Used parts from Japan; a quick intro to UpGarage and Croooober

Nearly a year and half of inactivity here so if you are one of the few people who have been following this blog sorry for the lack of content. One of my resolutions for 2019 was to really get back into writing so here we are. Used car parts from Japan. Literally one mans junk is another mans treasure. There are many different styles when it comes to building cars but one thing in common is that if you are into Japanese cars you know that the home market has all the best stuff. The coveted JDM… Japanese Domestic Market. So how do we “baka gaijin” get our hands on the good stuff? If you’re not familiar with them yet, this is a quick introduction to UpGarage and Croooober (yeah there’s four O’s in there!).

Let’s start with UpGarage. It’s a chain of stores in Japan that deals primarily in used car parts. Pretty much every major city has at least one. They have everything from accessories to engine parts. Given that they deal in used parts each store will of course have different content depending on what is being sold off in their locale. UpGarage also carries some new stuff, but it’s mostly smaller bits like air fresheners and small accessories. In general used stuff from Japan is in excellent condition.

The Japanese really take good care of their stuff so even parts that are in the “Junk” bin are still very much usable. The staff is always very friendly (as is the case pretty much everywhere in Japan) and willing to help. They find it particularly interesting when they meet a foreigner who has interest in their old Junk. One thing to note is that UpGarage locations are usually outside the big city and tourist areas so you’ll really have to plan your trip out there. Budget at least half a day to make it worthwhile.

Croooober is a website. If you can’t physically go to Japan you go through Croooober to shop the online catalogs of UpGarage.

It might seem intimidating at first since you’re greeted by a Japanese home page but there’s a button on the upper right hand corner to change it to the English version for us baka gaijin who can’t read.

Once you’ve figured out something that simple you navigate it like pretty much any online store. In some ways it’s better that physically going to an UpGarage location because it pools the contents of all the UpGarage stores nationwide into a searchable data base. If you’re looking for something very specific you may not find just popping into one of many stores.

For shipping to the Philippines there are usually 3 or 4 options (you can’t get surface transport for small stuff). FedEx is the quickest, and the parts really do arrive in about 2 to 3 days at your door step. The annoying thing though is aside from the fact that it’s the most expensive option they will charge you all sorts of fees when your package arrives. I used it once and got assed a 580 Peso warehousing fee. How?? The item arrived the night before and went straight to my house. It didn’t have time to sit in a warehouse at all to accrue a fee. EMS is express air mail. This is a unique issue to the Philippines but we avoid this because you have to go get your package at the EMS office in Pasay City, which is annoying and out of the way if you live in any other city. EMS allegedly might give you more issues regarding “tax” to pay for your items, but that’s just hearsay and I have no firsthand experience dealing with them as I have never used their service. SAL is cheapest option but of course takes the longest. It’s called Economy Air Mail and it boggles my mind who that abbreviates to SAL but I guess that’s not important. SAL items will arrive at your local city post office. It takes a while though, the quoted two to four weeks is very optimistic. My recent Crooober transaction was ordered on November 6, 2018. Shipped out November 10 and arrived in the Philippine on November 13, 2018. You have to love how efficient the Japanese postal service is. The parcel arrived at the Muntinlupa City Post Office on January 18, 2019. No hate for the local post office though, those guys are really doing their best with very limited resources. Last of course is Surface which is only available if you buy bigger heavy stuff like wheels. It takes the longest but is of course the cheapest way to move heavy stuff.

Because in the Philippines your package doesn’t come to you. You Go to the package. After patiently waiting for your parts to arrive you get the parcel notification in the Mail. I must have worn out our mail box door checking for this thing every day for 2 months.

Pro tip. The post office opens at 8AM. If you come after opening and happen to be unlucky that there’s a queue expect to spend a couple of hours waiting. When I have to go claim a package I go as early possible. At 7:45 AM today (Jan 21. 2019) only one other person in Muntinlupa was more committed than me to getting a package.

And finally here it is! Our JDM part arrived in the Philippines.

If you find this interesting we’re also doing a three part YouTube video series regarding this particular package. Part 1: https://youtu.be/u453q21qbHo Part 2: https://youtu.be/0numPsG9jaA Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ2rovpvEpM That pretty much wraps this up. Happy JDM parts hunting. Don’t blame me if browsing through Croooober before going to bed becomes a habit. You’re already sick, I’m just enabling the obsession a bit more.