Importing Games

[Californication 1,466]

I have a few japanese PS1 games I am going after and have noticed the prices on ebay are getting silly. Several of the games I am looking at have gone from say $50 selling prices to $80 - $90 listing prices. People aren't really buying the games at the higher prices, but sellers aren't lowering them.  And I have been watching for at least 3 months or so.

So I have pretty much decided I am going to start importing them from Japanese sites. Does anyone have a preference on proxy services v. forwarding services. 

I am trying to save money and I know proxy probably costs more. I have games out, but I don't know how to check the quality partially because of the language barrier. 

For forwarding services, I am considering Goyokikiya.

 

[drxandy 3,145]

Things have gone up from the virus and using DHL or more expensive shipping, I haven't purchased anything in a month from over there because I'm still waiting on stuff sent economy shipping from March and late February and fearing the worst.

[c0op3r 63]

7 hours ago, drxandy said:

Things have gone up from the virus and using DHL or more expensive shipping, I haven't purchased anything in a month from over there because I'm still waiting on stuff sent economy shipping from March and late February and fearing the worst.

I am in the same boat as you I have about 20 Famicom Disk System items 'floating' in the system now for 6 weeks, anyone know when they will ship things again?

[Tanooki 4,830]

I've noticed the trend too on US stuff, and it's slowly but quickening in infecting Japan as well as they caught on to people buying their stock to sell to people who don't research before clicking to buy so they raised the rates.  It's easy to see it if you look at the BINs, completed, and PAID ebay listings to see that lots of stock just rolls and re-rolls.

Domestically I had the problem when looking over 3 years ago now on getting back into NEC stuff (TG16) and the prices were sickening, so I looked to import.  The price drop was dramatic to say the least, but within a year or two of me getting into it again, the Japanese stuff started getting pretty dumb, and it's even worse now.  Yet all that, it's still not as nasty as the US stuff so maybe that's the ceiling, yet quite a few things can slide in that better rates if you're on it.  SO that's one thing, pay attention, and pay attention often.

Proxies can help, but as you said, i can add a bit.  I was turned onto this site recenty https://www.jauce.com/ and from what I can tell you can get notably better prices and shop in english to get the stuff too.  it's a backdoor in the coveted Yahoo Japan Auctions where all sorts of crazy rare stuff to the commons pop up at far reasonable rates compared to ePay bin squatting gets you.  Maybe it might be worth your looking in that direction, same with amazon, you can buy from the JP site too and get a better rate and pretty fast shipping as well.

[Californication 1,466]

@Tanooki, I took a look at yahoo auctions and there was a game I was considering soending $300 on listed at $233. No one bid and it looks like they relisted at $290. 

Only things that makes me nervous is the lack of condition details on many of the listings.

Edited May 11, 2020 by Californication

[Tanooki 4,830]

I'm not an expert at that place, just had many people recommend it in a few circles as reliable.  Still, that doesn't mean someone not showing all the quality/details in images and text I would think is trustworthy.