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 Post subject: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 24 Apr 2019, 00:49 
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Please share your experiences, reviews, recommendations and warnings about different Japan proxies to your part of the world.

I'll start with my latest experience with Buyee to the Socialist Monarchy of Australia.

Buyee is terrible and run by a bunch of random expats in Japan. Their English is good but their policies and service is the worst.

I can't believe when buying two BIN LDs from the same seller at exactly the same time they insist on using different bidders and having the seller ship each disc separately, doubling your cost. Before reading their ridiculous policy I went ahead and got a half dozen LDs from 3 different sellers and ended up paying 6 x individual disc shipping fees instead of 3 combined!! So inefficient. Their reason was they don't want items from different buyers mixed up in one package from a seller. This would be easily fixed by assigning one bidder to one buyer. So stupid and costly.

They immediately fell into line with the evil Australian government GST collection plan and charge it on purchase. I asked them why they bow to a foreign government when they are a business IN JAPAN? They said that the AU govt will block their website if they don't comply. This could easily be fixed by issuing proxies to Australian customers. They won't allow valuation changes of items. They even charge GST on their fees and postage in and out of Japan.

When combining for shipment they always try to force you to use EMS. They pack in a way that exceeds SAL dimensions by going completely overboard on protective packing, way more than necessary. If they packed in a smart, normal way the items could easily go SAL. My whole reason for using them is they actually do SAL.

They won't bid on Mercari.

You have to allow automatic paypal payments to pay them. I disabled it as soon as they go their money.

My last order with them was problem after problem. I'll never use them again.
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 Post subject: Re: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 24 Apr 2019, 01:01 
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I've only ever used Celga. They've been doing this for a long time and I've never had an issue with them.

Yeah, their service isn't exactly cheap (25% markup ontop of paying for shipping to them then shipping to you.) That being said, I've bought LDs, an LD player, VHS tapes, an RF demodulator, etc through them for 15+ years or so and I haven't a single thing to complain about them and their service.
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 Post subject: Re: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 24 Apr 2019, 01:02 
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Getting mad because a Japanese company doesn’t want to break the law with you over e commerce is pointless. It’s Japan.

I haven’t used a proxy in a while but the last time I did it was Buyee and I had an issue. I don’t remember the details but basically they canceled one of my auctions for no logical reason which left me with a single disc in their warehouse that I didn’t want to ship by itself so I let them keep it. I was extremely POed at the time but now I can’t remember the details.
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 Post subject: Re: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 24 Apr 2019, 01:22 
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Also I won't use SAL anymore.

Bought a few things on two separate occasions from Japan and shipping by SAL and they never got to me. Sellers couldn't do anything since SAL back then had no tracking (does it offer tracking now?)

I definitely don't mind paying extra for EMS if it's something rare and I want to make sure it will get to me.
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 Post subject: Re: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 24 Apr 2019, 01:47 
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signofzeta wrote:
Getting mad because a Japanese company doesn’t want to break the law with you over e commerce is pointless. It’s Japan.


It's an Australian law. It's impossible for the Australian government to punish a Japanese company in Japan for breaking Australian law. Why comply and lose a lot of business from Australians?
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 Post subject: Re: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 24 Apr 2019, 01:49 
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elahrairrah wrote:
Also I won't use SAL anymore.

Bought a few things on two separate occasions from Japan and shipping by SAL and they never got to me. Sellers couldn't do anything since SAL back then had no tracking (does it offer tracking now?)


Well that sucks and I hope the same doesn't happen to me (currently have a lot of pristine Godzilla CAV boxes and a Ghibli ga ippai collection amongst other LDs on the slow SAL boat).

Yeah there is tracking now but my favorite proxy, Japonica Market stopped using SAL because of what happened to you I think.
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 Post subject: Re: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 24 Apr 2019, 03:34 
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I believe you have tracking if you use the customs forum number, but you are still SOL if there is no insurance, and most packages won't allow
insurance on slow shipping since its cheap and you get what you pay for, sort of moving your box from one place to the next.

While I have only used buyee I haven't had an issue with them but poor packing from one of the sellers to buyee and I opted to not pay the extra for
them to examine the packages and it did work out for me in the end, but figuring out the math, in the long run I bought about
15 titles, 2 or 3 were boxes, and with math I ended up paying about 15 dollars each disc, that would count 15 each in a box set of lets say 8 discs = 120 for a box I
could have bought from a USA seller for 100 plus shipping.

On another note, biancardi did say he uses zen market, while I did try to sign up for them they seem to be the type that want's money upfront before you bid
and then holds onto it.

So if you want to buy something you have to give them an amount and then you have to keep adding, sort of how paypal was in the very early years.
While cheaper I would hate for them to end up with 10 or 20 bucks from me and only save 10 bucks in the deal thus equaling to about the same.
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 Post subject: Re: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 24 Apr 2019, 10:02 
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I'm using Noppin (https://noppin.com/). Used their services for years now, and never had a problem.
If you buy several items from one seller, you have to announce it beforehand during the bidding process,
then your items get combined into one transaction. If you forget about this, it'll be just like buyee.
They will ask for a deposit, which will be counted times 3 as your maximum bid amount for auctions.
For example: You deposit 2,000yen with them through PayPal, your maximum auction bid can be 6,000yen.
Once you have won an auction, you can pay all other fees with your Credit Card if you like.

Back in the old days I used J.I.G.S.(http://jigsco.com/) but it got a bit complicated, with them not wanting
to accept Paypal because of possible fraud, and only wanting to ship EMS and whatnot, so I never tried them again,
although I had several successful transactions with them.

A friend of mine uses Zen Market and is very satisfied. If I ever run into a problem with Noppin, I'd probably try them next.
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 Post subject: Re: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 24 Apr 2019, 18:20 
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I've only used DeJapan (https://www.dejapan.com/) to buy from Yahoo so I can't compare my experience with other services.
But I'm happy with it so far.
Shipped with SAL about 10 boxes of ~20 LDs each (also bunch of magazines and digital audio decoder). Had tracking every time.
I'd pay with PayPal for every bid and that would reserve money from my account - if unsuccessful money is not charged.
They have option to repack items in warehouse which costs 100yen for item, i.e. if you buy 1 LD - 100 yen, if lot of 6 still 100 yen.
So I'd buy a bunch, wait for them to pile up in warehouse (30 days is free) and then order repack.
After repacking you have to pay domestic delivery fees and choose final delivery. They have EMS/SAL/slow ship and maybe some others.
I never talked about this to them but whenever I bought multiple items from same seller at the same time they combined shipping
and when domestic shipping was specified as 0 by seller, that's what it was.
Only problem I had once was with largest box (around 30 LDs) - I paid as for SAL but it went with slow ship (~6 weeks instead of 1,5).
Thing is - I didn't check with them prior about combined weight and they packed everything as instructed and it ended up heavier than I thought.
I could tell from tracking that it went to Kanagawa instead of usual city center. I didn't rise an issue.
They specify full price on package so on arrival I pay customs on my end.
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 Post subject: Re: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 25 Apr 2019, 01:29 
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Cool, some great posts!

Never heard of Dejapan or J.I.G.S, heard of all the others but nice details of the actual user experience is really helpful.

This will make a good future archive for people choosing the best proxy for them.
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 Post subject: Re: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 25 Apr 2019, 01:36 
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More on Buyee and Tenso from Segasonic, thought I'd quote it here for posterity:

segasonic91 wrote:
Yeah, buyee suck. The 2 worst instances would be 2 huge boxes I won. One LD and one LP. The LD box had loads of rare and hard to get items. The LP box also had loads of now expensive soundtracks. It had the entire Saint Seiya collection, Hokuto no Ken 1-3, plus HnK2 plus HnK movie. It also had all the Macross records, Touch, KoR 1-3 plus collection, BUBBLEGUM CRISIS 1-4 (this one really hurts!), Dirty Pair, Gundam, Vifam, Orguss, Urashiman, City Hunter/2..... It was practically every LP soundtrack I ever wanted! I paid shipping on both boxes and they told me they had "accidentally been disposed of", same with a mint VICTOR 9500 VHD player that cost me ¥1000.

Tenso f***ed me over as well. They also "disposed of orders" I made at online shops that I later found on yahoo!! I kept hoping and hoping the LD and LP boxes would be the same but I never saw them....
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 Post subject: Re: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 27 Apr 2019, 00:56 
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I've also used Jigs a couple of times, last was in early 2017. Never had an issue and always used Paypal.

I tried Japan-Auction-Agency once because there was an item on Yahoo that only they could provide shipping for. It went all smooth with no trouble whatsoever.
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 Post subject: Re: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 01 May 2019, 21:40 
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You must read their policy before you go on a bidding rampage. :lol:

I have been using buyee for about 3 years now. I never had a single issue. Consolidated items are packaged in strong, thick sturdy boxes and all packages I ordered I received spot on time. Also communication with them is solid.
I can ask them for example to remove some package material to make the box slightly lighter so it will be able to go on a plane, they will do it no problem.

It's not eBay where you deal with the seller directly, it's a in-between person and assuming that they will keep track of several items from the same seller is simply wrong.

Force me to use EMS ? What are you on about ? Out of dozens of packages I did with them I only used EMS once, on a electronic item that I wanted home fast, and it actually was cheaper than expected.
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 Post subject: Re: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 01 May 2019, 21:48 
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lons_vex wrote:
You deposit 2,000yen with them through PayPal, your maximum auction bid can be 6,000yen.
Once you have won an auction, you can pay all other fees with your Credit Card if you like


The deposit system is what puts me off from using other services. Sometimes I find an item on the fly, I don't have time to upload a deposit just to be able to bid.
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 Post subject: Re: Japan Proxy discussion
PostPosted: 04 May 2019, 18:16 
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I used Rinkya for a long time without any issue, but they were a bit expensive and communication was a bit "Engrish" in places. Packed well though and allowed you to declare your own value on the package.
I now have a friend who does all my proxy buying for me, but on the odd occassion he isn't around I'll use FromJapan - the website is easy to use, they refund deposits very quickly, and their fees are fairly reasonable. Again they pack well and they allow you to declare your own parcel value.
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