[News & Questions] Commission fee introduced to FromJapan + looking for other proxy options

[psanon]

It's a bit general, but considering the amount of Hetalia fans who use FromJapan, I thought it would be relevant to post up information on the new commission price introduced to FromJapan shopping's service as it will affect quite a few members. So I hope this is okay! Please tell me if I should delete/move this elsewhere.

For those who have already

Comments

[alexon_charm]

I got the email as well even though I've never personally used them before so I'm not exactly sure how their pricing works. Still is 200 yen that bad? I buy a lot of items(okay doujinshi OTL) and my commission is always 500 yen per auction(I use noppin) so I'm kind of used to paying a lot already for single items I guess. I still think FJ is the cheapest though. Maybe someone will have someone cheaper but I've never seen such a low commission rate. Unless they mean per item in a single auction, because then yeah that's crazy. Especially for those group buys and all

[psanon]

FJ was the cheapest for a while, but before them I used to have private SS/proxies who charged less so I'm used to lower rates. But sadly, they aren't active anymore/left Japan and so I mostly use FJ and well, with the new prices, needless to say I'm not very happy with it and in a general also since well, no one likes price increases //Could just be me, I'm used to low rates :c

I'm sure they charged something to profit, but they had the whole 'No commission fee' per item thing before. They probably charged something for a box fee, but not per item.

I'm hoping the fandom will come back to life to with S5, but I highly doubt it will get back to where it used to be. Even the APH fandom on Tumblr is starting to die. Tumblr may seem much more active especially in comparison to livejournal, but I'm a really old fan and I've been on LJ/Tumblr/various sites so I've noticed the decrease all around. For example, Tumblr used to be much much much more active and whilst it is still active nowadays, it has suffered a large drop also.

[alexon_charm]

No I'm sure that a lot of people would be upset by it, I mean when you are used to paying something any increase hurts especially if you buy several items, those fees always add up. Then there is the nightmare that international shipping can be. :/

Oh yeah that must have been it then. Sad I never got around to using them.

Ahh it's probably because I stay away from most of fandom that I don't see it. Plus since I'm into the fairly popular side of it probably seems less. It's sad to hear nonetheless. :( I know it won't return to how it was, but I'd be happy with just the level it was when I entered it. A lot of people did move to other fandoms though.

[psanon]

Yeah. Especially when the items are less than 500 yen each or so and you buy a few. Those will really start to add up "Orz Then yeah, with all the other fees.... Sighs, if only there were cheaper options or well, maybe one day I really might just up and move to Japan for a few months and start up a small proxy service, ahaha.

I just got an email from them! The new fees won't be in until the 26th so if you want anything before then, better to start ordering/paying before they start adding in the fees "orz

Ahh, yeah. That would make sense. I'm in the general fandom and in the indie APH Tumblr RPing crowd, so I've been noticing the decrease in activity level all around :c (so many RPers have left or are not as active anymore. We used to get 100+ notifications on new posts every few minutes during peak hour last year, now it's more like 100+ every half hour or so). Same here, fingers crossed and hope that season 5 will work its magic;;

[osoroshia]

A-at least there is the tiny space from now until the 26th.
Maybe I should grab everything I've been looking at after all.

.__. But yeah I've asked this same question before, back when they banned Tora.
There's nowhere. And if there is, nobody's willing to share.
I think the only other option, really, is getting a friend that lives there.

[psanon]

Yeah, there's that and that's... about it.
I don't know, sighs. There's a few more items I'd like to get but FJ is making this pricey and difficult;;
(At least I've already shipped and have bought some others items before they made this announcement. Thank god I went on a spending splurge, some of those items would be hard to find now/be more expensive at a later date :c)

Is that so....?
... sighs;;

[osoroshia]

I guess just, now we should be grabbing all the cheap items as soon as we can.
the commission's going to be the most noticeable on things 1000 yen and under, so stuff like the three new Hetalia items, or any 10~300 yen items on YJ are going to be completely unreasonable afterwards. ;n; Now's when to get them.

[lilredlfc]

This new fee is going to make things interesting that's for sure. Having it be a flat fee makes no sense though because of the cheaper items. It would make a lot more sense if it was a percent of the total order not exceeding 800 Yen.

Do you have any ideas on how this'll effect group orders/auctions?

[osoroshia]

It's safe for large orders / things that were expensive anyway, because YJ can't exceed 200, and store orders can't exceed 800. But.
It's going to be hell for buying things without making them into GAs, etc. ;__;

It's buying multiple items from YJ that's going to be terrible-- say, card/coaster singles. It'll still be 200 yen per auction won, and not being a store means no 800 yen cap. D:

Flat fee does make sense, though. Every other service has one-- usually 500 yen, but then increases after say 4,000 worth of goods. It was the lack of a minimum that made them the perfect place for small purchases. ;n;

[lilredlfc]

Yeah it is. Especially when buying little things like individual coasters and trading cards that normally aren't 200 yen by themselves.

I am suddenly really, really happy I don't really have to deal with YJ to much anymore. Getting stuff from that is expensive enough without adding in a 200 yen fee per auction won.

Really? I have only ever done stuff though YJ so I didn't know they were normally so high.

Also do you mind if I ask you an AmiAmi question real quick?

[osoroshia]

AmiAmi's hard to answer questions about--- you just place an order, and hope they send you an invoice when the item's released. But. Shoot~

Y-yeaaah. I guess the people who are going to suffer the most are those who are behind on things.
:'D Being nearly up to date, I'll only have to deal with it when exclusive items pop up, like Birz extras or offline-only events.

[hskeleton]

I did hear that proxy service commission prices are going to rise as the years go on and it looks like it's starting. I'm surprised that FJ was able to keep up this long with no commission fees actually. I still think they're the least expensive proxy service out there still. The second lowest one I came across was 700 yen per item (though you can get adult items from them) so FJ is still the least expensive. Of course free is always best but it's only fair to pay them for their service. 200 yen isn't that bad in my view, even for something that's like 100 yen. 100 yen can be somewhat of a steal depending on the item anyway. But I agree with anything under that being overkill...

I hope this won't prevent people from doing group order or box splits on here. People who host them are such a blessing, seriously.

[osoroshia]

>w< Group stuff should remain unharmed. Just an extra 200 yen (for YJ) or 800 yen (for stores) to divide by item count.

Actually, it's more likely to encourage group ordering, as it's the only way around the added cost. At least, I can say for myself that, with the exception of anything I can order before the 26th, I'm probably going to run a group order every time a new item comes out now.

D: Yep, they're still the cheapest. It's just depressing that the cheapest service is now more expensive. 200 won't be bad if ordering one cheap item or multiple expensive items, but since it stacks even with the same seller, it's terrible if you're looking for multiple cheap items. ;n;

I thought Crescent/Noppin was only 500 yen, though? Unless you're including the bank fees. But. In that case, FJ still has a 186~315 yen bank fee, as well... .__.
But there's services out there that start their commission at $50, too, so. XD I guess there's that to compare to. At least we're not stuck with them.

[osoroshia]

Can you ask them more about their 800 yen limit?
Since it's "per seller/store", it's obviously in place for webshops, then individual sellers on places like rakuten, mbok, amazon...
But. What if by some miracle there's also a "per seller/store" limit on YJ?

;w; They're sometimes not 100% understandable, so what if they really did mean to have that and missed it?