Wanted: Wheels

[KarlInAus]

Well, the insurance company finally approved the repairs to my Beat, but they're going to give me a cash payout on the two alloy wheels that were destroyed in the accident. Given that there's no chance of finding two of those exact wheels (Sparco alloys) - I'm left with the problem of finding four wheels for my Beat within a tight budget. Looking for the original size, steelies would be fine. Any ideas on the where I might look for replacement wheels here in Australia?
Thanks in advance, Karl.

[Mylee]

Possibly import from Japan, here's a few examples

http://page7.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/g62592960
http://page2.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/b87417688
http://page9.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k54303776
http://page3.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/c169382396
http://page8.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/h59478958
http://page18.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/w26557033

[TADO]

as mylee said, its quite easy to import them using rinkya.com
my wheels are on a big boat somewhere at the moment, it cost 96 quid total for shipping all 4 wheels and i was able to get just the wheels i was after...

on a side note, these are a very nice - good snooping mr mylee!
http://page8.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/h59478958

[KarlInAus]

Thanks for that. Any thoughts on using rinkya.com vs using Juno for Yahoo auctions?

[TADO]

hey karl

there's some sparco wheels on yahoo at the moment - the ones you have arent the red ones with the chrome lip are they??

i dont think juno will ship wheels - im pretty sure he only deals with EMS / smaller items.
rinkya ship by sea and EMS (EMS 3-7 day service is about £100 more). price-wise i think its swings and roundabouts really - both are expensive for small things due to the fixed commission but relatively cheap to buy larger things.

my enkei wheels from rinkya were JPY51000, commission/fee was $40, sellers internal shipping charge at $20 and then tracked/insured sea shipping was about $200 - so about £380gbp in total.
the painful bit is that i have to wait the 6-8 weeks for them to arrive!

there's also a guy in aus called Jesse Streeter who runs a bidding service too and seems to have a good reputation and maybe cheaper than rinkya/juno too. i dont know anyone who's used him personally, but theres more info here:
http://auszoku.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=55&highlight=yahoo

HTH!

[TADO]

ps - just found this yahoo calculator from another aus company which might give you an idea of figures:
http://www.slidewizeimports.com/yahoo/calculator.php

[KarlInAus]

My Sparcos are (were) exactly like the ones on Yahoo at the moment, only yellow.
Thanks for all the info, plenty of options there. I will need to wait for the insurance company to cough up the dough before I do anything further...