Myst's guide to buying from Japan!

[MystSaphyr]

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

• 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: Priced by VOLUME. Fastest (literally have had items arrive within 48 hours of leaving Japan). Usually my go-to, personally.

EMS: Priced by WEIGHT. Comparable with DHL at base, 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.

 

[JeyPawlik]

This is so handy, thank you Myst!!

 

[snow lupinnoises]

giving me this information was a mistake, thank you very much

 

[MystSaphyr]

giving me this information was a mistake, thank you very much

I live to enable others LMAOOO

 

[Tsushi]

I feel like voting to pin this one, what a fantastic thread!

 

[Tintalle]

I feel like voting to pin this one, what a fantastic thread!

We should definatelly pin this - this is very usefull info

 

[chiK]

If anyone finds things in Japan but the language barrier gets in the way, remember I'm here to help.

 

[MystSaphyr]

If anyone finds things in Japan but the language barrier gets in the way, remember I'm here to help.

Thank you, chiK!!

Also went ahead and stickied the thread!

 

[JOKEPOT]

hey heads up, the surugaya link doesnt lead anywhere.
but overall thank you so deeply for this thread, ive only used mercari n another site i think called white rabbit express or somethin.
this s extremely helpful n detailed, so thank you.

 

[MystSaphyr]

hey heads up, the surugaya link doesnt lead anywhere.
but overall thank you so deeply for this thread, ive only used mercari n another site i think called white rabbit express or somethin.
this s extremely helpful n detailed, so thank you.

WHOOPS how'd that happen, fixed it! Thanks for the heads up!
And white rabbit I haven't personally used, but I'm familiar with them and will check them out! Likely would be another good service to add!

 

[TheEmster]

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

• 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)
• Note: Tenso requires you to submit address verification before you can use their service. A driver's license and recent utility bill are sufficient!

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.
• Note: 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.

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 more expensive than EMS. Usually my go-to, personally.
EMS: Cheaper than DHL, a little slower, but 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.

Thank you for this! Maybe I'll finally be able to get my hands on some Jigens

 

[pago]

Hey, I wanted to add this tid bit about Yahoo auctions since, while I haven't been buying stuff from there, I've been looking at obscure Lupin stuff coming from that website. If you're from the UK or Europe (European Economic Area), you can no longer visit Yahoo! Japan website as of April 2022. You'll be instead redirect to a message that says you can no longer use the service.

The way I've been getting past this is using VPN, specially using the browser Opera, which already has a free built in VPN.

Now I don't know if this works for actually buying stuff on Yahoo! Japan and I don't know a lot about VPNs, but this will help you access the site if you no longer do it the normal way.

 

[Peater]

thank you sm for this guide i was finally able to buy a set of wonda coffee cans at a really cheap price

 

[MystSaphyr]

Updated the guide with notes about Europe needing a VPN to access Yahoo Auctions, and more details on Tenso requesting a very detailed customs invoice for items when you select DHL shipping (discovered that the hard way, oof)

 

[nepkattier]

Thanks to this post, I finally found a proxy site I can trust and went insane with a big purchase to treat myself last month.The package when it arrived was 28in at the largest measurement and weighed almost 20 pounds. It may have been a month's worth of paychecks price-wise, but it was absolutely worth it. It's gonna be a long while until I actually do something like that again though

 

[MystSaphyr]

Thanks to this post, I finally found a proxy site I can trust and went insane with a big purchase to treat myself last month.The package when it arrived was 28in at the largest measurement and weighed almost 20 pounds. It may have been a month's worth of paychecks price-wise, but it was absolutely worth it. It's gonna be a long while until I actually do something like that again though

Oh GOODNESS that’s a big haul. Now I’m intrigued as to what all you got haha

I’m still on the fence about ordering a bunch of volumes of the Lupin III Y or Captain Zenigata manga if I can find them, but the cost of shipping books is making me hold off for now

 

[nepkattier]

Oh GOODNESS that’s a big haul. Now I’m intrigued as to what all you got haha

I’m still on the fence about ordering a bunch of volumes of the Lupin III Y or Captain Zenigata manga if I can find them, but the cost of shipping books is making me hold off for now

I would totally post the pics or videos of what I got if I could, but it looks like their files are too large for the site

Not everything from the haul was Lupin related, but I did get a lot of merch that I either never saw before or had my eyes on for a while that are more expensive on eBay!!

 

[nepkattier]

Oh GOODNESS that’s a big haul. Now I’m intrigued as to what all you got haha

I’m still on the fence about ordering a bunch of volumes of the Lupin III Y or Captain Zenigata manga if I can find them, but the cost of shipping books is making me hold off for now

I finally figured out how to attach images on this site!! Here's everything that was in the massive haul of mine from a few months ago!! But yeah as you can see, most of it involves Lupin and the Pokemon Shaymin along with some other merch I had my eye on. Even though I still have some stuff leftover from the sale pics that I'd love to get rid of, getting all the items I wanted from the package was absolutely worth it

 

[JOKEPOT]

I finally figured out how to attach images on this site!! Here's everything that was in the massive haul of mine from a few months ago!! But yeah as you can see, most of it involves Lupin and the Pokemon Shaymin along with some other merch I had my eye on. Even though I still have some stuff leftover from the sale pics that I'd love to get rid of, getting all the items I wanted from the package was absolutely worth it View attachment 3157View attachment 3158View attachment 3159View attachment 3160

could i possibly see a photo of all the lupin specific merch up close? you could do still do groupings so you dont have to take a million photos, heh. could also message on instagram or discord, whichever you have, if that makes it easier to show photos?

 

[Tsushi]

I finally figured out how to attach images on this site!! Here's everything that was in the massive haul of mine from a few months ago!! But yeah as you can see, most of it involves Lupin and the Pokemon Shaymin along with some other merch I had my eye on. Even though I still have some stuff leftover from the sale pics that I'd love to get rid of, getting all the items I wanted from the package was absolutely worth it View attachment 3157View attachment 3158View attachment 3159View attachment 3160

Can I ask about the Jigen towards the middle? I might want him... but I can't promise, it depends on my budget for now! I also might have old Shaymin stuff... like a clearfile? I would have to check. Maybe we can trade lol