Online Shopping / JP Proxies Writeup
My record as an anime hobby consumer living in America but buying everything from Japan. :B
To be edited as time passes...~
Feel free to correct me if you feel my information could be adjusted somewhere, or to tell me your personal experience with ___ (I don't mind hearing about them!!), or to attempt to convince me that one store is better for me than another for ____ kinds of products.
My current buying priorities ( here for past priorities):
1. Visual kei/punk/gothic fashion which is my kick for 2023. I'm pretty picky about what I'll take, and for what price though.
2. Google Play Gift Cards for my Fire Emblem Heroes and Tales of the Rays husbando collecting >_>; I do have a somewhat steady seller who offers cards at 12% off and is flexible with any denomination (ex: $100 for $88, also has App Store etc too), but I'm of course always open to better deals!
3. Various other Tales/Fire Emblem things here and there. Occasionally some other game-related things.
4. Pokemon merchandise (figures, plush, cards, calendars, books, whatever other oddities have captured my attention). Currently trying to stick to just TOMY Moncolle, figures that fill the unique Pokedex of figures, and other oddities I find unique.
5. BL Novels from CDJapan when I have points I need to use and have nothing else in mind? XD
Last updated: Oct 16 - updated notes on Dej and J-Sub mostly.
Sep 5, 2023 - HLJ back on blacklist since economical shipping option was NOT economical lol. Also cutting some more things off, getting more selective about what's GOOD these days.
May 15, 2023 - HLJ tentatively deblacklisted for now as they opened up an economical shipping option for smaller packages. That alone is enough to give them a new chance given shipping prices all around lately.
Feb 14, 2023 - HLJ is moved down to a blacklist of sorts. Not sure if they're under new management or whatnot, but various factors this year have made this long-time faithful customer do a full 360 on them. DO NOT RECOMMEND HLJ.
Sep 1, 2022 - Due to massively increasing shipping rates, in particular to the US, I'm weaning off Pokemon stuff from Japan as much as possible. I should be doing this anyway considering the limit of storage space in my house lol... I'm just glad to have gotten through my urges for the most part before it came to this point. Despite this, I still have like over a dozen packages from Japan already preordered for this year by itself... And I'll still have some orders coming in from Japan every year, just... not as much Pokemon stuff??
July 26, 2018 - More than a year passes so quickly... I've since gotten my own house and adjusted buying priorities since I'm getting pickier with Pokemon merchandise and expanding on different things instead. There's more preordering going around, less auction bidding... but overall I've still been using the same services for the past few years.
Previous: Nov 4, 2015, June 12, 2014, Nov 9, 2016
Big fat general note: Small Packet SAL is the godliest shipping option of all. It has relatively decent shipping time (Usually within 2 weeks), AND the prices are egad ECONOMICAL. It beats out regular SAL shipping in both price AND shipping time (and it is easy to confuse regular SAL versus Small Packet SAL, but they are very different shipping methods). I greatly prefer it over EMS even if EMS is faster because EMS rates are crazy expensive, and they require someone to physically be present to sign the package upon arrival which I HATE. Most things I purchase fit into Small Packet SAL and I wish more merchants offered this method, but actually very few do for some unknown crazy reason. Also, Small Packet SAL UNREGISTERED because tracking even SLOWS DOWN the package arrival at times, and I've never seen Small Packet SAL get lost. Some places will mandate registration though :\ (Zenmarket), so that adds on an extra 410 yen per package =w= RIP SMALL PACKET SAL, WILL THIS GODLY SHIPPING OPTION EVEN EVER COME BACK...???
For now, we are stuck with EMS, DHL, FedEx which are considered express premium, Air parcel is generally best middle-ground if offered, or 2+ months waits on Surface if offered. Lately, I end up going Surface more and more.. TwT;; The waits can be excruciating, but it's what I do to save more... (and then buy more ;).
Online shops I frequent
CDJapan
Pros:
-Good points program, along with periodic nice promotions. There are additional "loyal customer" and newsletter exclusive promotions, so newsletter signup recommended!
-Fast and reliable shipping
-Convenient item moving system (move items to other orders as long as they're not beyond "in shipping progress" which starts a day or two before release)
-Very good with preorder bonuses, in fact there's even a counter that will say how many preorder bonuses are left if they're in limited supply.
-Best packing quality out of my general online shopping experience. Expect no mistakes in brand new item condition. Pristine.
Cons:
-Have to contact support to cancel items
-Some items have a tight stock limit during the preorder period, so you have to be pretty fast to order depending on the item. Things like limited edition clotheswear and such go out especially fast. I swear some items they'll list without any intention to stock them in the first place =_=; I do forgive them on this generally since these items weren't the focus of their site originally anyway (originally for CDs, durr), and there are usually other places to order... but from a business standpoint, they should REALLY improve on this aspect if they want to get more sales.
-Excessively heavy weight estimates lead to higher shipping totals than they should be, especially on their books. And they won't cut down on the shipping total if the actual shipping happens to be lower, unless you harass their customer support to get them to reconfirm the weights (and I think they won't do this anymore at all now)... but that's a huge hassle to both parties.
-On the other end, some estimates are way off and you might get an invoice to pay up more for shipping later, which also sucks.
General Note:
-These guys have gone through extra lengths to stock items upon my requests. They also get things shipped out VERY fast. Even items that are listed "May take up to 1-2 weeks after the release date" rarely (if ever) get delayed beyond release dates. Add in the points program, and they keep me coming back again and again for more. <3 ~
They don't emphasize this on their site at all, but for each order you get shipped from them, they'll email the same 1-minute survey which you can answer and get 50 points (you may have to check that you're opted in to receive these emails). Those points really add up if you frequently buy.
Rating: 9/10. They've been carrying more and more hobby items as time goes, sometimes with better discounts than other sellers... at which point I preorder from them. By the end of 2014, I've weaned myself away from the anime magazines and multimedia I used to frequently purchase there. They are still a VERY good and reliable source for things, with pretty much the most generous points system to keep you spending there over the years. My biggest gripes with them atm are their 1) iffy support response times, 2) the crazy estimates on their shipping charges which they don't adjust to your advantage once items are in their stock. These things combined bring my rating down with them .5 points each. Still, they are just dead solid in everything they do after all these years and thus have my highest rating for any JP shop these days.
AmazonJP
Pros:
-Huge discounts on DVD/bluray and games
-Huge selection and stock, of course since it's Amazon.
-Don't have to contact customer support to cancel items for the most part, since you can just cancel them yourself.
-The system will automatically give you the lowest price for preorders, if the price changes during the wait.
-If items are shipped by DHL--Add your phone number or email to your order and you'll get a text/email when it's on route, where you can authorize to have the package left without signature--BIG PLUS.
Cons:
-Economic shipping option isn't much cheaper than Priority (on the plus side, it isn't much slower, either)
-They won't ship certain products overseas, and there's a lot of YMMV for it.
-Packing quality suffers from large corporate lack of care--Tried to get an artbook from them and they used a flimsy envelope that got banged up a lot on the way over, which ended up ruining the cover quite a bit.
-(not sure if still applicable as I haven't had to work with this situation in years) If you order a combination of items currently in stock and items for preorder, they have a bad habit of separating shipments even if you specifically ask them to keep all items in one order. At least they don't change your shipping charge in order to do so (whatever they charge in the first shipment, they charge the rest of the original total in the next shipment), but it can be a REALLY inconvenient situation personally for EMS shipping because I may have to plan my availability around EMS shipments (not really an issue with DHL in the equation now). I think they aren't shipping with EMS anymore, thankfully.
-They don't accept Paypal, but that's not such a huge deal imo
General Note:
Ideal purchases are smaller items like single game release, blurays, or books, since the shipping charge on small items is relatively decent when you factor in the great discount on the item itself.
Rating: 8.5/10 with an extra note that a good chunk of their items can't be shipped to the US without a proxy. They are of course good for what they can ship, though! They're also gradually increasing what they're shipping overseas, which is great.
AmiAmi
Pros:
-GREAT discounts on certain hobby items
-Has a points system, although it's kind of small
Cons:
-No-cancel policy (if you are in good standing with a lot of orders with them, they will allow you a cancelation here and there, thankfully. Do not abuse this)
-SLOW--have to wait for a manually-sent invoice from AmiAmi before sending payment, which slows down the entire process. A slight advantage to this is that the shipping for each order is tailored to your items to spare you in shipping costs at least. Or at least ideally--They have a tendency to overpackage items, which adds to your shipping costs because they're paranoid about receiving complaints about damaged goods upon arrival. CDJapan packages things much more efficiently.
-SLOW with getting items shipped out (Most of the time I have to wait a few days after payment to receive a shipping notification. I'm generally peeved when major sellers do not ship out within a couple working days of payment.). They're even WORSE lately by taking literal weeks to send items that aren't EMS shipped.
-Not reliable for preorder bonuses.
-One time when I ordered a figure from them, the figure's box came baaadddly punctured because the packing boxes they use are flimsy and they don't reinforce anything for puncture safety. Fortunately, the figure itself was okay, but the box is no longer valuable due to poor packaging methods. They use paper for padding instead of any bubble wrap or air bags--the paper is not only heavier, it's also less protective in the end. :\
General Note:
-I hate preordering from this site if it's an item I want to get relatively quickly, even with EMS. Notedly because they are slower compared to the other big shops and NO CANCELLATIONS POLICY is terrible. But the discounts are really worth it on certain occasions, and they stock quite a few things that most other sites don't have for NEARLY as good of a deal. If you're not in a special rush for an item, they're worth their slowness.
I also hear a lot of Tales fans especially dismayed at AmiAmi for assuring them preorder bonuses if they "ordered early enough", only to have the preorder bonuses distributed by LOTTERY afterwards. A huge backstab ploy to get people to preorder early without benefit. Myself, I preordered Xillia from them EXTREMELY early on, even contacted their customer support to ask about preorder bonuses, and I STILL didn't get the preorder bonus Mascot item when it arrived. I ordered my next Tales game from Nippon-yasan instead, with their 100% preorder bonus guarantee, and probably got a better price on top of it all. CDJapan is also much better with preorder bonuses.
In addition, I've heard horror stories about figures arriving in bad condition. Of course, AmiAmi is of course not responsible for it since the damage happens during delivery, but it would really be nice if they just took more accountability to package things better to avoid damage in the first place. Especially since valuable figures are the largest part of their business anyway... If any time I have the opportunity to get something at similar price at CDJapan, I'd pick CDJapan any day, or any store, really. The one and ONLY thing AmiAmi has over other sites (if they do) is the initial discount of their sale listings.
Still, they have definitely improved their service over the years. They've also finally started using more appropriately sized boxes for smaller orders! They used to send single CD/DVD/bluray/book shipments in giant boxes, now they finally have something smaller and economic. Keep it up! They still need to learn to use something more secure/lightweight like basic BUBBLE WRAP instead of flimsy/heavy giftwrap paper to cushion their packages.
Rating: 7/10. Points down on slow shipping, no-cancellations policy, inefficient packing methods, and preorder bonus mishaps. Despite all these, their discounts are rarely beaten and when they have the goods, they have the goods. So the only reason I recommend them at all would be for their discounts.
HLJ (HobbyLinkJapan) DO NOT RECOMMEND
Pros:
-Warehouse option: They will store items you've ordered from them for up to 60 days in the case you order something else along the time and want them to bulk ship. You can add/delete each item in the warehouse to fully customize what goes in each package.
-They sometimes list up some collectibles that no other sites stock (ie gachapon sets, things from special makers)
-You can instantly cancel any amount of items ordered to the warehouse all the way up until they request payment for the items.
Cons:
-They used to have early bird discounts up to 20%, nowadays it's about 10% if even that much, basically not much different from other sites.
-Terrible shipping rates: It's automated which is nice sure, but as of 2022, their shipping rates are atrocious. Case in point I'll be avoiding using them whenever possible unless they adjust this. Back from their old days, I'll never forget the 20lb of bathbombs I got shipped for like $20.
-Order stops: Many items they have for preorder they will put on "Order Stop" because they order very limited qualities of those items, and then they don't put the item up for preorder again until the item is released. It's a lot of waiting around to order something when it's more than likely you'd be able to order the item after the release anyway, so why block people from preordering? D: I guess it's to prevent cancellations, but it's still a bit nerve-wrecking imo.
-Poor customer service: I've contacted their customer service a number of times, inquiring about order specifics and item stock requests, and every time, I get a generic answer that doesn't resolve anything. They have some kind of spokesperson on myfigurecollection.net and he encourages us to contact their support, but then their support comes back to us with these unhelpful generic responses. Very, VERY lame. They've gotten a bit better on this over the years, but they're still slow, and it's still a painful process.
-Once in a blue moon, they'll COMPLETELY fail to fulfill your preorder... this is very case-by-case, and in my recent case it was for the Chokkori Eeveelutions. They were able to get me 5 out of 9, and the other 4 are never to come even though I ordered them all at the same time. :\ With no clear explanation why they failed.
General Note:
-I've shopped from them for well over a full decade and finally have to say an absolute no to them ever again as of 2022.
Rating: 7/10. One point down on order stops--large setbacks on their quality of service overall. 1 down for the customer service, which is a mixed bag of unreliability. Another full point down as of 2022 due to shipping rate fiascos I had with them as they came out of pandemic. This point might flex later down the line if things improve.
Other places I get from on the rare occasion and just want to blab about XDD;
Play-Asia
Pros (These are all VERY old points because I have not bought from them in a long time):
-Early listings for games (for the most part...)
-Cheapest shipping methods compared to other stores (since they're HK-based), even free shipping to US (for games only?)
-$5 coupons commonly available for orders over $60, if you know where to look
-Weekly and Daily sales for many popular games. It's worth adding yourself to discount mailing lists if you're looking for a deal on certain games, and you can sign up for individual titles.
Cons:
-Prices are a bit heavily marked up USD values that don't match up with current yen exchange.
-Games are all they really focus on, so there's not much of a selection on other products to combine orders and save on shipping--That was in 2014, but they've expanded their site over time to add more and more collectibles. However, shipping rates are all over the place with these expanded categories of items.
-No cancellations on collectible preorders. They're very inflexible about this, and I learned this the hard way, so they should only be a last resort.
-HK-based, so Japan exclusive preorder bonuses almost never come with their games--They've gotten better with this over time and for the most part can get preorder bonuses. Check item descriptions, or even ask their customer support to be sure!
General Note:
-Since these guys are HK-based, the pros and cons go hand-in-hand with their location. Inflation has certainly impacted how much they've marked up their games over the years. Their coupons changed from being able to use them on $50 orders, now the orders have to be over $60. Starting mid 2012, they've been offering free shipping on games to the USA though, big bonus!
Rating: 8/10. Tentative, as I honestly have not shopped from them for years and these comments could be very outdated. Score is lowered from recent experience of not being able to cancel an order. They should only be used as a last resort. Please update me if any of my info is wrong D:
Nippon-yasan
Pros:
Cons:
General Note:
-These guys seem to be a potential steady for my certain gaming shopping. I ordered the Fire Emblem Kakusei 3DS edition from them at a MUCH cheaper price than Play-Asia had it, but it did take them an extra 3 days after I sent payment to get it shipped. Their store seems to have a good listing of the rarer, harder-to-get gaming items from Japan such as those special edition consoles.
I also preordered Tales of Xillia 2 from them. They ask for payment a week or so before the item is released, so that when they do get the item in they can ship it immediately. Sure beats the slow process at AmiAmi... AND they understand collectors' needs for preorder bonuses and guarantee them in their listings. Even CDJapan doesn't "guarantee" preorder bonuses (although I've always gotten them when I ordered there anyway).
Warning they seem to have fallen on hard times, so take caution before preordering in the meantime...
-I haven't ordered from them in a long time as ZonJP has covered most of my JP gaming needs.
YesAsia
Pros:
-Free international shipping on orders over $39!!
-They stock BL Novels, even if somewhat sporadically. This is a unique plus for me. :B
-Free Gachapon omake offer if you get 2 qualifying items in a single order
-Helpful customer support for putting up item listings not on their site yet
Cons:
-HUGE markups on their prices for anything other than CDs, even more than Play-Asia.
-Sporadic item listings for preorders (but if you bug customer support they can generally put the item up for you)
-Also HK-based like Play-Asia, so also a tossup with Japan exclusive preorder bonuses.
General Note:
-I've been shopping with these guys since 2004, back when they offered free shipping on orders over just $25, and one time an order got lost in the mail completely and they sent a new shipment without charging anything more whatsoever. I don't know if they're still that generous now since I haven't had lost packages since.
But this place is awesome if you want to get a whole bunch of stuff new or old and can wait for the free shipping. They also take in product listing requests if you can show them another site that has the listing already (this is what I do for BL novels/manga they haven't listed)!!
The huge markups seem to cover up for their free shipping gimmick, but if you select smart, you can still get great deals on this site.
Rating: 8/10. Tentative, as I honestly have not shopped from them for years and these comments could be very outdated.
HMV
Pros:
Cons:
General Note:
-I've only purchased from them like... twice, so I honestly can't say much. My general impression is that they're like CDJapan except with only EMS shipping available, which makes them like AmazonJP... without super awesome discounts. They have SOME discounts, but not as much as AmazonJP anyway. They at least WILL ship games overseas. Other information (preorder bonuses), I'm not too sure about. Can't say there's any reason to get from them regularly, just only if they happen to have a better deal than all the other sites--That which I have not seen happen since the last time I bought from them many years ago.
1999
Pros:
-Nice discounts all across the board, including occasional promotions
Cons:
-Not much selection
General Note:
-I've also only purchased from them like... twice, and that was also many years ago, so I honestly can't say much. Similar situation with HMV, except 1999 carries more hobby products instead of music/video.
Proxies/Forwarding services:
tl;dr For the most part, use DeJapan and don't bother with anyone else, UNLESS you need to get something ASAP for running-out-of-stock reasons and you can buy it yourself, using Tenso as a forwarding service, or if it's a store they can't order from which is a pretty hefty list for me lol... or you plan to do a LOT of proxy orders like me (in which case, J-Sub)...
DeJapan - RECOMMENDED
Pros:
-Flat fee that is better than any other proxy I've tried so far, NO CATCHES. No stupid wiring fees for transactions that never used wiring in the first place like many other proxies apply.
-ZERO fee if you're only getting one item and shipping one item. Big caveat to this generally, explained in cons section...
-Transparency about why their service is as generous as it is.
-All the usual relevant shipping options available. Reasonable (not the best, but reasonable) shipping practices in general thus far.
-Pay on the fly--No need to keep a deposit, and they don't charge if they can't buy your item. As long as the numbers are correct, Dej will be able to order as soon as they confirm the payment on their end.
Cons:
-They claim to be using a partnership for DHL shipments to get you good rates, but they're the worst rates I've seen ANYWHERE. At least their EMS/Airmail/Surface quotes are generally reasonable.
-Quotes on a package weighing .94 kg (within 1 kg threshold):
EMS: 5300, Airmail: 4400, Surface: 3300, DHL: 8800
(Other stores I frequently import from are able to ship out DHL packages up to 2kg for approximately 3600 jpy or less)
-Nothing else so far
Zenmarket - DO NOT RECOMMEND
-45-day storage free (50 yen a day after)
Pros:
-Last I checked, but it's been a long time--Flat 300 yen fee per item. No "wire transfer fee" BS. No "consolidation fee" BS. NO CATCHES.
-Automatic system
-Pretty decent website for navigation
Cons:
-Fee is per item, regardless of same seller/same date or anything. So even if you want to get a bunch of items from the same seller, you have to pay the fee per item. This is something I REALLY hope they improve on in the future (maybe even offer a reduced 100 yen fee for additional items from same seller/day).
-NO Unregistered shipping options. Everything has to include tracking, so that means an extra 410 yen per Small Packet SAL package. It really adds up.
-Their response time was excellent back in 2016, but now it's dead last come since mid 2017. I'll often have to wait up to 48 HOURS for a shop purchase quote, NEVER within 24 hrs, when other proxies pride themselves in doing it in less than 24 (and oftentimes within 12).
-What's even WORSE about their slow response time, this also applies to their packages. So if you have an item that is reaching the 45 day free storage limit, anticipate having to pay extra because they will be SLOW in packing your items. Over 48 hours slow. I had to pay an extra 100 yen the last time this happened (meaning they literally took 2 days past the date to respond and then made me pay for it), and this has definitely been a huge minus in considering future services with them.
-They tack on some small amounts of strange "insurance fees" to your packages if the value of them are too high for whatever shipping method you're working with.
General note: They are SLOW AND OVERCHARGING COMPARED TO OTHER PROXIES. They've become "too popular" for their own good and it shows in their slow service, and yet they apparently aren't scaling to accommodate. After using them frequently throughout 2016-2017, I've come to dislike how slow they've become.
-Moving forward, I intend to use Zenmarket ONLY for large single items that I intend to get shipped over by DHL Direct. Good candidates for these are large lots like Kuji cartons.
One Map / FromJapan
-45 day storage free (NO EXTENSIONS, items are discarded after 45 days)
Pros:
-Automatic system
-One-time 300 yen fee for the same seller/same day/same order.
-Pay on the fly--No need to keep a deposit, and they don't charge if you don't win your item.
-(Unregistered) Small Packet shipping for items up to 30,000 yen in value per package
Cons:
-Terrible packaging/shipping practices causing HORRIBLY inflated shipping costs. They'll "shrink wrap" your items with cardboard below it, but it's not actually shrinking anything, and the cardboard just makes it so things like plush that could be compressed to fit into cheaper shipping method requirements don't fit anymore. They're also very inflexible to customer requests during shipping process.
General note:These guys went to amazing, to terrible, to back to OK? It used to be around 200 yen + a bullshit bank wiring fee when I started out, then when I left, they had a gross combining fee on top of inflated fees, and now they are down to 300 yen flat fee with much more transparent extra fees if applicable. They're an okay starter service since their learning curve is on the easy end, relatively? But anyone with experience will know that there are WAY better services.
Celga - DO NOT RECOMMEND
Pros:
-Service on more personal level. Almost TOO personal, the last time I ordered from them I had to e-mail them on 3 separate occasions just to let them know why I needed my item shipped SAL instead of EMS, before they finally let the item get shipped SAL =w=;
-Smaller userbase, so limitations are not as much of an issue
Cons:
-Everything is handled manually, which slows down the process and there is a chance they will not see your email before a listing is over...
-Full price has to be paid upfront
-They're just overpriced in every aspect now. There are better options.
Tenso (They also own Buyee which I have not personally tried since the fees are more expensive than most other services, but I'm sure is as reliable as Tenso)
Pros:
-Be in control of what you order yourself
-Get items before they potentially sell out while waiting on another proxy
-When your packages arrive, you can send an inquiry to have them repack items to fit into small packet shipments and they'll do it free of charge (except if items need to be split into multiple shipments, each shipment will have its own initial fees)
Cons:
-Higher learning curve
-Initial fees are very high compared to other proxies
-Only works for items you can purchase yourself (many places will block non-JP payments in various ways)
Notes:
Tenso's process is very different from most others in that you need your own account on the JP site you want to buy from, and then you buy items yourself and have things sent to Tenso's address. This is very useful if you want more control in the buying process (for example getting JP Pokemon Center releases before they go out of stock, instead of waiting for a proxy to manually make the order after receiving it from you). If you don't know Japanese, this can be a very daunting process.
J-Subculture:
-45 days storage free, 100 yen storage fee per day after until 60 days
-Business account (General accounts have more fees): 250 JPY per order handling fee (+50 per item on auctions) + 100 "insurance plan" fee per URL
Pros:
-Relatively personal service. They're obscure and I like them the best that way. XD
-THEY OFFER SMALL PACKET SHIPPING (Air and Surface only for now). In this current society where no one else does.
-They work FAST during their business hours (~9am-5pm daily). I expect to have just about any order I submit responded to and then fully ordered within an hour of my submission, as long as I catch the "Pay now" prompt just as quickly on my own end.
-They handle Mercari/other 2nd-hand stores readily. Even if you buy from a ton of different sellers on Mercari, the 250 JPY order fee only applies once to the whole order (given it's of course the same order).
Cons:
-Zero service off of business hours, if you have any time-sensitive needs. At least the hours are pretty defined expectations-wise, but some proxies are "more flexible" in terms of working hours even if they aren't as fast.
-VERY HIGH learning curve to do business account, and to only be able to use Wise for deposit top-offs, but it has been well worth it for me personally. It's not worth being a general user for their service, WAY too many caveats to it.
-I wish they would do away with the 250 JPY per order handling fee, it's a little on the high end :\ Their awesome shipping practices keep me here instead of FJ or even Dej sometimes though.
-They are slow to pack shipments. Expect to wait at least a full 3 days on average after sending in a packing request. Surface/air mail packages are sent out only once a week.
General note:
I used these guys for over 300 shipments back when they had absolutely free commission fees, which was a crazy blessing in itself--alas, all good things come to an end some day. Their fee charge is now 250 base fee + a charge per item listing depending on your account status with them. I have a business account, so it's 100 per item listing (so if I get 5 of the same item listing, it's still a single 100 charge). I'm still using them (very less frequently, however) when I can't get something with Dejapan especially, and they are still good as always, aside from having (reasonable) fees now.
First and foremost, these guys by far have impressed me with their PACKING above ANY other online shop I've been with, be it Japan-wise or even domestic US. In terms of light-but-effectively-PROTECTIVE packaging, these guys do it so well and I've learned a lot about packing from them myself for my reselling processes. The boxes they use are durable but LIGHT unlike many other shops which use grossly heavy boxes that really aren't that much better. Boxes have the potential to get punctured, regardless of how thick they are, and in my experience, lighter boxes actually get treated better by mail carriers anyway. J-sub is also generous in using bubble wrapping to protect your items, unlike many other shops that will use inefficient (and heavy) paper as "padding". Finally, they have managed to send some soft items (especially plush, clothes) in PAPER BAGS which may sound scary, but actually it works SUPER WELL and reduces shipping costs dramatically compared to boxes. I've suggested that they use polymailers instead of paper bags--they responded thanks for the suggestion, though I don't think they'll implement it. That's the final touch to make their shipping methods actually perfect, imo.
Customer service-wise, they do operate in Japan time zone so my questions get answered late at night, like almost any other proxy. Even so, their response has been faster than other proxies I've dealt with (Zenmarket, FromJapan).
Their Business User status requires a wire transfer of at least 20,000 yen (using Wire, which used to be known as Transferwise) to initiate, which compared to other proxy services is a much higher ceiling and learning curve to work with, but well worth for long-term investment. Wise transfers are a lot better than Paypal fees as well.
They're one of the few proxies that still offer EXTREMELY CHEAP small packet unregistered shipping options. A diamond in the rough now. 2kg packages can be shipped for 1600 JPY, when most other shipping options these days require at least 4200 JPY for the same amount.
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Other proxy services to look into (If you want to tell me about your experiences with these, PLEASE DO!):
Sendico (unlimited storage??)
Blackship
JPN-depot
THE MORGUE (no longer in business):
Shopping Mall Japan - DO NOT RECOMMEND
Pros:
-Automatic system
-Last I knew, they offer media mail shipping for US people (super cheap)
Cons:
-Initial deposit required (you have a spending limit of 5x your deposit, I believe), this is normally not a con, BUT... deposits are all processed manually, SLOWLY, and delays things greatly.
-Limitation on preorders (if another user on their site preorders the same item on animate before you, no one else is able to make a purchase on the same item even if multiple orders are supposed to be allowed ._.;)
-Their "mass shipping" system isn't good for certain orders, especially for orders that can't take advantage of media mail shipping anyway. It even slows down the process because that just means they have to ship and process the item in two places instead of just sending it from Japan to you.
General note: I DO NOT RECOMMEND THEM. I used them as a proxy from 2007- June 2014. I withdrew my $45 deposit I had sitting with them the entire time. Many of my points might be outdated and not apply anymore, but I'm 99.9% confident that any "improvements" they might have made won't get me to come back to them. I was tired of having to email them twice to get my credit card payments processed, and they were just overall slow/expensive when there are better services out there.
- SMJ fees rant
To be edited as time passes...~
Feel free to correct me if you feel my information could be adjusted somewhere, or to tell me your personal experience with ___ (I don't mind hearing about them!!), or to attempt to convince me that one store is better for me than another for ____ kinds of products.
My current buying priorities ( here for past priorities):
1. Visual kei/punk/gothic fashion which is my kick for 2023. I'm pretty picky about what I'll take, and for what price though.
2. Google Play Gift Cards for my Fire Emblem Heroes and Tales of the Rays husbando collecting >_>; I do have a somewhat steady seller who offers cards at 12% off and is flexible with any denomination (ex: $100 for $88, also has App Store etc too), but I'm of course always open to better deals!
3. Various other Tales/Fire Emblem things here and there. Occasionally some other game-related things.
4. Pokemon merchandise (figures, plush, cards, calendars, books, whatever other oddities have captured my attention). Currently trying to stick to just TOMY Moncolle, figures that fill the unique Pokedex of figures, and other oddities I find unique.
5. BL Novels from CDJapan when I have points I need to use and have nothing else in mind? XD
Last updated: Oct 16 - updated notes on Dej and J-Sub mostly.
Sep 5, 2023 - HLJ back on blacklist since economical shipping option was NOT economical lol. Also cutting some more things off, getting more selective about what's GOOD these days.
May 15, 2023 - HLJ tentatively deblacklisted for now as they opened up an economical shipping option for smaller packages. That alone is enough to give them a new chance given shipping prices all around lately.
Feb 14, 2023 - HLJ is moved down to a blacklist of sorts. Not sure if they're under new management or whatnot, but various factors this year have made this long-time faithful customer do a full 360 on them. DO NOT RECOMMEND HLJ.
Sep 1, 2022 - Due to massively increasing shipping rates, in particular to the US, I'm weaning off Pokemon stuff from Japan as much as possible. I should be doing this anyway considering the limit of storage space in my house lol... I'm just glad to have gotten through my urges for the most part before it came to this point. Despite this, I still have like over a dozen packages from Japan already preordered for this year by itself... And I'll still have some orders coming in from Japan every year, just... not as much Pokemon stuff??
July 26, 2018 - More than a year passes so quickly... I've since gotten my own house and adjusted buying priorities since I'm getting pickier with Pokemon merchandise and expanding on different things instead. There's more preordering going around, less auction bidding... but overall I've still been using the same services for the past few years.
Previous: Nov 4, 2015, June 12, 2014, Nov 9, 2016
Big fat general note: Small Packet SAL is the godliest shipping option of all. It has relatively decent shipping time (Usually within 2 weeks), AND the prices are egad ECONOMICAL. It beats out regular SAL shipping in both price AND shipping time (and it is easy to confuse regular SAL versus Small Packet SAL, but they are very different shipping methods). I greatly prefer it over EMS even if EMS is faster because EMS rates are crazy expensive, and they require someone to physically be present to sign the package upon arrival which I HATE. Most things I purchase fit into Small Packet SAL and I wish more merchants offered this method, but actually very few do for some unknown crazy reason. Also, Small Packet SAL UNREGISTERED because tracking even SLOWS DOWN the package arrival at times, and I've never seen Small Packet SAL get lost. Some places will mandate registration though :\ (Zenmarket), so that adds on an extra 410 yen per package =w= RIP SMALL PACKET SAL, WILL THIS GODLY SHIPPING OPTION EVEN EVER COME BACK...???
For now, we are stuck with EMS, DHL, FedEx which are considered express premium, Air parcel is generally best middle-ground if offered, or 2+ months waits on Surface if offered. Lately, I end up going Surface more and more.. TwT;; The waits can be excruciating, but it's what I do to save more... (and then buy more ;).
Online shops I frequent
CDJapan
Pros:
-Good points program, along with periodic nice promotions. There are additional "loyal customer" and newsletter exclusive promotions, so newsletter signup recommended!
-Fast and reliable shipping
-Convenient item moving system (move items to other orders as long as they're not beyond "in shipping progress" which starts a day or two before release)
-Very good with preorder bonuses, in fact there's even a counter that will say how many preorder bonuses are left if they're in limited supply.
-Best packing quality out of my general online shopping experience. Expect no mistakes in brand new item condition. Pristine.
Cons:
-Have to contact support to cancel items
-Some items have a tight stock limit during the preorder period, so you have to be pretty fast to order depending on the item. Things like limited edition clotheswear and such go out especially fast. I swear some items they'll list without any intention to stock them in the first place =_=; I do forgive them on this generally since these items weren't the focus of their site originally anyway (originally for CDs, durr), and there are usually other places to order... but from a business standpoint, they should REALLY improve on this aspect if they want to get more sales.
-Excessively heavy weight estimates lead to higher shipping totals than they should be, especially on their books. And they won't cut down on the shipping total if the actual shipping happens to be lower, unless you harass their customer support to get them to reconfirm the weights (and I think they won't do this anymore at all now)... but that's a huge hassle to both parties.
-On the other end, some estimates are way off and you might get an invoice to pay up more for shipping later, which also sucks.
General Note:
-These guys have gone through extra lengths to stock items upon my requests. They also get things shipped out VERY fast. Even items that are listed "May take up to 1-2 weeks after the release date" rarely (if ever) get delayed beyond release dates. Add in the points program, and they keep me coming back again and again for more. <3 ~
They don't emphasize this on their site at all, but for each order you get shipped from them, they'll email the same 1-minute survey which you can answer and get 50 points (you may have to check that you're opted in to receive these emails). Those points really add up if you frequently buy.
Rating: 9/10. They've been carrying more and more hobby items as time goes, sometimes with better discounts than other sellers... at which point I preorder from them. By the end of 2014, I've weaned myself away from the anime magazines and multimedia I used to frequently purchase there. They are still a VERY good and reliable source for things, with pretty much the most generous points system to keep you spending there over the years. My biggest gripes with them atm are their 1) iffy support response times, 2) the crazy estimates on their shipping charges which they don't adjust to your advantage once items are in their stock. These things combined bring my rating down with them .5 points each. Still, they are just dead solid in everything they do after all these years and thus have my highest rating for any JP shop these days.
AmazonJP
Pros:
-Huge discounts on DVD/bluray and games
-Huge selection and stock, of course since it's Amazon.
-Don't have to contact customer support to cancel items for the most part, since you can just cancel them yourself.
-The system will automatically give you the lowest price for preorders, if the price changes during the wait.
-If items are shipped by DHL--Add your phone number or email to your order and you'll get a text/email when it's on route, where you can authorize to have the package left without signature--BIG PLUS.
Cons:
-Economic shipping option isn't much cheaper than Priority (on the plus side, it isn't much slower, either)
-They won't ship certain products overseas, and there's a lot of YMMV for it.
-Packing quality suffers from large corporate lack of care--Tried to get an artbook from them and they used a flimsy envelope that got banged up a lot on the way over, which ended up ruining the cover quite a bit.
-(not sure if still applicable as I haven't had to work with this situation in years) If you order a combination of items currently in stock and items for preorder, they have a bad habit of separating shipments even if you specifically ask them to keep all items in one order. At least they don't change your shipping charge in order to do so (whatever they charge in the first shipment, they charge the rest of the original total in the next shipment), but it can be a REALLY inconvenient situation personally for EMS shipping because I may have to plan my availability around EMS shipments (not really an issue with DHL in the equation now). I think they aren't shipping with EMS anymore, thankfully.
-They don't accept Paypal, but that's not such a huge deal imo
General Note:
Ideal purchases are smaller items like single game release, blurays, or books, since the shipping charge on small items is relatively decent when you factor in the great discount on the item itself.
Rating: 8.5/10 with an extra note that a good chunk of their items can't be shipped to the US without a proxy. They are of course good for what they can ship, though! They're also gradually increasing what they're shipping overseas, which is great.
AmiAmi
Pros:
-GREAT discounts on certain hobby items
-Has a points system, although it's kind of small
Cons:
-No-cancel policy (if you are in good standing with a lot of orders with them, they will allow you a cancelation here and there, thankfully. Do not abuse this)
-SLOW--have to wait for a manually-sent invoice from AmiAmi before sending payment, which slows down the entire process. A slight advantage to this is that the shipping for each order is tailored to your items to spare you in shipping costs at least. Or at least ideally--They have a tendency to overpackage items, which adds to your shipping costs because they're paranoid about receiving complaints about damaged goods upon arrival. CDJapan packages things much more efficiently.
-SLOW with getting items shipped out (Most of the time I have to wait a few days after payment to receive a shipping notification. I'm generally peeved when major sellers do not ship out within a couple working days of payment.). They're even WORSE lately by taking literal weeks to send items that aren't EMS shipped.
-Not reliable for preorder bonuses.
-One time when I ordered a figure from them, the figure's box came baaadddly punctured because the packing boxes they use are flimsy and they don't reinforce anything for puncture safety. Fortunately, the figure itself was okay, but the box is no longer valuable due to poor packaging methods. They use paper for padding instead of any bubble wrap or air bags--the paper is not only heavier, it's also less protective in the end. :\
General Note:
-I hate preordering from this site if it's an item I want to get relatively quickly, even with EMS. Notedly because they are slower compared to the other big shops and NO CANCELLATIONS POLICY is terrible. But the discounts are really worth it on certain occasions, and they stock quite a few things that most other sites don't have for NEARLY as good of a deal. If you're not in a special rush for an item, they're worth their slowness.
I also hear a lot of Tales fans especially dismayed at AmiAmi for assuring them preorder bonuses if they "ordered early enough", only to have the preorder bonuses distributed by LOTTERY afterwards. A huge backstab ploy to get people to preorder early without benefit. Myself, I preordered Xillia from them EXTREMELY early on, even contacted their customer support to ask about preorder bonuses, and I STILL didn't get the preorder bonus Mascot item when it arrived. I ordered my next Tales game from Nippon-yasan instead, with their 100% preorder bonus guarantee, and probably got a better price on top of it all. CDJapan is also much better with preorder bonuses.
In addition, I've heard horror stories about figures arriving in bad condition. Of course, AmiAmi is of course not responsible for it since the damage happens during delivery, but it would really be nice if they just took more accountability to package things better to avoid damage in the first place. Especially since valuable figures are the largest part of their business anyway... If any time I have the opportunity to get something at similar price at CDJapan, I'd pick CDJapan any day, or any store, really. The one and ONLY thing AmiAmi has over other sites (if they do) is the initial discount of their sale listings.
Still, they have definitely improved their service over the years. They've also finally started using more appropriately sized boxes for smaller orders! They used to send single CD/DVD/bluray/book shipments in giant boxes, now they finally have something smaller and economic. Keep it up! They still need to learn to use something more secure/lightweight like basic BUBBLE WRAP instead of flimsy/heavy giftwrap paper to cushion their packages.
Rating: 7/10. Points down on slow shipping, no-cancellations policy, inefficient packing methods, and preorder bonus mishaps. Despite all these, their discounts are rarely beaten and when they have the goods, they have the goods. So the only reason I recommend them at all would be for their discounts.
HLJ (HobbyLinkJapan) DO NOT RECOMMEND
Pros:
-Warehouse option: They will store items you've ordered from them for up to 60 days in the case you order something else along the time and want them to bulk ship. You can add/delete each item in the warehouse to fully customize what goes in each package.
-They sometimes list up some collectibles that no other sites stock (ie gachapon sets, things from special makers)
-You can instantly cancel any amount of items ordered to the warehouse all the way up until they request payment for the items.
Cons:
-They used to have early bird discounts up to 20%, nowadays it's about 10% if even that much, basically not much different from other sites.
-Terrible shipping rates: It's automated which is nice sure, but as of 2022, their shipping rates are atrocious. Case in point I'll be avoiding using them whenever possible unless they adjust this. Back from their old days, I'll never forget the 20lb of bathbombs I got shipped for like $20.
-Order stops: Many items they have for preorder they will put on "Order Stop" because they order very limited qualities of those items, and then they don't put the item up for preorder again until the item is released. It's a lot of waiting around to order something when it's more than likely you'd be able to order the item after the release anyway, so why block people from preordering? D: I guess it's to prevent cancellations, but it's still a bit nerve-wrecking imo.
-Poor customer service: I've contacted their customer service a number of times, inquiring about order specifics and item stock requests, and every time, I get a generic answer that doesn't resolve anything. They have some kind of spokesperson on myfigurecollection.net and he encourages us to contact their support, but then their support comes back to us with these unhelpful generic responses. Very, VERY lame. They've gotten a bit better on this over the years, but they're still slow, and it's still a painful process.
-Once in a blue moon, they'll COMPLETELY fail to fulfill your preorder... this is very case-by-case, and in my recent case it was for the Chokkori Eeveelutions. They were able to get me 5 out of 9, and the other 4 are never to come even though I ordered them all at the same time. :\ With no clear explanation why they failed.
General Note:
-I've shopped from them for well over a full decade and finally have to say an absolute no to them ever again as of 2022.
Rating: 7/10. One point down on order stops--large setbacks on their quality of service overall. 1 down for the customer service, which is a mixed bag of unreliability. Another full point down as of 2022 due to shipping rate fiascos I had with them as they came out of pandemic. This point might flex later down the line if things improve.
Other places I get from on the rare occasion and just want to blab about XDD;
Play-Asia
Pros (These are all VERY old points because I have not bought from them in a long time):
-Early listings for games (for the most part...)
-Cheapest shipping methods compared to other stores (since they're HK-based), even free shipping to US (for games only?)
-$5 coupons commonly available for orders over $60, if you know where to look
-Weekly and Daily sales for many popular games. It's worth adding yourself to discount mailing lists if you're looking for a deal on certain games, and you can sign up for individual titles.
Cons:
-Prices are a bit heavily marked up USD values that don't match up with current yen exchange.
-Games are all they really focus on, so there's not much of a selection on other products to combine orders and save on shipping--That was in 2014, but they've expanded their site over time to add more and more collectibles. However, shipping rates are all over the place with these expanded categories of items.
-No cancellations on collectible preorders. They're very inflexible about this, and I learned this the hard way, so they should only be a last resort.
-HK-based, so Japan exclusive preorder bonuses almost never come with their games--They've gotten better with this over time and for the most part can get preorder bonuses. Check item descriptions, or even ask their customer support to be sure!
General Note:
-Since these guys are HK-based, the pros and cons go hand-in-hand with their location. Inflation has certainly impacted how much they've marked up their games over the years. Their coupons changed from being able to use them on $50 orders, now the orders have to be over $60. Starting mid 2012, they've been offering free shipping on games to the USA though, big bonus!
Rating: 8/10. Tentative, as I honestly have not shopped from them for years and these comments could be very outdated. Score is lowered from recent experience of not being able to cancel an order. They should only be used as a last resort. Please update me if any of my info is wrong D:
Nippon-yasan
Pros:
Cons:
General Note:
-These guys seem to be a potential steady for my certain gaming shopping. I ordered the Fire Emblem Kakusei 3DS edition from them at a MUCH cheaper price than Play-Asia had it, but it did take them an extra 3 days after I sent payment to get it shipped. Their store seems to have a good listing of the rarer, harder-to-get gaming items from Japan such as those special edition consoles.
I also preordered Tales of Xillia 2 from them. They ask for payment a week or so before the item is released, so that when they do get the item in they can ship it immediately. Sure beats the slow process at AmiAmi... AND they understand collectors' needs for preorder bonuses and guarantee them in their listings. Even CDJapan doesn't "guarantee" preorder bonuses (although I've always gotten them when I ordered there anyway).
Warning they seem to have fallen on hard times, so take caution before preordering in the meantime...
-I haven't ordered from them in a long time as ZonJP has covered most of my JP gaming needs.
YesAsia
Pros:
-Free international shipping on orders over $39!!
-They stock BL Novels, even if somewhat sporadically. This is a unique plus for me. :B
-Free Gachapon omake offer if you get 2 qualifying items in a single order
-Helpful customer support for putting up item listings not on their site yet
Cons:
-HUGE markups on their prices for anything other than CDs, even more than Play-Asia.
-Sporadic item listings for preorders (but if you bug customer support they can generally put the item up for you)
-Also HK-based like Play-Asia, so also a tossup with Japan exclusive preorder bonuses.
General Note:
-I've been shopping with these guys since 2004, back when they offered free shipping on orders over just $25, and one time an order got lost in the mail completely and they sent a new shipment without charging anything more whatsoever. I don't know if they're still that generous now since I haven't had lost packages since.
But this place is awesome if you want to get a whole bunch of stuff new or old and can wait for the free shipping. They also take in product listing requests if you can show them another site that has the listing already (this is what I do for BL novels/manga they haven't listed)!!
The huge markups seem to cover up for their free shipping gimmick, but if you select smart, you can still get great deals on this site.
Rating: 8/10. Tentative, as I honestly have not shopped from them for years and these comments could be very outdated.
HMV
Pros:
Cons:
General Note:
-I've only purchased from them like... twice, so I honestly can't say much. My general impression is that they're like CDJapan except with only EMS shipping available, which makes them like AmazonJP... without super awesome discounts. They have SOME discounts, but not as much as AmazonJP anyway. They at least WILL ship games overseas. Other information (preorder bonuses), I'm not too sure about. Can't say there's any reason to get from them regularly, just only if they happen to have a better deal than all the other sites--That which I have not seen happen since the last time I bought from them many years ago.
1999
Pros:
-Nice discounts all across the board, including occasional promotions
Cons:
-Not much selection
General Note:
-I've also only purchased from them like... twice, and that was also many years ago, so I honestly can't say much. Similar situation with HMV, except 1999 carries more hobby products instead of music/video.
Proxies/Forwarding services:
tl;dr For the most part, use DeJapan and don't bother with anyone else, UNLESS you need to get something ASAP for running-out-of-stock reasons and you can buy it yourself, using Tenso as a forwarding service, or if it's a store they can't order from which is a pretty hefty list for me lol... or you plan to do a LOT of proxy orders like me (in which case, J-Sub)...
DeJapan - RECOMMENDED
Pros:
-Flat fee that is better than any other proxy I've tried so far, NO CATCHES. No stupid wiring fees for transactions that never used wiring in the first place like many other proxies apply.
-ZERO fee if you're only getting one item and shipping one item. Big caveat to this generally, explained in cons section...
-Transparency about why their service is as generous as it is.
-All the usual relevant shipping options available. Reasonable (not the best, but reasonable) shipping practices in general thus far.
-Pay on the fly--No need to keep a deposit, and they don't charge if they can't buy your item. As long as the numbers are correct, Dej will be able to order as soon as they confirm the payment on their end.
Cons:
-They claim to be using a partnership for DHL shipments to get you good rates, but they're the worst rates I've seen ANYWHERE. At least their EMS/Airmail/Surface quotes are generally reasonable.
-Quotes on a package weighing .94 kg (within 1 kg threshold):
EMS: 5300, Airmail: 4400, Surface: 3300, DHL: 8800
(Other stores I frequently import from are able to ship out DHL packages up to 2kg for approximately 3600 jpy or less)
-Nothing else so far
Zenmarket - DO NOT RECOMMEND
-45-day storage free (50 yen a day after)
Pros:
-Last I checked, but it's been a long time--Flat 300 yen fee per item. No "wire transfer fee" BS. No "consolidation fee" BS. NO CATCHES.
-Automatic system
-Pretty decent website for navigation
Cons:
-Fee is per item, regardless of same seller/same date or anything. So even if you want to get a bunch of items from the same seller, you have to pay the fee per item. This is something I REALLY hope they improve on in the future (maybe even offer a reduced 100 yen fee for additional items from same seller/day).
-NO Unregistered shipping options. Everything has to include tracking, so that means an extra 410 yen per Small Packet SAL package. It really adds up.
-Their response time was excellent back in 2016, but now it's dead last come since mid 2017. I'll often have to wait up to 48 HOURS for a shop purchase quote, NEVER within 24 hrs, when other proxies pride themselves in doing it in less than 24 (and oftentimes within 12).
-What's even WORSE about their slow response time, this also applies to their packages. So if you have an item that is reaching the 45 day free storage limit, anticipate having to pay extra because they will be SLOW in packing your items. Over 48 hours slow. I had to pay an extra 100 yen the last time this happened (meaning they literally took 2 days past the date to respond and then made me pay for it), and this has definitely been a huge minus in considering future services with them.
-They tack on some small amounts of strange "insurance fees" to your packages if the value of them are too high for whatever shipping method you're working with.
General note: They are SLOW AND OVERCHARGING COMPARED TO OTHER PROXIES. They've become "too popular" for their own good and it shows in their slow service, and yet they apparently aren't scaling to accommodate. After using them frequently throughout 2016-2017, I've come to dislike how slow they've become.
-Moving forward, I intend to use Zenmarket ONLY for large single items that I intend to get shipped over by DHL Direct. Good candidates for these are large lots like Kuji cartons.
One Map / FromJapan
-45 day storage free (NO EXTENSIONS, items are discarded after 45 days)
Pros:
-Automatic system
-One-time 300 yen fee for the same seller/same day/same order.
-Pay on the fly--No need to keep a deposit, and they don't charge if you don't win your item.
-(Unregistered) Small Packet shipping for items up to 30,000 yen in value per package
Cons:
-Terrible packaging/shipping practices causing HORRIBLY inflated shipping costs. They'll "shrink wrap" your items with cardboard below it, but it's not actually shrinking anything, and the cardboard just makes it so things like plush that could be compressed to fit into cheaper shipping method requirements don't fit anymore. They're also very inflexible to customer requests during shipping process.
General note:These guys went to amazing, to terrible, to back to OK? It used to be around 200 yen + a bullshit bank wiring fee when I started out, then when I left, they had a gross combining fee on top of inflated fees, and now they are down to 300 yen flat fee with much more transparent extra fees if applicable. They're an okay starter service since their learning curve is on the easy end, relatively? But anyone with experience will know that there are WAY better services.
Celga - DO NOT RECOMMEND
Pros:
-Service on more personal level. Almost TOO personal, the last time I ordered from them I had to e-mail them on 3 separate occasions just to let them know why I needed my item shipped SAL instead of EMS, before they finally let the item get shipped SAL =w=;
-Smaller userbase, so limitations are not as much of an issue
Cons:
-Everything is handled manually, which slows down the process and there is a chance they will not see your email before a listing is over...
-Full price has to be paid upfront
-They're just overpriced in every aspect now. There are better options.
Tenso (They also own Buyee which I have not personally tried since the fees are more expensive than most other services, but I'm sure is as reliable as Tenso)
Pros:
-Be in control of what you order yourself
-Get items before they potentially sell out while waiting on another proxy
-When your packages arrive, you can send an inquiry to have them repack items to fit into small packet shipments and they'll do it free of charge (except if items need to be split into multiple shipments, each shipment will have its own initial fees)
Cons:
-Higher learning curve
-Initial fees are very high compared to other proxies
-Only works for items you can purchase yourself (many places will block non-JP payments in various ways)
Notes:
Tenso's process is very different from most others in that you need your own account on the JP site you want to buy from, and then you buy items yourself and have things sent to Tenso's address. This is very useful if you want more control in the buying process (for example getting JP Pokemon Center releases before they go out of stock, instead of waiting for a proxy to manually make the order after receiving it from you). If you don't know Japanese, this can be a very daunting process.
J-Subculture:
-45 days storage free, 100 yen storage fee per day after until 60 days
-Business account (General accounts have more fees): 250 JPY per order handling fee (+50 per item on auctions) + 100 "insurance plan" fee per URL
Pros:
-Relatively personal service. They're obscure and I like them the best that way. XD
-THEY OFFER SMALL PACKET SHIPPING (Air and Surface only for now). In this current society where no one else does.
-They work FAST during their business hours (~9am-5pm daily). I expect to have just about any order I submit responded to and then fully ordered within an hour of my submission, as long as I catch the "Pay now" prompt just as quickly on my own end.
-They handle Mercari/other 2nd-hand stores readily. Even if you buy from a ton of different sellers on Mercari, the 250 JPY order fee only applies once to the whole order (given it's of course the same order).
Cons:
-Zero service off of business hours, if you have any time-sensitive needs. At least the hours are pretty defined expectations-wise, but some proxies are "more flexible" in terms of working hours even if they aren't as fast.
-VERY HIGH learning curve to do business account, and to only be able to use Wise for deposit top-offs, but it has been well worth it for me personally. It's not worth being a general user for their service, WAY too many caveats to it.
-I wish they would do away with the 250 JPY per order handling fee, it's a little on the high end :\ Their awesome shipping practices keep me here instead of FJ or even Dej sometimes though.
-They are slow to pack shipments. Expect to wait at least a full 3 days on average after sending in a packing request. Surface/air mail packages are sent out only once a week.
General note:
I used these guys for over 300 shipments back when they had absolutely free commission fees, which was a crazy blessing in itself--alas, all good things come to an end some day. Their fee charge is now 250 base fee + a charge per item listing depending on your account status with them. I have a business account, so it's 100 per item listing (so if I get 5 of the same item listing, it's still a single 100 charge). I'm still using them (very less frequently, however) when I can't get something with Dejapan especially, and they are still good as always, aside from having (reasonable) fees now.
First and foremost, these guys by far have impressed me with their PACKING above ANY other online shop I've been with, be it Japan-wise or even domestic US. In terms of light-but-effectively-PROTECTIVE packaging, these guys do it so well and I've learned a lot about packing from them myself for my reselling processes. The boxes they use are durable but LIGHT unlike many other shops which use grossly heavy boxes that really aren't that much better. Boxes have the potential to get punctured, regardless of how thick they are, and in my experience, lighter boxes actually get treated better by mail carriers anyway. J-sub is also generous in using bubble wrapping to protect your items, unlike many other shops that will use inefficient (and heavy) paper as "padding". Finally, they have managed to send some soft items (especially plush, clothes) in PAPER BAGS which may sound scary, but actually it works SUPER WELL and reduces shipping costs dramatically compared to boxes. I've suggested that they use polymailers instead of paper bags--they responded thanks for the suggestion, though I don't think they'll implement it. That's the final touch to make their shipping methods actually perfect, imo.
Customer service-wise, they do operate in Japan time zone so my questions get answered late at night, like almost any other proxy. Even so, their response has been faster than other proxies I've dealt with (Zenmarket, FromJapan).
Their Business User status requires a wire transfer of at least 20,000 yen (using Wire, which used to be known as Transferwise) to initiate, which compared to other proxy services is a much higher ceiling and learning curve to work with, but well worth for long-term investment. Wise transfers are a lot better than Paypal fees as well.
They're one of the few proxies that still offer EXTREMELY CHEAP small packet unregistered shipping options. A diamond in the rough now. 2kg packages can be shipped for 1600 JPY, when most other shipping options these days require at least 4200 JPY for the same amount.
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Other proxy services to look into (If you want to tell me about your experiences with these, PLEASE DO!):
Sendico (unlimited storage??)
Blackship
JPN-depot
THE MORGUE (no longer in business):
Shopping Mall Japan - DO NOT RECOMMEND
Pros:
-Automatic system
-Last I knew, they offer media mail shipping for US people (super cheap)
Cons:
-Initial deposit required (you have a spending limit of 5x your deposit, I believe), this is normally not a con, BUT... deposits are all processed manually, SLOWLY, and delays things greatly.
-Limitation on preorders (if another user on their site preorders the same item on animate before you, no one else is able to make a purchase on the same item even if multiple orders are supposed to be allowed ._.;)
-Their "mass shipping" system isn't good for certain orders, especially for orders that can't take advantage of media mail shipping anyway. It even slows down the process because that just means they have to ship and process the item in two places instead of just sending it from Japan to you.
General note: I DO NOT RECOMMEND THEM. I used them as a proxy from 2007- June 2014. I withdrew my $45 deposit I had sitting with them the entire time. Many of my points might be outdated and not apply anymore, but I'm 99.9% confident that any "improvements" they might have made won't get me to come back to them. I was tired of having to email them twice to get my credit card payments processed, and they were just overall slow/expensive when there are better services out there.
- SMJ fees rant