Field Notes · TE37 OG

Don’t Overpay. TE37 OGs Are $400 Cheaper from Japan

Last month, I shipped a set of TE37 OG 15x6.5 +38 4x100 to a customer in the US. Duties paid, delivered to their door — $1,487.

The average sold price for the same spec on eBay over the past 3 years? $1,979. Range: $1,250 to $2,600.

That's not my opinion. That's eBay Terapeak data. You can check it yourself: eBay Terapeak →

I'll show you where the $500 gap comes from.

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Here's the actual set.

TE37 OG 15x6.5 +38 4x100. Shipped April 2026.

① Won the auction at $854.

② Packed, duties paid, delivered to the door — $1,487 all-in.

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The actual cost breakdown

Here's every cost from this transaction. Nothing hidden.

Exchange rate at time of transaction. Rounding absorbed into FedEx line.

One thing I want to be upfront about: this set had paint peeling. Not a mint set. But that's reflected in the auction price — ¥125,600 is what paint-peeled TE37 OGs go for in Japan. A cleaner set costs more at auction, but the structure is the same: the total DDP cost stays hundreds below what you'd pay domestically in the US.

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Why it's cheaper from Japan

TE37s are manufactured by RAYS in Japan. You probably know that.

What you might not know is where used TE37s circulate. The answer: almost entirely within Japan. Yahoo Auctions, Mercari, Up Garage, local tire shops. Japanese sellers listing in English for overseas buyers is extremely rare. It's just not part of the culture.

So the cycle looks like this:

1. Made in Japan
2. Mounted on a Japanese car
3. Taken off, listed on a Japanese marketplace
4. Bought by another Japanese buyer, mounted on another Japanese car

Prices are set inside this loop — by domestic supply and domestic competition. That's what keeps them low.

When a set leaves Japan, here's what gets stacked on top:

• International shipping
• Import duties
• Proxy service fees (Buyee charges up to 10% of purchase price + shipping markup)
• eBay seller fees (up to 13%)
• Seller's margin on top of all of the above

A TE37 OG listed at $2,000 on eBay isn't a $2,000 wheel. It's an $800 wheel with $1,200 of costs and margins piled on.

What I do is cut that structure short. I source directly from Japanese auctions, inspect the wheels myself, and ship directly to the buyer. No eBay fees. No proxy markup. No hidden costs. That's why DDP comes to $1,487.

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See for yourself

You don't have to take my word for it. Check it yourself — both tools are right below this article.

Step 1 — Find out what's available in Japan right now.

Enter your wheel specs into the search tool. It generates a search URL for Japanese auction sites automatically — no Japanese required. TE37 OG, CE28, RE30, Work Emotion — whatever you're looking for. You'll see what's listed in Japan and at what price in about 30 seconds.

travel_explore Use the search tool

Step 2 — Get your landed cost.

Found something? Enter the wheel specs and your country into the DDP calculator. It'll show you the total cost to your door — including shipping, duties, and service fee.

calculate Open the DDP calculator

The $1,487 in the cost breakdown above? That's the same number this calculator quoted before the transaction — and the same number the customer actually paid. What it quotes is what you pay. That's how I run every deal.

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But isn't buying from Japan risky?

OK, it's cheaper. But buying from a Japanese auction is a different story — if that's what you're thinking, you're right.

Auction photos in Japan are often low quality. You can't tell if a wheel has a bend until it's on the car. The listing is in Japanese and you can't read the condition notes. If something goes wrong with an overseas purchase, returning it isn't realistic. I know all of this. That's why my service is built to eliminate every one of these problems.

Here's how a transaction works:

Try the tools below. Or send me a listing URL and I'll handle the rest.