hur mycket fick du betala i tull på denna maskin?

Cheated a little bit, was sent as a gift just below 1000 NOK. So no VAT to pay. Good to have a friend in Japan that can be a proxy.

that's awesome bro, you made a great total purchase!!
avoiding the VAT cost, money was maybe spent on laserdiscs?

Sure did, hehe. But again, this is 20 year old 2nd hand electronics. In it is practically worthless. I do pay my taxes on new goods available at retailers that actually can be documented with a receipt.

I'm very happy with the HLD-X9. Really awesome player. I used to have the LD-S9, but it suffered a short circuit while being serviced. The LD-S9 is also a wonderful player and I probably wouldn't have bothered to upgrade if it still worked.

let me know when you want to sell the X9, i'll take it off your hands
you might want to upgrade to a X-zero?

Pioneer USA

LD-S2 $700-800
CLD-95/97 - $300-400
CLD-99/79/704 - $200-300

Pioneer Japan

HLD-X0 - $3000-5000
HLD-X9 - $1200-2000
LD-S9 - $400-700
DVL-H9 - $400-600
CLD-R7G - $400-600

*LD-X1 is the Japanese version of LD-S2
**CLD-959 is the Japanese version of CLD-97

USA vs Japan players

HLD-X0 > LD-S2 > CLD-97/95 > HLD-X9 > LD-S9 > CLD-99/79/704 > DVL-H9 > CLD-R7G

*compared composite outputs.
** you can swap places for 95/97 and X9, matter of preference. 97 is cleaner, X9 is sharper/no smear.
*** H9 and R7G has better S-Video output than most but still noisy.


These are eBay prices and doesn't include shipping. You can find lower prices on local adds or auctions but generally these are the ranges most auctions end.

Picking your LD player 101

1- Check local listings in your country for the above players, it is best to avoid expensive overseas shipping.
2- Decide where you want to buy your player from. USA or Japan? Calculate which is cheaper.
3- Find the price bracket you are comfortable with from the above list. The players are listed from best to good.

i.e you have $300 + shipping. Let's say it is cheaper to import from the US. You are easily looking at a Pioneer CLD-95/97. Don't waste your time digging other players. For that money, no other player will come close to 95/97 in performance.

Note:
-CLD-97 is the best machine for the money in my opinion. And trust me, I have owned or seen them all.
-Buy the best player you can afford. Best/most improvement on picture comes from the better players.
-It is cheaper to buy a good player and be done with it. It will cost you more in the long run to buy/sell several low end until you reach a good one.
-It is worth to pay a little extra and buy from a reputable seller in working condition. A clean, well adjusted player should last you years.

thanks for sharing interesting info.
of course it's best to pay a bit extra to get a clean well cared player, it will reward you in the long run without maintanence problems

if i don't find something better I might buy the cld-939 from the above ebay links?
i would like to buy a player directly from japan, however I lost my contact over there 1½ year ago, don't know what happened to him?
dude helped me score a clean R7G which I like very much

i don't know who to hire to get a player from japan auctions Buyee/Yahoo sites?
I don't know how to register on these sites as they are not very english friendly.
I don't know who will manage to handle my player to pack it secured for delivery to sweden?


found this CLD99 on ebay, to bad it's not a clean player as it has scuffmarks!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pioneer-Elite-C ... 2269029703

thanks

I go through http://celga.com/ when I bid on items from Yahoo Japan.

I considered it, but I'm too lazy to flip the disc around all the time.


Remember to ask for double boxing and a lot of padding. Anything else is almost a death sentence for the player. Trust me, I've had two players destroyed in shipping (LD-S9). Never had any issues after I asked for overkill packaging.

do you bid on items from their webshops and Celga gets the stuff shipped to them and their staff pack it for you then ship to US?

There are many on-line proxy bidding services you can use with good English (and other language support). Compare a few and find one you're comfortable with and that offers reasonable fees.

I use J-subculture, have imported many discs, several players, muse decoders, surround processor. They have been reliable with decent customer service. As samuron said make sure to request good packaging. Everything they send me is double boxed with air cushions between inner and outer boxes. I had a couple of heavy box sets with some damage at first, but since I insisted on better packaging everything has been fine.

If you intend buying a Japanese player then in my opinion buy from Japan. You may be lucky to find one locally for a reasonable price but from what I see e-bay is ridiculously over-priced for Japanese machines.

I paid about $950au on ebay for an S9 (inc shipping) before I knew better, and that was from a seller in Japan who obviously was clued up to the potential to sell it for much more this way.
The X9 cost me $1260au shipped via yahoo jp/j-subculture. A bargain compared to the prices I see on e-bay. Had to replace the rubber on the disc clamp due to it slipping and it's performed perfectly since. Really the S9 needs a new rubber too, but the X9 is now the main player so I won't bother.

what happened with your stuff when they got damaged in transit?
who took responsibility of your damaged goods?
courier or shop who sent the package?
did you have to retun the stuff then getting refunded?
things like this scares me a bit if a player isn't padded and secured inside the box

They're probably questions best asked of the proxy bidding service and the shipping company you will be using before you buy/ship anything with them.

My experience is you need a delivery service with adequate insurance to be protected - proxy bidding agencies won't take responsibility for damage in transit. Then if damage occurs you're dealing with the postal/shipping company for an insurance claim. The proxy bidder should help you out with this (paperwork etc) but they won't take responsibility/pay-out

The damaged box sets were part of a larger shipment of discs shipped EMS. To make a claim via the post office here you can't make a part claim, you claim the whole declared value and if accepted forfeit the whole shipment. As it was a small part of the overall shipment, and it was mostly fairly minor damage to the box (not the discs) I didn't bother. My first attempt at an S9 arrived smashed up, I was lucky in that the e-bay seller refunded me, but I still went through the same process with the post office here so he could get a payout. You should check the procedure with whatever shipping method/company you'll be using. The post office takes the adequacy of the packaging into account as well as far as I know - another reason to make sure it's well packed.

fooking post office in my country says, items must be packed well, swedish post don't take responsibility if package and content is broken in transit.
that's what happened with my first LD player which I bought from UK, it broke during shipping, when I filed a complaint to post office, they told me to go f-ck my self!
fragile items must be securely packed not to break in transit

your only security on international shipping is well packaging. Each country's post office will point fingers at each other if things get damaged. Theh will take the item and sit on it for 6 weeks then they will say it wasn't their fault. It was poor packaging.

I had x files seasons box sets got destroyed during transit. They said the discs seems fine, I can still play them, it was only minor damage to outer jackets. Obviously the post office thinks I only care to watch the disc, they can literally come wrapped in aluminum foil I don't care about the beauty of the jackets.


I wrap the player in film. Then wrap in bubble wrap. Typically 3-4 inch clearance from each side on the box. Fill tight the remaining box with paper to make sure the player doesn't move in the box. The original box with foam helps here if available. Place this box in a bigger box and fill it very tight with paper. When you shake the box, you shouldn't feel anything moving inside. Keep it as light as possible. Label top side clearly. Tape every corner.

If it was sent uninsured then you'd be totally on your own.

I just checked the Japan post website (all with the exception of one LD player they sent Japan post) and they will insure up to 2 million yen, and Sweden is one of the countries, or of course there are firms like FedEx too.

But substance is totally right and dealing with insurance claims can be a pain; your best insurance is good packaging in the first place.

I go to Yahoo Japan and find what I want. Then I go to Celga and input the URL of the item that I want to bid on, and how much my maximum bid is (and give them 50% of my maximum bid as a deposit.) Then they bid on the item.

If my highest bid wins, they let me know and I pay them the balance of the cost of the item along with shipping (and their markup for the service) and they ship me the item from Japan.

I've bought countless Laserdiscs this way as well as a CLD-R7G.

yes, player was insured.
i was lucky that seller instantly refunded me, but he had a pain in the a$$ for several months to claim his money from courier insurance!
he had to wait maybe 6 months before he got his money back.

my other 2 players bought from other sellers arrived safe and sound

i appreciate your valueable info, thanks
regarding the 50% deposit fees on an item you wanna buy, this is a requierment policy their company have when Celga handles your brokering?
did you paypal them the 50% down-payment?

so this is the procedure I have to do.
I register an account on Celga, find the items i wanna buy on Buyee/Yahoo, contact Celga and give them the URL and they place the maximum bid for me, if I win they will handle paperworks - packing my item and finally taking care of shipping to my country?
this is the way how procedure works with Celga?

long time ago nissling gave me the link of Yahoo Japan which was the full english friendly version website, I have lost that link and cannot not find it anymore.
I have only found the non english friendly link for Yahoo Japan where it links to Buyee if I click english for english language.
where can I find the correct english friendly link for Yahoo Japan?
I already have Buyee link which is english friendly.

thanks for your help

I once got a parcel with blu-ray discs. The customs had opened it with one of those really sharp cardboard knives. They didn't use any care and sliced over a couple of the covers. One of them being a limited edition item. They also removed the little padding that was inside the box for some reason, which resulted in a couple more cracked disc-cases. Tried to file a claim to the customs and were told they were not responsible for the damage they caused. If I still insisted, I had to file a claim for everything, the total value of the parcel. Since not all items were broken, there was no reason to give compensation. Of course the limited edition disc were sold out afterwards and had to pay three times the price on eBay + expensive shipping + VAT to get a new one... Yes, everything were insured and valued correctly. Since the damage happened at the customs, the post-office wouldn't touch this one. So eventhough you insure shipments, you probably won't get anything if you actually have to file a claim.

I'd stick with really heavy duty packaging. The example above were from Amazon, and they in general provide really poor packaging. I've had double boxed items opened by customs, but I've never experienced they've opened the second layer. Everything boils down to how the parcel is packed. Personally I don't see any reason to insure shipments, it is just a waste. Just pack the stuff so good that it would survive World War III. That's best insurance!