I ordered tools and a kit from HLJ last month. This was my test buy, to see how much the custom charge would be. I only paid P50 (US$1+) for this package and it was delivered to my house! Safe to say, this test was a success. I was worried though because the package arrived in the Philippines two weeks ago and was statused as "Retention". From what I had read that meant it was held in customs. I visited the post office three times to check if it had arrived in my city already, but it hadn't on all visits. On my third visit though, I discovered something interesting. I saw about 4 HLJ boxes in the mail room. I wanted to find out who owned those boxes so I told the person incharge if she could double check the boxes if maybe one of them was mine and she said, "No, sorry none of them are yours." without looking at them. That hinted that she knew who owned those boxes so I chatted with her some more. So then, I found out that there were a lot of plastic modelers in my area that ordered from HLJ too. What's even more interesting is, they regularly order from HLJ and every month there are always packages from the online shop. The person in-charge also knew that the packages contained hobby kits and she said that normally you'd only pay P50 (US$1+) for the package.
I'm going to do another test buy and this time I'll get more than one kit and a total package cost that is more than P2000.00 (US$50). I've read that P2000.00 is the maximum package value before customs tax applies.
By the way, I used EMS on this order. SAL is still too risky for a test buy right now. I'll try it once I get more familiar with the post office in my area :)
