YAJ – Yahoo! Auctions Japan

Cha-freakin-ching.  Ewan, you’re a legend.  Hayatonka.com :  USE IT PEOPLE!  Tell him I (Michael/kyteler from retro-classics.co.nz)  sent you.  He likes knowing, honest he does!

This box arrived today filled with the latest things to help me take the C110 to where I would like it aesthetically, as well as these few things another thing was added to the package from a separate YAJ auction.

Oh, it even has a heart on it!  How Skyline !

Oh, it even has a heart on it! How 'Skyline' !

My love for the Skyline range is probably considered a little sad by most people.  However, it is what it is and when it is that which it is (yes, I know I used too many two letter words.) and you see something like this on auction, you put in a max bid and cross your fingers.    Thankfully in this instance, it worked;  (more…)

Oh hell yes!

I was browsing through YAJ yesterday and happened upon this…

Surge that!

Surge that!

What a weird looking plenum, I thought to myself.  I couldn’t help but click on the link to invesigate further. Then all of a sudden it became obvious what was going on.  Check the bolt spacing on the mating side of the plenum.

What do you suppose thats for then?

What do you suppose that's for then?

That’s right! It looks as though it would mate directly onto a set of triple carbs, does it not?  Which means it’s an awesome HKS Carb Turbo plenum, which would give you the option to make you car into something like.. DUN DUN DUN!

L31 TT

L31 TT

DEVIL Z!

Wangan Midnight, baby!

Wangan Midnight, baby!

Yeah, that’s badass.  However, I imagine the 50,000JPY starting bid might put a lost of westerners off.  50k Yen is about  $850.00NZD at the current exhange rate.  Yikes!  Still, if you’re keen, here’s the link;

http://page2.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/b97806024

Copy it, send an email to Ewan @ Hayatonka.com and get yourself a piece of history.

-Michael

So, as was expected, my second package from Japan arrived (actually it arrived yesterday but let’s not be picky, I posted this entry a day late) in the same 3-day time frame that the first one took.  Though this time I was at home to receive it, at 11:20am.  Even the Courier was surprised it had arrived in 3 days and said himself that it was faster than internal New Zealand freight, I agreed.  So… what came this time around?  WELL!  Let’s see!

It came in a long white box, like so…

Oooh, what could it be?  Its faily long or is that wide?

Oooh, what could it be? It's fairly long or is that wide?

PLACE BETS NOW!

(more…)

Having recently gone through this myself, I thought I would share the simple process with you all so you feel less worried by it or rather can just understand the simplicity of it all and realise there’s little to lose and much more to be gained.

If you’re like me, you would have spent ages scouring the YAJ (Yahoo! Auctions Japan) website, countless hours of countless days dreaming the dream of owning those parts that are seemingly unavailable anywhere else other than shops in Japan which you’re unable to visit or they’re un-willing to send, or the worst of the lot that they’re not unwilling to send but rather that there’s the language barrier.  So, here’s the solution!

When you use their contact form, the person you’ll come into contact with is Ewan.  He’s a friendly and exceedingly helpful chap and best of all, he comes from New Zealand and so speaks and understand English perfectly.

So, you’ve got a contact point.  What now? (more…)

OK, so whilst most of you likely went away or did something awesome on your days off over easter, I did very little.  I drove around a very bland looking Audi A4 and although it was very polite and comfortable with it’s ways, it certainly lacked a lot of the character that I’m used to in my own vehicles, perhaps being tip-tronic was of no assistance to it, but that’s beside the point I think.  Mixed in with this driving of a vehicle beyond my means, was the important part.  The sussing out of particulars involved in the purchase made on my behalf of replica 110GT-R flares, in Japan, on YAJ.

The flares themselves, are these ones;

Replica KPGC110 Bolt-on Fibreglass Flares

Replica KPGC110 Bolt-on Fibreglass Flares

Sure, they don’t look like much but they’re specific to the C110 in that they have to cater for the bodylines at the rear of the car and they wrap around the majority of the length of the arch as opposed to the universal type which in general will just crown the wheel-arch.  I managed to win the auction at the starting bid.  Though before any of this even took place, I had emailed the amazing Ewan @ hayatonka.com asking for a basic estimate on what it would be to get these suckers to my door.  He replied within the day and his basic estimate turned out to be very close to the final price.  Being the size, composite and fragility of the items it wasn’t the easiest to guess.  His initial estimate coming only 1820JPY shy of the final costing. The discrepancy in price turned out to only really be the weight, 2kg was actually 3kg and so internal Japanese freight and then International freight to NZ rose slightly because of that.  They should arrive to my door within the next 7 days, once they do I’ll let you all know and probably do a little taped onto the car mockup just for shits and giggles.

-Michael