Japanese secondhand & proxy-shopping glossary
Plain-language definitions of the shipping, customs, and condition terms you'll meet when buying secondhand from Japan with jpdrop.
- Proxy shopping
- Buying through an intermediary who purchases an item on your behalf in a country where you can't easily shop directly, then forwards it to you internationally.
- Package forwarding
- A service that receives parcels at a local address in Japan and re-ships them to your country — what jpdrop does after buying and inspecting your item.
- De-minimis threshold
- The declared value below which a country charges no import duty (and sometimes no tax). It varies widely — about $800 in the US, far lower in many other countries.
- Customs duty
- A tax a country levies on imported goods, based on the declared value and product type. It's paid by the buyer to their local customs authority.
- VAT / GST
- Value-added tax or goods-and-services tax that many countries apply to imports, often alongside or instead of customs duty.
- Declared value
- The price written on the customs form, used to assess duty and tax. jpdrop declares accurate values on every shipment.
- EMS
- Express Mail Service — Japan Post's fast, tracked international courier, a common balance of speed and cost (roughly 5–7 days to many countries).
- DHL Express
- A private international courier offering fast, fully tracked delivery from Japan, typically in 3–5 business days.
- FedEx International
- A private courier alternative for fast, tracked international shipping from Japan, usually 3–5 business days.
- Surface mail (economy)
- Slow sea/ground shipping — the cheapest option, taking several weeks to a few months to arrive.
- Volumetric (dimensional) weight
- A shipping weight calculated from a parcel's size rather than its actual weight; carriers charge whichever is greater, so bulky-but-light items can cost more.
- Condition grade
- A letter/number rating (often S, A, B, C) Japanese sellers use to describe an item's wear, from like-new to heavily used.
- Warehouse inspection
- jpdrop's check of each item at our Japanese warehouse against its listing — confirming condition and accuracy before it ships internationally.
- Consolidation
- Combining several purchases into one international shipment to reduce overall shipping cost.
- Service fee
- jpdrop's tiered charge (5–15% of the item price, minimum $5, maximum $50) covering purchasing, handling, inspection, and support.
- Split payment
- Paying the item price plus the service fee at checkout, then the exact international shipping separately once your parcel is weighed — so you never overpay an estimate.