[News] Concerning Doujinshi

[osoroshia]

So!

This may be old news for a few of us, and not relevant to everyone, but it's still pretty major! Especially if you're using the service in question.

FromJapan, the cheapest deputy service out there, has recently made doujinshi the hardest thing to purchase.

They no longer accept any orders from Toranoana, due to "copyright issues." Worse

Comments

[pinkydbzfan]

I like using Madarake, Hendane.com looks good, and even though she is a LJ user, she has an online store. I like to use Ladyphantomhive. Her dj store is great, super low prices and she says that she can look for pairings for you :)

[etherealtsuki]

Ugh, I tried looking at her store and she charges 19-21 bucks for a standard doujins. Wow.

[siiy]

Well she's just giving you more options to choose from D: It's really hard now that FromJapan isn't getting adult stuff anymore so we gotta keep our options out for anyone ):

replying to all three of you I guess

[osoroshia]

To be fair, since her shipping's low, she's the normal "LJ price".

Which is great if you only need one or two books-- and usually the exact value if only one, actually. But if you want any more, you might as well be using ebay.

That's pretty much why I'd said no LJ users, in the post. Western sellers include shipping from Japan in their base price. Which is completely understandable, and the only way to not lose money when selling. Everyone does it, even me. But. Yeah. It's painful when it adds up.

[miezen]

Right now the best thing I've found is miharu_hana. Ideally I use Mitarashi Dango, but they're on hiatus. miharu_hana has good prices unless you want an anthology.

In general actual Japanese shopping services confuse me. They all have really confusing site layouts and Engrish-y explanations of things. All of the ones I've seen, anyway.

[osoroshia]

Yeah, I've actually already asked her for a quote earlier, and plan to use her when the second book I want finally comes into stock.

I just specified "No LJ users" since I don't want this thread turning into people advertising themselves or friends. xD

That and, idk, while her doujin store orders are nice and cheap, her YJ charges are even higher than Crescent... It's a feat I never knew was possible before.

[miezen]

Makes sense! Though lmao the thing about friends actually reminded me of something. I have a friend that does Comiket pickup sometimes, her seller journal is genshijin. She posts announcements on the various general doujinshi selling comms that exist when she's doing pickup services. The reason I bring her up is because her prices are incredibly good. It's only really helpful info for Comiket and she doesn't go every single time, but it's just something to keep in mind because of her prices.

Aaah, I never used her for YJ auctions and she stopped doing them, so I wouldn't know there.

[etherealtsuki]

I knew this had a new thing because when I was purchasing, they refused to buy anything adult (although they still did). But luckily I canceled my order. So yeah, it really pissed me off that they made NO clear indication they changed policy. I'll still recommend them if you want worksafe stuff but overall, not something you want to use if you're not planning to use two proxy services.

Mandarake made their policies harder to since they won't let you buy anything adult with a credit card.

Mitarashi Dango said that they're probably be back this month. Hopefully before Super Comi.

So we're out really (I refuse to buy anything from miharu_hana since that fee is way too damn high).

This really sucks. It's either wait out on Mitarashi or a group order if you want the bang out of your buck.

[osoroshia]

Yeah, they're great for worksafe things. FJ will still be my number one choice for Animate and Movic and such.

But fff doujinshi's too addictive.

From what I've seen, miharu_hana looks cheaper than MitaDango, actually. For a single doujin, she's cheaper than FJ too... But maybe it's just because none of my friends have ever had a good experience with MitaDango.

[arachnes_web]

For one or two doujins or anything from Ruten, miharu_hana is great. It's just when you order more than one or two things (or anything from yj) that her prices get out of control.

[etherealtsuki]

But for cheap doujin yeah, but as miezen will tell you (she used both), Mitarashi comes out much cheaper in the end (especially if you're buying anthology or more expensive doujin like I do).

I will say that it's not normal for Mitarashi to act slow like that. I used her 5 times, but the last one her partner was really unusually slow. But I'm willing to let go because the first four times the service was really good, and they did compensate me for the wait.

Add note.

[etherealtsuki]

Most services do charge 5 to 8 dollar PER ITEM, so yeah.

I'm researching now.

This really, really blows.

Re: Add note.

[osoroshia]

;^; Forget per item,

The only service I've liked before FJ, Crescent/Noppin, charges 2000 yen per order, for stores. That's like. A single 400 yen doujin on Tora would be 3000 yen for charge one D:

Re: Add note.

[etherealtsuki]

Yeah, I'm just hoping that Mitarashi comes back or someone does a group order. Until then....

[osoroshia]

Since the only way to do a group order is to live in/near Japan or use a deputy service...

D: It might not be too likely again.

At least some people in Singapore do it at rare times; 900 yen is all EMS to there costs, I think. But. ;n; I've paid $80 to ship 6 books from Singapore before. It's a little too scary of a thought...

[xxthe_elitistxx]

Did you ever try Treasure Japan? I haven't used it myself, but I've known people that have had good experiences with it. The fees aren't too bad. They range anywhere from 650 yen to 1,000 yen or 10% of your order if you spend over 10,000 yen plus a ~200 yen bank wiring fee and a Paypal fee. It seems like it's pretty easy to order doujinshi on their site, and I didn't see anything about restricting sales of explicit doujin. However, I've never ordered doujinshi myself, so there might be some catch I'm missing.

[osoroshia]

It sounds like a higher commission than Crescent...

But is that for auctions or store orders?

[xxthe_elitistxx]

It's for either one. What's good about it is that if you buy multiple items from the same store, it counts as one order so you only get charged commissions once. I'm not sure if that's the case with auctions though.

[osoroshia]

As a general rule, auction commissions are per item, but the bank fees are per seller.

;n; But. Hm. 1,000's definitely cheaper than 2,000. .__. But it's still a little much if it's not being used for a group order...

My room's way too much of a mess right now to fit more bubblemailers. xD I guess I can't do one.