- Pronouns
- she / they
Hey you! Yeah you!
Do YOU want cool Lupin III merch? Are you tired of the jacked up prices on eBay and at anime conventions? Look no further! I got you!
I've put together a concise guide on how I purchase most of my Japanese goods online!
PLEASE NOTE: I'm from the USA, so some services/prices on this guide will likely change between countries. Also I have little experience on VAT and taxes/customs in other countries but would welcome any replies detailing that from people who do have that experience!
Forwarding Services
Forwarding services give you a Japanese address to shop with! They're usually the most cost effective for buying a multitude of small items from one store (like, a bunch of keychains from surugaya or something) and for snatching up high-demand items that may vanish before a proxy service can process an order.
Tenso
Big In Japan
Proxy Services
Proxy services shop for items on your behalf! Because of this, they typically have a delay between placing order and the item actually being purchased, so they should not be relied on for high-demand or quickly selling items. However, they're perfect for buying from auctions, and I personally like using them to buy single large/expensive items that I don't plan to consolidate since they usually have flat processing fees cheaper than forwarding services, and good storage periods.
Zenmarket
Buyee
Where To Shop
Be ready to break out the Japanese keyboard or do a lot of copypasting
Also tiny side note but something I've noticed (especially on surugaya) is if you use Zenigata Koichi (銭形幸一) vs Zenigata-keibu (銭形警部), you'll get different items LMAO so it's good to be thorough.
Common goods searches: acrylic (アクリル), charm (チャーム), figure (フィギュア), badge/button (缶バッジ), plush toy (ぬいぐるみ)
Also, doujin (同人) indicates self-published/fanmade goods
Surugaya
Mercari
Yahoo Auctions
BOOTH.pm
Other Stores
Shipping (not the fun kind)
Shipping is where it gets tricky. Shipping is calculated based on both volume and weight, and some services like Buyee will usually give you estimates on the cost upfront when setting up a package shipment.
All I can suggest is just see which works out for you. It'll be roughly 2000yen at base to ship anything not via seamail, that's why package consolidation and doing group orders can be extremely helpful.
Books are the WORST to ship. They get heavy fast. Especially "mooks" (thick magazine-style books that are popular in Japan) and stuff like artbooks, cause they're heavy AND big.
DHL: Fastest (literally have had items arrive within 48 hours of leaving Japan) but sometimes a bit more expensive than EMS. Usually my go-to, personally.
EMS: Comparable with DHL, sometimes cheaper and sometimes pricier, but definitely a little slower. Still usually about a week turnaround or so (they say at least 4 business days)
FedEx: Cheaper still, says usually 2-7 days delivery, but I've heard complaints about their tracking.
UPS: Most expensive out of the above options, but also they claim to be the fastest at 1-3 days (IDK though, DHL has always beat them out for me)
Airmail: Under 1kg, about the same cost as EMS and slow at 6-12 days.
Japan Post Seamail: If you're ok with waiting like 3 months for your shit, the cheapest option not currently suspended! (rest in pieces, SAL...)
Note: Some proxy/forwarding services have a shipping service with their own name branded on it. From my experience, this usually just means they're calculating which is the cheapest between FedEx or UPS and picking one of the two.
Do YOU want cool Lupin III merch? Are you tired of the jacked up prices on eBay and at anime conventions? Look no further! I got you!
I've put together a concise guide on how I purchase most of my Japanese goods online!
PLEASE NOTE: I'm from the USA, so some services/prices on this guide will likely change between countries. Also I have little experience on VAT and taxes/customs in other countries but would welcome any replies detailing that from people who do have that experience!
Forwarding Services
Forwarding services give you a Japanese address to shop with! They're usually the most cost effective for buying a multitude of small items from one store (like, a bunch of keychains from surugaya or something) and for snatching up high-demand items that may vanish before a proxy service can process an order.
Tenso
- Usage Fees: 50yen up, based on volume and weight of package
- Consolidation Fees: 200yen application, plus 300yen for the first 2 packages, with an additional 300yen per package after that
- Storage: 60 days (package consolidation for multiple items must be done within the first 30 days)
- Important Notes:
- Tenso requires you to submit address verification before you can use their service. A driver's license and recent utility bill are sufficient!
- When buying from Tenso, if you select DHL shipping specifically, you will have to submit a thorough item invoice for customs. So if you buy a bunch of small items, EMS may simply be the easier choice even if it's slightly more expensive.
Big In Japan
- Fees: 500yen forwarding ticket (for single item), 1500yen consolidation ticket (to repack multiple items together)
- Storage: None upfront, they tend to send you an invoice as soon as items arrive and it must be settled within 7 days unless you ask them to hold items, and then there doesn't seem to be a set limit so I'd be careful if you're not sure when you'll be consolidating all your stuff.
- Note: When shipping to BigInJapan, you must pre-buy (no money down) your consolidation ticket, and manually include in the purchase notes a list of the items you're expecting.
Proxy Services
Proxy services shop for items on your behalf! Because of this, they typically have a delay between placing order and the item actually being purchased, so they should not be relied on for high-demand or quickly selling items. However, they're perfect for buying from auctions, and I personally like using them to buy single large/expensive items that I don't plan to consolidate since they usually have flat processing fees cheaper than forwarding services, and good storage periods.
Zenmarket
- Fees: 300yen flat fee per order, no consolidation fee
- Storage: free for 45 days, then 50yen fee per day after
- Pros: Can buy from most stores, just plug the item URL into the page and they'll have someone manually check the item and buy.
- Cons: Currently cannot buy from Mercari, but they seem to be planning to add that.
Buyee
- Usage Fees: 300yen flat fee per order
- Other Fees: Buyee offers various protection plans for items. Inspection + Insured Delivery is 500yen, just delivery is 500yen, just inspection is 300yen, then a 0yen "lite plan" to pass on both.
- Storage: free for 30 days, then storage fee calculated based on item weight
- Pros: Buyee's automatic "snipe bid" feature is a must-have when shopping on yahoo auctions! Also they have a notification pop up if a used item is marked with good/poor/etc. condition.
Where To Shop
Be ready to break out the Japanese keyboard or do a lot of copypasting
Also tiny side note but something I've noticed (especially on surugaya) is if you use Zenigata Koichi (銭形幸一) vs Zenigata-keibu (銭形警部), you'll get different items LMAO so it's good to be thorough.
Common goods searches: acrylic (アクリル), charm (チャーム), figure (フィギュア), badge/button (缶バッジ), plush toy (ぬいぐるみ)
Also, doujin (同人) indicates self-published/fanmade goods
Surugaya
- My favorite for vintage Lupin goods! Surugaya is a huge used media/goods store with constantly changing inventory.
- Best for small goods like figures, toys, charms, buttons, cards, as well as media like CDs and such!
- DIRT CHEAP! But they're good about making sure the items are in good condition!
- Seriously my Zenigata plush that goes for $20 + $18 shipping by itself on eBay was like $2 here and he DIDN'T have jaundice.
- Use a forwarding address and you really can't go wrong. Great place to do group orders, too.
- (They got used doujinshi as well 👀)
Mercari
- If you have any experience with the US-based Mercari app, it's bascially the same.
- Proxy needed. You can't make an account outside of Japan without VPN shenanigans. Buyee is your best bet until Zenmarket finally opens their Mercari service.
- Animation cels like to pop up here a lot. (If you ever see an animation cel on eBay, check here and Yahoo Auctions first because it's likely someone duplicated the listing with the price jacked up.)
Yahoo Auctions
- Auction site, like eBay.
- Animation cels like to pop up here a lot. (If you ever see an animation cel on eBay, check here and Mercari first because it's likely someone duplicated the listing with the price jacked up.)
- Use Buyee. It's your best bet, with the snipe bid feature.
- Important Notes:
- Yahoo auctions can reset the countdown timer at the end of an auction if there's a last second bid war, apparently?? So that kinda sucks.
- Europe buyers, you may need a VPN to access the site.
BOOTH.pm
- This might be the "official merch" board, but I can't go without mentioning BOOTH in this guide!
- It's THE spot for doujin goods: books, acrylic charms and stands, handicrafts, so on so forth!
- BOOTH takes PayPal as a payment method, so you can easily use either a forwarding address OR a proxy, just depends on what all you plan to buy I guess!
- Also a lot of doujinshi have digital PDFs, and you can also add a tip to orders, so if you wanna support your favorite JP artists, def check it out!
Other Stores
- Other really good stores that don't require proxy/forwarding services are Mandarake, Kinokuniya, CD Japan, and (usually) Amazon.co.jp.
- (It depends with Amazon, but anything that doesn't have international shipping can still be bought via proxy or forwarding.)
- When buying books that aren't out of print, I highly recommend Kinokuniya, CD Japan or Amazon.co.jp, because otherwise THEY GET EXPENSIVE TO SHIP.
- Also be sure to search in Japanese on Kinokuniya. You'll thank me later.
Shipping (not the fun kind)
Shipping is where it gets tricky. Shipping is calculated based on both volume and weight, and some services like Buyee will usually give you estimates on the cost upfront when setting up a package shipment.
All I can suggest is just see which works out for you. It'll be roughly 2000yen at base to ship anything not via seamail, that's why package consolidation and doing group orders can be extremely helpful.
Books are the WORST to ship. They get heavy fast. Especially "mooks" (thick magazine-style books that are popular in Japan) and stuff like artbooks, cause they're heavy AND big.
DHL: Fastest (literally have had items arrive within 48 hours of leaving Japan) but sometimes a bit more expensive than EMS. Usually my go-to, personally.
EMS: Comparable with DHL, sometimes cheaper and sometimes pricier, but definitely a little slower. Still usually about a week turnaround or so (they say at least 4 business days)
FedEx: Cheaper still, says usually 2-7 days delivery, but I've heard complaints about their tracking.
UPS: Most expensive out of the above options, but also they claim to be the fastest at 1-3 days (IDK though, DHL has always beat them out for me)
Airmail: Under 1kg, about the same cost as EMS and slow at 6-12 days.
Japan Post Seamail: If you're ok with waiting like 3 months for your shit, the cheapest option not currently suspended! (rest in pieces, SAL...)
Note: Some proxy/forwarding services have a shipping service with their own name branded on it. From my experience, this usually just means they're calculating which is the cheapest between FedEx or UPS and picking one of the two.
Last edited:
