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An introduction to our “Import Agent Service”... Welcome to Supercamper! Here I will give you a brief Introduction to our “Import Agent Service”...
Supercamper is a business with a small online presence where I will be importing vehicles from Japan, mostly camper and day vans but also a selection of high performance vehicles, or anything else that stands out just that little bit from the crowd!
A small minority of vehicles will be sold as stock, but because currently space is at a premium, I want to concentrate on operating an import “agent” service or acting as a middle-man, importing vehicles to spec and charging a very low “agent” fee. This fee will be very good value, at only £150 for standard or performance vehicles.
I have access to ALL the Japanese auction houses all over Japan and outlying islands, not just the main ones that every back street importer uses, e.g. USS, so this gives me access to a larger range of vehicles each week. I have imported quite a few vehicles personally up to now, including motorhomes and high performance cars. I can get vehicles delivered to ports all around the UK and even abroad - Europe and even the USA and Canada. Also I have a growing number of dealer contacts out in Japan that can get in touch with me if anything of interest passes through their hands.
So why is the agent fee so cheap when compared to the average price? The average is 500 to 750 pounds? Well, you have to start somewhere and I want to build a good reputation, and I’m not doing this for a full-time living so having to make as much money on each vehicle, I’m doing it more as something in my spare time (as I am part-time I.T. network support engineer).
I love cars, camper vans anything Japanese and I’ve been looking into it for a while, also it helps support my other interest ... learning to fly!!! (Aircraft that is )
A few of the other import agents claim to fame, is that they can get a person to physically check over the car, but again that means they can only get to certain auction houses, there’s no way that a couple of contacts can cover the whole of Japan, physically inspecting cars for clients!! They get inspected by official auction house technicians anyway as they are the ones who write the auction report.
I can get vehicles inspected, but only at certain auction houses, I think about 60 percent are covered. Let it be noted that some of the best bargains may not be at those auction houses - they could be at the other ones which are not covered.
Reports can be translated, but because of the time difference, I really need to send them off more than 24 hours before the car goes through. Some of them I can translate myself, but others I can't as I can't read Kanjii yet!
Before the bidding and full translations can begin, I require, as do other "agents" a deposit (£500), just to show commitment etc. The deposit is fully refundable should we not find anything suitable, but if we do win something for you, then 350 of it will be refunded and the remaining 150 will be kept as the fee. This can be paid for with credit/debit card on my website, paypal or via bank transfer.
Auction report translation does cost 300 yen per report, (approx 2 pounds), but so long as the number of reports being translated doesnt get silly (say over 5), I will try and absorb the costs of translations myself. I suggest only getting a translation if you really are thinking of bidding on it.
I can pick cars with varying auction grades, the most common to go for are grade 3 to grade 4.5. 3 is average condition where 4.5 is immaculate. Remember grade 3 cars for the most part are better condition than most UK cars. I had a TD06 Skyline from TAA Kyushu that was grade 3 for the fact it has about 3 tiny stone chips on the otherwise perfect body and interior. Also it only had 50,000KM on the clock!
For the record, here is my old "grade 3" Skyline:
Not bad for a grade 3!
The problem with some of the othere agents is they will not touch heavily modified performance Jap cars, because they deem it to be too much trouble and they don’t want the customer moaning when they get it home, rag the bollerques off it and then blow it up on day one! Doesn’t look good for the testimonials does it.
I will let prospective customers choose what they want, and offer them any car but if I think a car is going to be a big risk, I will warn them about it, but not steer clear completely unless I think the car really is going to be a “dog”, but for the most part I will just advise them as to what they may be getting themselves into.
In reality a lot of the really high performance cars – single turbo skyline’s, supras and Rex’s are grade R and grade R/1. Now grade R is an accident repaired and the state of the repair really can vary! Also the accident history can range from having a simple panel replaced because of a little bump, to a front and rear collision, with cross members replaced and even needing a bit of time on the Jig to be straightened!
Whatever the history the list of what has been replaced is on the auction sheet, along with any faults, and these can usually be translated.
Basically with this service, you will be getting to “cherry pick” a vehicle from the vast Japanese auction system, for TRADE price + my fee (£150). I think thats not a bad deal really! Most traders would be looking to make at least 700 pounds on each import, as bringing them in with all that effort and wait would not be worth it for them. Obviously the advantages of using them are you get the vehicle straight away with no hassle of registering the vehicle. The disadvantage is that you have not chosen your vehicle out of hundreds that have gone through the auctions; you do not know the history (In most cases) or may not know what was on the auction sheet.
If your just interested in what is going through the auctions, then don’t hesitate to contact me via email, phone or MSN and give me a spec of what you’re looking for and what total price you wish to pay, and I’ll go away and scour the auctions for you and send a selection of vehicles each day to give you an idea of what I can import for you. You don’t have to hand over any money! Just enquire!
Please read the next post for more details on how our import agent service works...
Sorry for waffling
Thanks for your time everyone,
Jon @ Supercamper.
Supercamper Import Agent - Japanese Camper Vans and other vehicles
Tel: 0845 527 8793 - Opening Hours, 11:30am to 20:45pm Mon-Sat
Agent System E-mail: agent@import-service.supercamper.co.uk
General E-mail: sales@supercamper.co.uk
Website: SUPERCAMPER Imported Japanese Camper Van and Motorhome Sales
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http:// forums . supercamper . co . uk (it keeps hashing out my forum link)
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Originally Posted by General Zod 
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