Community > General chatter
Buying stuff from Japan and having it work right
animagic4u:
I have a question:
there is an item I found on Amazon.jp (I'm browsing in English though) that I want to buy however it is in stock by an independent seller linked through Amazon.
Do you think I have to use a proxy, or will it probably ship internationally?
Cael K.:
You could try, but I doubt independent sellers ship internationally. If that's the case, the site won't let you checkout until you remove the item from your cart.
I have seen some independent sellers explicitly mention that they will, though, but I'm not sure if you have to do anything extra to tell them.
Cael K.:
Thought I'd give a slight update.
A later conversation with Amakase had us both concluding that the power draw listed in the hardware manuals was the actual rating of the transformer, which is the maximum it can draw. The actual console may draw less, and thus may typically draw less.
Also, San Plaza in Sannomiya (Kobe) has been added - I was informed of the old shopping arcade with an Animate in it.
DJStarstryker:
For the first post, I want to point out that not all Book-offs sell Japanese stuff. In Hawaii, there's 2 Book-offs. Only the one in the Japanese Shirokiya department store in the Ala Moana Mall actually stocks Japanese stuff. (If you ever get to Hawaii, I recommend Shirokiya *anyway*, for the really good Japanese food sold there.) The one in Pearlridge Mall only has US domestic stuff.
For all of the SoCal Book-offs, you can pretty much use this rule of thumb: is the Book-off in an indoor mall or is it standalone in a "strip mall", "shopping center", or whichever is your terminology of choice for that? If it's in an indoor mall, it only sells US domestic stuff. If it's in a shopping center, it has Japanese stuff.
Also, as something else of reference... don't underestimate Akihabara, thinking that it only sells electronics. That's far from the case. Akihabara has lots of great used shops that sell all sorts of things from video games, figures, CDs, manga, and more. These stores are typically multiple floors and can take a while to look through just one of them. If you go to Japan and want to look for deals and are in the Tokyo area, I seriously recommend an entire day for Akihabara alone. If you only give it a few hours, you won't see much and will miss all of the good stuff. An upside too is that many stores in Akihabara will actually take credit cards too! :)
Nakano Broadway has lots of good stuff too. Their deals aren't as good as other places in Japan (in fact, you will pay a premium on some things), but they do have more rare of stuff that is harder to find elsewhere. I will also warn that it's very easy to miss it despite it being so large. Make sure you get yourself a map or something from the internet to help you look for it.
Cael K.:
Got some stuff from White Canvas, looks like they're good for international orders, but the process is a little different than normal.
You first have to e-mail them with the item number (according to their catalog), or a link to the item in their online shop, along with your mailing address. They should reply back... first saying to wait a few days, and later
with a PayPay invoice (that is due a two days after they issue it). I also mentioned that I wanted to use EMS, not sure if they'll automatically use that if you don't specify. When you e-mail them anything though, even a question, they'll usually give you a small response the same day saying to wait a while for them to actually answer your question/get to your order. They probably only have one guy there who can understand English to any extent, and while he might not be fluent, you'll understand him and he'll understand you.
However, I will say that in both of my dealings with them, there's usually been a minor slip-up somewhere. They'll still get your stuff to you just fine (in both cases for me, at least), but the first time they sent me the wrong tracking number. The second (most recent), I sent my order to them, and after not hearing back from them for a while, I e-mailed them back asking what happened. They were on it immediately after that (and it was actually mailed that day), but I think they might be a little disorganized there. Your stuff will still get to you, though.
Also to note, in both my dealings with them, they've usually thrown in something extra. This time I got a few postcards, two Touhou ones and two Higanbana ones. Last time... before they had Paypal, they actually packed in a whole bunch of goodies (I think I got a bunch of Touhou cards and more than one doujin music CD)... but this was probably because since I mailed them a money order, I overpayed worrying about fluctuating exchange rates. Don't think they'll do that anymore, but eh. Since this is Paypal, though, the exchange rate tends to be close to real exchange rates (I think they converted 82 yen to the dollar at the time when the actual rate was just shy of 83), if I'm remembering my invoice correctly, but then the service fee for using Paypal (4%) is passed on to you. Guess it comes out even.
Here's their information page, read the bottom for international shipping procedures and their overseas order e-mail.
http://www.w-canvas.com/user_data/information.php
As always, your experience may differ from mine.
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