The price on that Horunavi stuff ain't bad at all. The shipping is another matter, putting the total price waaay beyond reason. Anybody know any way to get it shipped cheaper? Anybody up for trying to make a group purchase to get the shipping down?

I might be interested. How do we even buy it? Or is the website being funny on this computer, because I don't see anyway to purchase the stuff?

Oh, I'm sorry. Here, try this:

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/voice/item/kh-hn1b1/

Be sure to look at the "other items you might like from this store". That's where the other colors and the "Hard type NK" show up.

Bumble seems to like the stuff:

http://bumblingacrossletterboxes.blogspot.com/p/carving-material.html

These slabs are about 4" x 6". At $3.43 each, the price ain't bad. Click on the "estimated shipping fee" link to see the problem.

Bumble seems to like the stuff

I would revise that to say that I *love* the stuff. I've now had the chance to carve two other blocks also by SEED and really put them through the ringer and, cost notwithstanding, it is my personal gold standard carving material. Because of its thickness, it's perfect as an unmounted stamp in a letterbox as well.

As it happens, I placed a big order through the Voice shop on Rakuten that you linked there. If I had got home from work faster tonight, I would have been able to pick it up, but it's waiting for me at the post office. I ordered one of each of a number of different ones in that shop - note that there appears to be both the SEED brand (the slabs are called Horu-Navi, horunavi, horunabi, horu-nabi, etc. depending on the website) and Hankeshikun brand. If you follow the rabbit trail through some Asian translated websites, these seem to be competitor brands and people indicate different preference.

I had contacted the folks at SEED directly to see if I could make a big order, and the broken English response I got was an unequivocal "no". :/ The shipping cost was more than the cost of the blocks, but the shipping was fast to Canada (about 6 business days).

She's an outstanding carver...

Coming from the best carver I know... Oh, you!

Aaaaargh!

Every online review I've read on it is good. I've heard other carving materials described as the "best stuff you can get outside of Japan." I'm afraid I'll try it and get hooked :-(

Click on the "estimated shipping fee" link to see the problem.

Do we know how much the package weighs?

We can safely presume that carving material is heavy. It's solid, not foam, and the thicker it is the heavier it is. When buying multiple pieces, I'd be willing to bet you climb that shipping chart pretty quickly.

I've purchased stuff that came from China for amazingly low prices. I recently bought a headphone splitter, plug two sets of ear buds into a single outlet, for a buck and a half shipping included, all the way from China, took a month and a half to get here. Yeah, it doesn't weigh much, but still I dunno how they do it. However it is, I wish the guys selling this carving material would figure it out. I don't need it fast, I need it cheap.

Do you recall the shipping costs for a 10-pack of horu-navi? It looks like I have to provide my payment info before they will give me a shipping price.

It was 5400 yen, or $65 Canadian dollars for the pack of 10. I just recieved the package over the weekend - it was well packed and arrived in immaculate condition.

You have to provide the payment info - I did it through PayPal to give myself piece of mind. They don't actually charge you - you get an email by the next day telling you what the cost is and asking you to confirm that price if you want to complete the order. It's all in Japanese so you will be relying on Google Translate to complete the transaction.

All in all, I was happy with the experience, though it was obviously VERY pricy. For me, all said and done, the Horunavi works out to be $0.49 CAD per square inch.

Having said all that, if anyone is interested in trying this stuff, I would be willing to take a slab and cut it into square inches to ship it to Canada or the US at cost for people to try out before committing to such a high cost. I think the oversized lettermail rate would mean that if anyone wanted an inch of the stuff, it would be total $3 (CAD).

It was 5400 yen, or $65 Canadian dollars for the pack of 10.

That's total, right? Price plus shipping?

That was the total shipping cost. The whole total was 9900 yen which is $119 Canadian.

Wow. Somebody needs to start smuggling that stuff.

I just found 3 Sheets of 2001 pink stuff still Supple as the day I bought it. I wonder if someone can analyze it and reproduce it properly

I don't know how to replicate it, but I would sure love to buy some of it from you!

I thought you wanted my stack of b-grade PC cut? Make up your mind girl ;-)

Yeah, no, sorry, that doesn't explain it. If I got this product to Los Angeles for less than ten cents, I still couldn't get it to my house in Florida for a buck and a half. Those wily Chinese can ship parcels across the US cheaper than we can.

It costs me twice as much to ship a parcel within Canada as it does to ship it to the US, even if it's just to the next town. Canada Post has different (exorbitant) rates.