Back to normal for me also.

 

so once chinese new year is over, will tons of reissues and late 18 releases that never made it hit the shelves running? was taobao like that after last chinese new years? influx of bots come mid-late feb right after?

i had to order a new desk and a single level hutch yesterday. mdf, composite bs stuff, so cheap in the scheme of desks........ my desk for current favs has ran out of space -- thanks taobao. i currently use an old kitchen table 150 cm x 90 cm.. more than enough depth, but length is suffering and there isnt a lot of room with a monitor in the way.. ive been meaning to build a custom desk, but i keep stacking myself with projects and had to draw a line. with family and work, i run out of time quick..

the desk i ordered isnt exactly what i want but itll do and its actually a desk.. 180 cm x 70 cm.. the hutch is a single shelf about 42 cm high, 180 cm x 30 cm. not high enough to hide bruticus underneath but eh.. thats what i get with this set up coming in and my unwillingness to build one. i thought about getting a hutch with several levels and adjustable spaces.. but i didnt feel like looking at a desk wall in a sense.. i will break it up with some floating shelves above that hutch

regardless my hutch shelf will have plenty of space for me tt ko autobots now.. yeah, all of em...

 

oh for you aussies who use a home desk as a display piece to..

heres what i just got.. supposedly office grade

Archibald Desk | Temple & Webster
Logan Desk Hob | Temple & Webster

they got other stuff at fairly decent aussie prices and ship most things australia wide.

i was going to get this for the corner and modify that hutch but they wouldnt ship it.. too heavy.. i could handle one hutch wall from a corner view but not straight on.. but thats just me.

Arianne Xl-Desk & Hutch | Temple & Webster

 

USA, I have not ordered anything this month, had a large haul last Month from November-early December and had no issues with shipping weight.

Now that you have mentioned your issues I'll wait till after CNY. I have a few things I want but not bad enough to pay double shipping. I'm only going to save between 40-50 on next haul and if I had eBay coupon that would be too close to risk.

Next Haul: mpp10, mpp10 trailert bb7 upgrade, weijang blackout. I estimate before shipping 180. So 15% eBay sale would be 27 off. So I need to beat 155 shipped

Shouldn't be hard to beat that since any of the mpp10 and trailers are close to 150 and blackout is like 90.

Keep us in the know as far as shipping goes, hopefully this volumetric crap clears up sooner than later.

 

Once you resume buying after CNY, keep us posted on what you experience with your Taobao shipping fee for your next EMS shipment.

 

Many people prefer Detolfs because of their relative ease of access and minimises dust. If you love to hack, I'm sure there's an IKEA kit or 2 you could blend together that's a desk + shelves  

For any Australians I tell them to check out Cheap as Chips. Their 2 door glass cabinet are usually $150 on sale and can be easily modded with L brackets from Bunnings to adjust shelf heights

Oh and don't know if there's an influx of stock after CNY. Depends on release schedules and back logs and can't use a previous years trend to infer this years. But if there's stuff you're after that's late due to CNY then I'd expect they'll be available pretty soon after things return to normal.

 

Ive found some random discount stuff at cheap as chips. the rest of their stuff isnt cheap as chips though (i guess cheap is based on ones perspective). Thats australia though, nothings really cheap, unless we are talking about the quality of certain cheap things. I still have shelving in my office, some bots will be left there, but id like to have the most bots i can staring me in the face so i can actually appreciate them everyday.

im in the home office everyday/allday when im not at work/family...i get lost in focus and go days without turning to look at the bots on the shelf....this collection is going to stay a small focused one.. if it were larger collection those shelves and glass would be good for me.. i dont mind dusting a manageable fleet from time to time. if i had a larger wall space i would put shelves at the end of both side of me desk, but im working with the space allotted to me.

i looked at ikea and there wasnt anything i wanted. plus i live out in gods country and delivery jacks up anything. no access to a ute, no trailer etc. i could rent one but that becomes a hassle. if its not a reasonable sized flat pack, it is not happening without delivery costs. even lumber runs from bunnings cost me a arm and a nut. i think the nearest ikea is about 2 hrs away.. i did enjoy their horse meatballs the last time i was there though. if we got the horse meat version that is. thats why im willing to deal with higher superbuy shipping.. im use to paying excessive fees for delivery on a lot of goods. it just sucks that i could fit the bots in the car though

 

Chrome, I used Zhongshan in early January for MS-01 and JCEX in mid January for TE-01. The packages also were combined with a few action figures. Both warehouses used sf-express->UPS to SoCal but the prices were normal.

 

WAIT, so JCEX has switched from their more expensive volumetric weight calculation back to less expensive actual weight calculation? That's good news. Especially since the JCEX warehouse staff do not open up packages for inspection. What made you decide to take the chance on JCEX? I'm not aware of any announcement of their switch.
I remember JCEX started charging me the hefty volumetric shipping costs for orders that I placed in late December 2017/Early January 2018. One of those orders included IT-01 Emperor of Destruction (Infinite Transformation's KO of MP-36 Masterpiece Megatron) I stopped using them since then.

Glad to see you back on this thread. We hope to that you are able to resume commenting more frequently.

 

From what you guys have been posting, I think your forwarders have been taking the larger of the two (volumetric or actual weight).

 

I bought Fanstoys FT-20G in March 2018. It is the complete figure and accessories. Heavy figure in very large Fanstoys box with foam clam shell and had it shipped via EMS Zhongshan. I'm very certain it is a heavier and bigger box than Zeta's Silver Arrow. In any case the EMS warehouse used actual weight for it.

 

No point comparing 2 different packages... They don't just charge volumetric based on the size of the box.

You need to compare the actual weight of 1 package versus its volumetric weight to see what the company is charging based on.

Actual Weight = weighed by weighing scale in kg
Volumetric Weight = Height x Width x Breadth(cm) /6000

I've posted here back then that your US rate chart has a clause that points to the "3:1 ratio" volumetric weight criteria. They might have changed that to "larger of two" recently, it's worth finding out.

 

I've bought 2 identical figures at on different dates. The first purchase was charged actual weight. The second purchase was charged volumteric weight.

 

I have to use JCEX for some of the 1/6 scale figures I buy occasionally. At least some people at Zhongshan wouldn't ship figures made from certain plastic / rubber compounds. JCEX might still use volumetric calculations. I bought a few light model kits with large boxes and they were fairly expensive. The TE-01 box and the other item I bought weren't large so maybe that is why the cost seemed more in line with actual weight.

 

I mentioned a couple pages back that EMS charged me volumetric weight on my BMB Grimlock and actual weight on my BMB Megatron. I chatted with the warehouse to get an explanation and was given the formula that lake88 posted.

I had to return Grimlock due to the ridiculous shipping cost. I'm hoping EMS returns back to normal with actual weight shipping after the holidays. I'd like to rebuy him and WJ Blackout.

 

What part of the USA are you in/shipping to?
How were you able to get the return address/and fill out correctly the online shipping form?

 

California.

I had the seller walked me through it. You click on return tab and then fill out the return info.

 

At what point did you apply for a refund? Did you wait and follow up with the seller to confirm he received the returned package before you applied for the refund?

 

I was fearing this from the beginning, a QC issue with a buy from Taobao.

What's most frustrating, I transformed everything but my IT-01 before confirming receipt. I went to transform him ywsterday and found the fingers on the hand won't bend in. Tried everything and all that is happening is stress marks.

I contacted little bee this morning before work and they asked me for pixtures or video. I'll send them tonight and see if black mamba can send me a replacement.

It's not a deal breaker for me . The one hand isn't broke yet and I won't transform it into gun mode prolly ever again. Ill update when I hear if they will help me out.

 

went and checked on my last superbuy haul, it made it out of the superbuy warehouse with a few days to spare. according to ems it left china last night. also, i got a 31 cny (6.41 AUD) refund on the ems shipping. its not much, but its something.