Importing a pachislot from Japan to the UK

[Importaku]

Theres one pachislot im after badly, it's Ganbare Goemon. I have waited over a year for them to slowly trickle onto the used market. I can't find anywhere that sells pachislot stuff in the uk that can get this one in so i was thinking about yahoo auctions as they appear on there quite often & not too pricy.

However theres a problem, shipping.

How the hell would i be able to get something that big & heavy to the uk?? Is there even a shipping option to get something that big to the uk??

Any ideas anyone??

[Yakumo]

You'd have to use something like FedEx or I'm pretty sure Japaese currier services such as Yamamoto Kuro Neko or Sagawa will do international shipping up to 20 or 30 kg depending on the country. I'm sure the UK is up to 30kg

[Jamtex]

It could be tricky as a Pachislot machine can weigh anything from 20 to over 30kg and once you double box it for shipping you would have added a couple more kilos to the weight. Which makes it too heavy for SAL. I have shipped one Pachislot machine to someone and I had to strip the transformer, and a few other pieces out so I could pack the machine well (Machine wrapped in a few inches of cellaire, then boxed in a thick double walled box, then put into a larger double walled box which is filled completely with packing peanuts so the machine sits safely in the middle and will take quite a few knocks, it just made the size limits...) and then ship the other bits (including a bag which weight 5kg of tokens) via sal, it still cost over Y35,000 to send via SAL...

Had to do the same with a pachinko machine, but had to strip that down future as the frame, once wrapped just made the combined size to the country I was sending it too, and it had a 20Kg limit, so that took three boxes and cost under Y40,000.

I also used a shipping company and it cost about 8 times what the machine was worth to send the machine to Australia, although it did get palettised so it got to the destination safely. If you are in Japan and can take the machine to an airport that offers a excess baggage service then it is possible to ship the whole machine but you would need to pick it up at the other side and there are a few fees to pay on top as well....

If the machine is under 30kgs then you would want to make sure the machine is properly packaged as the shipping materials you get from a seller in Japan to a place in Japan is fine for Japan (basically it's a box with a cardboard frame to hold the machine...) but send that to the UK as it is and you'll get a nice pile of junk.

[karsten]

your neighbours will hate you for this :D

[Importaku]

LOL my neighbours can get stuffed they are louder than i am, i have a pinball, pachislot & pachinko but i have added volume controls to the pachislot & pachinko machines as they are extremely loud without them.

Thanks for the info Yakumo & Jamtex, looks like it's going to be both awkward & very expensive to get one over here from Japan, shame really as i really do love goemon & that pachi is fantastic.

Ah well i'll just lust after it from afar.

[Matthijscoman]

Ronnie (rklok.com or Rklok on arcadeotaku) regularly ships containers with candy cabs from Japan to the Netherlands and I'm fairly sure he does pachislots and panchiko's too. He had a couple for sale last year at least. Might be worth a shot contacting him, he's a top bloke.