Looking for 5 people for group purchese of replacement PC Engine CD middle gears!

*EDIT* Title should say "4" not "5" :\
Hey there PC Engine fans! As anyone who has the CD-ROM add-on would know, they eventually stop working due to the middle gear turning into cheddar cheese. There's a solution that involves removing the middle gear's pole and installing a larger gear to turn the assembly into a 2 gear system, but I've just found on Yahoo! Auctions Japan a seller who has made reproductions of the middle gear. Personally, I like this idea better.

Catch is, Yahoo! Auctions Japan doesn't ship outside of Japan, and because the auction in question is for 5 items, Buyee's system can't handle it. So I was thinking I might call on one of our Japan-based users to bid for me and have it redirected to my place. But really, I don't need 5 middle gears, so I thought why don't 5 of us who need replacement middle gears all go in together and buy them? Obviously, we still need someone based in Japan though

If I'm reading the auction correctly, they're 1,100 yen, and I'm assuming that you get 5 gears, not that there's 5 gears in stock (if that were the case, I wouldn't think Buyee's system would have trouble bidding) So are there any Assembler users based in Japan who can help out? And are there 4 other users who need replacement middle gears who want to go into a group purchase with me?

 

price would probably be helpful

 

Whoops! My bad! I've updated my OP.

 

I would be interested at the right price in at least 1 maybe 2 of the gears. I live in the USA, just let me know what you think a fair price would be. I seem to remember that the Turbo CD uses the same hardware so I should be able to use it.

 

That auction you are looking at has 5 gears in stock.

In case you can't find someone to help you:

A few days ago, I bought a new AIME card from YAJ using the FromJapan proxy service.

I didn't realize it until a few hours after the auction had closed, but apparently there were two cards in stock and I bought one: http://page11.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n123385428

So this probably means that FromJapan can handle such auctions properly.

 

According to sp193, it's actually for 1 gear, but there are five in stock. No idea why this trips up Buyee's system, but it looks like I was wrong. I guess we still could do a bulk purchase, but I don't know if we will be saving anything since triple handling will be involved.

How's FromJapan's prices? I know Buyee is pretty good, since their fees are quite reasonable (only cost me $7 to have them buy something for me then a few dollars more to pack it). They look pretty good so far, advertising free package combining and everything.

 

FromJapan isn't too bad; 200yen fee for purchase (1st invoice) and 500yen fee on final payment (second invoice). Then local shipping and shipping to you. Every once in awhile I get an extra 1000yen for a local delivery charge. If you want everything bubble wrapped, double boxed and taped to extreme a 2000yen repack fee once you select what items you've bought to ship comes into play too. Good thing with them is you can stockpile 30 days worth of purchases and then ship them out to yourself all at once. Multiple shipping options too, but I just stick with EMS as I am an impatient.

 

Hmmm, their fees almost sound exactly the same as Buyee's! Well, at least they support SAL right off the bat, you have to coax Buyee to SAL ship. I might give them a shot, see how they compare.

 

FromJapan's commission rates were once nearly zero, but they have bumped it up to 200 yen due to the increase in the number of users.

I used to be a user of ShoppingMallJapan, but then I quit because their charges in USD were seriously hurting my wallet due to the exchange rates by Paypal (SGD -> USD -> JPY, and the USD was previously quite strong). They even had a flat rate of 3 USD just for paying the seller (and we're not even talking about their commission yet D: )!

FYI your auction has free shipping, meaning that you don't need to pay anything to FromJapan for domestic shipping (shipping within Japan to the FromJapan facility).

Their page here has information on their charges: http://www.fromjapan.co.jp/title/charge

Of course, if someone else has a better agent in mind, I'm all ears too! :friendly_wink:

EDIT: Why do you want to use SAL? I thought that EMS would be a cheaper option if your shipment is smaller and lighter than a certain size and weight?

 

For something small like this, I probably would use EMS. What I meant was, if FromJapan are cheap, I'll probably use them for other things, and for larger items, SAL is more economical then EMS

 

Just an update, I brought some of these replacement gears and they're a perfect fit. Well, they're able to spin the gear next to them now anyway, I've yet to reassemble the CD-ROM and see it everything now works, but I assume it will.

 

Assumptions are great when feeling lazy! :friendly_wink:
Good to hear it all worked out!

 

I think I still have the old gear I replaced just now. It's not in too bad of a condition, just a few chunks taken out of it. If you're good at CAD drawing or something it'd probably be useful

 

Yep, still got it.

 

Ah, I'm sorry to report that the gear was crushed at some point I was trying to find it just now, and noticed little tiny pieces of gear all over my workbench. I've got another gear, but it's split in half and there's a chunk missing out of it, so I'm not sure how useful it will be.

If you're looking to make reproductions of the middle gear, I'd suggest buying ONE OF THE REPRODUCTIONS I brought and copying that. I think many members of this forum would be forever in your debt if you could provide us with reproduction middle gears!

 

The reproduction gear looks like a polyester resin casting.

 

Really? I figured it was 3D printed. Maybe the average 3D printer can't do that level of fidelity?

 

I did a quick Google translate on that link, it does sound like a casting. The translation is not very clear. There are air bubbles in your replacement gear right? You will get that when you cast resin without using vacuum tank. I'm intrigued whether cured resin based 3D printer can print something like that. Even if that's possible I'm not sure if it's strong enough.