Cos she is Quiet. She's the character model and voice actress for Quiet.

I'm kicking myself for not getting this earlier when it was released.



http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/detail?scode=FIGURE-013241

Original price was about RM400 - 500, and now it's going for RM1200++. It's made by Myethos, a fairly newish company from Hong Kong. I never expected the price to increase so fast for a company without much of a track record and whom MFC wouldn't even allow into their database as they're considered not Japanese enough.

Thought I'd pick it up later on cos no budget back then and was thinking the prices would be pretty much the same after release cos the company wasn't that famous, but boy was I wrong.

I'm guessing as they weren't that well known back then probably not as many people bought it, thus causing low supplies now in the aftermarket and leading to higher prices.

As using EMS/Poslaju is one of the two default methods (the other being SAL) of importing figures from Japan, just wanted to ask if anyone has ever gotten taxed for Poslaju with CIF less than RM500?

As you might know, there exists something called Jadual Kos Tambang Dagangan which is used by our Customs to calculate the freight cost for any international imports delivered using a express courier service (UPS, DHL, FedEx, EMS/Poslaju). The value differs by the import country but most major countries are around ~RM300 to ~RM400.

If my understanding is correct, by right, it doesn't matter what the actual shipping fee is and the Jadual is used instead to determine the freight cost. Which is a problem as this basically means that almost anything of value you buy will automatically exceed RM500 and be subjected to tax. But it happens very often too that Customs does not use the Jadual to calculate and will instead just follow your actual shipping fee.

I've only received parcels from UPS twice but already got taxed once because Customs calculate using the Jadual. On the other hand, I've never gotten taxed for Poslaju despite receiving multiple parcels from them.

Based on my personal experience, my theory is that Customs seem to go easy on Poslaju when it comes to applying the Jadual. Just like to see if your experiences support my theory.

This post has been edited by rabbit.dynamite: Apr 7 2018, 04:16 AM

SAL confirm not subjected to the Kos as it's not considered a express service.

EMS I also thought initially not subjected to the Kos, but another forumer who I believe works in the logistics industry said that all shipments inbound are subjected to it, Pos Malaysia included. But whatever the case, it seems that Poslaju rarely or does not get the Kos applied, which is a good thing for us consumers.

On a slightly related note, is standard airmail or registered mail less likely to be inspected by Customs compared to SAL/EMS? And are books and DVD more likely to be subjected to Customs inspection, regardless of method of delivery? I've thought of buying some gravure magazines + DVDs before, but just worried about the Customs part of it...hahaha.

If Customs decide to apply the Jadual Kos, it doesn't matter whether the shipping cost is clearly stated on your invoice/shipping slip or not. They will follow their Jadual regardless.
If you see the paperwork which I received along with my taxed shipment, you can see how it was originally printed the actual shipping cost of RM80, which was then crossed out by hand and replaced with RM 480, thus making my parcel taxable. I've seen this happened to others as well.



Hmm...So what happens when they find pr0n? They use for their own pleasure or will they send PDRM knocking at your door?

Below you can find some good info on credit card exchange rates.

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1845691

Normally I will use Oanda to get the market exchange rate. Both MNCs I work with use Oanda as their go-to place to check the exchange rate, so if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.

The exchange rates for your card is not determined by the banks, but by the card network companies (Visa, Mastercard, Amex), and are normally very very similiar to the market rate, almost negligible. You can find the exchange rate for Visa from their website below.

https://usa.visa.com/support/consumer/trave...alculator.html/

The banks will then impose a currency conversion fee on your credit card for the foreign transaction, and the rate varies between banks but is generally around 2% to 3% of your transaction price. If I'm not mistaken, debit cards tend to have lower rates of around 1%. This fee is what the 'Bank fee' in the Visa exchange rate calculator is referring to.

Merchant fees for credit card transactions shouldn't really factor into your calculations as they are generally absorbed by most online retailers except for those individual or smaller sellers who are not willing to absorb the cost.

So basically you just use the market rate plus an additional 2% to 3% to calculate how much will be charged to your card. This is also why you can see it states "3% - Typical Credit Card rate" in the 'Interbank' tab when you use the Oanda website.

If compare to money changers, for common currencies like USD, JPY, SGD, THB, they will normally sell you at 1% higher than market rate. They will untung on volume. Harder to find currencies can be significantly more than 1%, cos instead of volume they will untung on margin.

For Paypal, they will ask you if want to charge the credit card linked to your Paypal account in either the foreign currency, or in RM. Rule of thumb is to always select the foreign currency, which means Visa/Mastercard + your bank will do the conversion for you, and rate will be following Visa/Mastercard + bank rate. Basically is same as using your credit card normally, which means the total amount will be market rate + ~3%. If you choose to charge your card in RM, this means Paypal will be doing the conversion process for you, using their own rates and total amount will always end up higher than market rate + 3%. You can google dynamic currency conversion for more info on how this works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_currency_conversion

https://thepointsguy.com/2015/06/dynamic-cu...ncy-conversion/

Good to know that throughout your many purchases, never kena jadual kos. I think can safely say that EMS won't kena. Buying stuff from Japan no problem actually, because EMS is normally the most widely used and best option for Japan. And I think you also mention that DHL (which is what Amazon Japan uses) from Japan also no issue? Problem now is buying from other countries, where express service is normally via DHL/UPS/Fedex and not EMS.

I might take a risk and try ordering some gravure items, see if can slip through without any issue. Just hope they don't classify it as porn. I don't want to kena serve some notice asking me to hadir in court.


Good question. I always thought that they will direct convert from JPY to MYR, but I recently found out from the product disclosure sheet for my Maybank credit cards that Amex will use USD as their base. For Visa/Mastercard, they don't specify so I assume it's direct conversion.

But I did find from Commonwealth Bank's website (Australian bank) that Mastercard also uses USD as base. Visa supports direct conversion for certain currencies, but all other currencies will use USD as base too.

https://www.commbank.com.au/support/faqs/1187.html

Not sure if this applies to Australia only or worldwide. But I'd say the difference whether convert directly or through USD first is very small and negligible.

Actually come to think of it, I've received 2 DHL packages from the US and 1 from the UK before, never kena jadual kos and hence no tax for all of them. UPS, like I mentioned before, I received 2 from US and kena jadual kos for 1 of them.

Sample size not large enough so not sure if

a. DHL no problem and others got more problem
or
b. all also no problem just that I unlucky kena that one UPS package got problem.


Lol...that one serious shit confirm will kena.

Ah yes, that's correct, Amazon and Ebay both have programs where the taxes are prepaid and no further taxes are incurred on your end.

Yeah, I also don't understand why the hell we're being charged according to the schedule instead of the actual shipping cost. Seems to me it's just a cheap and ridiculous excuse for them to tax us and make some easy money.

Have you ever tried asking your friend how the schedule works and what's the logic behind it? There seems to be very little info online on what the damn thing actually is.