishibashi Music but thing is they have an E Bay store which is selling the same guitar for around $950 more on E Bay than their website and there is also a few other sellers on E Bay selling the same guitar, could tell by the pictures, so I guess these sellers really don't have the guitar I guess when they they sell it they would buy it from Ishibashi and resell it and cancel your order if the guitar has already been sold, very confusing how the Japanese sellers work..

 

[AltecGreen]

I would be buying from Ishibashi Music but thing is they have an E Bay store which is selling the same guitar for around $950 more on E Bay than their website and there is also a few other sellers on E Bay selling the same guitar, could tell by the pictures, so I guess these sellers really don't have the guitar I guess when they they sell it they would buy it from Ishibashi and resell it and cancel your order if the guitar has already been sold, very confusing how the Japanese sellers work..

Those sellers are not Ishibashi. Those are resellers that steal the photos from Ishibashi. Do not buy any instrument from Japan from eBay. Buy directly from Ishibashi.

 

[nitrofix]

Picked up the guitar I wanted from the states on Reverb so I don't have to worry about it anymore...Thanks Guys

 

[Nolan Tremblay]

When I used to trade a lot more gear back and forth with folks in the US, I got smart on some of the import tariffs that the US gov't charges. I also run a small business building specialized aviation products as a side gig and have a fair bit of experience with clients in the US and the import process.

By the book, the US gov't would charge 5% on an electric bass imported into the US from most countries. Japan is apparently exempt from this according to Harmonized Tariff Schedule so the instrument should be exempt from tariffs. I have, however, found that depending on the shipper, the US CBP is pretty hit and miss about when they charge tariffs or not. Some of the shippers charge a lot for brokerage and I find those ones tend to get hit with applicable tariffs pretty much 100% of the time.

It used to be hit or miss importing this kind of stuff into Canada, particularly if using USPS, which interfaces with Canada Post up here. I have found over the past few years they pretty much hit everything that has applicable duties with those duties. In years past, I found they were, at best, 50% accurate with it.