Have you ever preordered a Tamiya kit at Champ?

[muratti]

I was wondering if some of you have ever preordered a kit from RC Champ in Japan. So far i know they have a superb email communication!
Only i was wondering if they are the first to get a kit after its release. I am sure some of you have experiences with the release of the TRF201. Was the preorder price higher than the Hongkong online shop price? Did you get your kit before the Hingkong Online shops had them in stock?
Or is it better to wait and buy the kit in Hongkong because of price and availability?
Feel free to post any experience you had.

[TryHard]

Originally Posted by muratti

I was wondering if some of you have ever preordered a kit from RC Champ in Japan. So far i know they have a superb email communication!
Only i was wondering if they are the first to get a kit after its release. I am sure some of you have experiences with the release of the TRF201. Was the preorder price higher than the Hongkong online shop price? Did you get your kit before the Hingkong Online shops had them in stock?
Or is it better to wait and buy the kit in Hongkong because of price and availability?
Feel free to post any experience you had.

I've ordered kits plenty of times through RC Champ, always pretty quick shipping, and the cheapest Japanese shop...
Having said that, they don't mark the parcels down, so you much more likely to get pinged on customs, and with the price of Yen v £ atm, you'd be a lot better off getting it from a HK in USD$.... e.g. 416x is £380 from Champ, £260 from RC Market!

HiH
Ed

[Nige]

Yep and got hit by customs.

[DCM]

Champ used to be the first by a few days to get kits, but the last couple haven't worked that way. But they are VERY GOOD at getting you what you want.

You will get hit with customs from Champ though.... unless you ask.

[DaveG28]

Stella get them very quick, plus usually avoid customs, but difficult to preorder far in advance as they do pricing at the last minute due to exchange rates!

[muratti]

Originally Posted by DCM

Champ used to be the first by a few days to get kits, but the last couple haven't worked that way. But they are VERY GOOD at getting you what you want.

You will get hit with customs from Champ though.... unless you ask.

Thanks DCM, they are indeed good at getting you what you want. I just bought 8 CVD Repair kits from them which are nowhere available worldwide except at Champ. They special ordered 6 packages for me.


Thanks Dave, i also think that ordering far in advance is a problem at Stella, but just as TryHard said there is a massive difference in price that´s why i probably will wait for Stella to have them in stock and then buy at least 2 kits to save on shipping.
I also have a friend in Singapure who got me the first TRF201 about one week before Stella had them in stock. It was a bit more expensive but not much.

[Nige]

Originally Posted by muratti

Thanks DCM, they are indeed good at getting you what you want. I just bought 8 CVD Repair kits from them which are nowhere available worldwide except at Champ. They special ordered 6 packages for me.

Is the product code for the CVD repair kit 53500, as there's lots of them on Ebay?

[Rich D]

Originally Posted by Nige

Is the product code for the CVD repair kit 53500, as there's lots of them on Ebay?

No 53500 are for the 416 series shafts, Johannes ordered for the 511 im assuming - they use completely different driveshafts.

[muratti]

Originally Posted by Rich D

No 53500 are for the 416 series shafts, Johannes ordered for the 511 im assuming - they use completely different driveshafts.

Exactly Rich, i ordered the one for the 511- part number is 9440664

They are so rare, not even modellbau Seidel has them in stock.