I got an email that the truck has been ’line released’. What does that mean? Still finding out. It takes so many hands to make international shipping work, which makes sense. That email was I think from the company that operates the ship. They referred me to the operator of the terminal at the port. When I contact the terminal, it turns out it has a Customs Entry Hold. I contact my broker, who informed me that “something is going on in Baltimore.”

We’ll see how long it takes. Then I get to figure out how to actually pick it up.

My bill of lading arrived. That means I have a ship, Elegant Ace, which will carry the truck across the Pacific, through the Panama canal, an ultimately to Baltimore.

This also means I need to get the import paperwork in order. The process has been a bit confusing, with the company facilitating the sale giving me mixed recommendations - either doing paperwork myself with the help of easyISF, or using a broker. I ended up using a broker, but not sure if that was the best choice.

I won an auction. It took a few attempts and false starts, but I won the auction for a 1998 Subaru Sambar KS4. Manual transmission, A/C, and apparently pretty good exteror and interior condition - and at just under 30K kilometers on the dial.

The process: I used Japan Car Direct as the facilitator/agent. After signing up, a lot of the process was via Whatsapp, where they would show potential upcoming auction vehicles that meet my general criteria, and I’d give feedback on which I was willing to potentially bid on. On auction day, they would order same-day third party inspections. I had to be pretty available at that time for feedback (usually Thursday or Friday night in East-coast US time to correspond to Friday or Saturday morning auctions in Japan). When the inspection came back good, I gave the thumbs up and a ceiling amount to bid, and they carried it out.

I won at 454K Yen. The various fees for the auction, agent suppport, and transport fees to the US got that up to about $880k Yen total, or $6217 USD.

They sent some pictures of the truck in the yard.