Trustworthy Pathways for Buying Very SpecificItems from Japan?

[koifish | 555]

I'm not sure exactly how to phrase the title, but the crux is, I'm looking for a reliable way to get certain items from Japan, where the person on the other end can also verify that it meets very specific criteria for condition/etc.

I'm askin specifically because I've decided that, in my slowly growing 3DS hardware collection, the crown jewel (past some rare N3DS kisekae plates if I ever find them) would be the Super Famicom New 3DS XL. I've been looking over them online, and what I've found is that

1. They show up reasonably often at JP secondhand stores.
2. They tend to be anywhere from 19000 yen to over 30000 yen.
3. Ebay sales tend to add about 10000 yen on top for a seller's cut (which whatever, obviously they wouldn't sell it for no benefit)

My biggest problem is photos. So far, I haven't really seen any posts that have good photo shots of the units. My goal is to get a console that's close as possible to mint, especially on screen and paint, but many of the images posted are either blurry or aren't focused well on the condition of the key areas (or they just have blemishes that make me turn them down ) Even worse, I've found multiple instances of buyers posting photos that were not their own, but instead came from a used shop chain hosting the item online, meaning that the ebay sellers are basically just promising (without any merit) to be able to sell you the thing, once you pay them to buy it for them! That kind of thing is absurd, and thankfully I have only really seen that in this instance. Nevertheless, it is a problem. Between all of these fuzzy pictures and flimsy assertions, I'm finding myself in a hard position, and looking for a way out.

Thus, my question is if anyone knows of a better route through which to buy JP items. I think the best would be a fellow collector who could keep an eye out for it, but I'd be okay too with a quality buying/shipping service. A friend of mine who also buys JP goods has told me that they haven't found one yet; They used to use Buyee through Yahoo Auctions Japan, but they said that the service has declined in quality in their opinion and was no longer worth it (I didn't really ask for details at the time, but he seemed to allude to lower quality service and higher prices).

If anyone has an option that I could use then I'd like to hear it.

[AdamW | 713]

Buy them from a Japanese site like Yahoo Auctions Japan or Mercari.jp via a proxy like Buyee. The listings there tend to be much higher quality; I think Japanese sellers mostly only dump trash they couldn't sell domestically on eBay.

YAJ listings tend to have the most pictures. You can translate the listing text with Google Translate; it's not fantastic at Japanese but it'll usually give you enough to work with.

Buyee's default service includes some inspection of the item, for a fee. You'll pay quite a bit in fees to use a proxy, though you'll likely save some on the price of the item versus eBay prices. I haven't used any of the other proxies, Buyee I've used several times and been happy with, you do get what you pay for.

edit: on your friend's notes - I've only been using them for about a year so I can't really say if they were better in The Olden Days like everything else. But for your specific situation, it really seems like the best choice: the main thing is to access the 'domestic' market where there should be more and better quality listings to choose from.

Edited June 13, 2021 by AdamW

[AdamW | 713]

For instance, it's not cheap, but there is a brand new unopened one currently listed:

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/o480228300

[Brickman | 3,979]

In my experience you need to build a relationship with some sellers to get the good stuff. It’s really no different then locally making relations with sellers and buyers.

Using places like buyee and eBay are really your only option until you build a working relationship.

Also modern consoles tend to be expensive even in Japan, so there’s a good chance that some of those consoles aren’t marked up too much over local pricing.

I think if you want a dead mint one then it’s probably safest to buy a brand new one because it can sometimes be hard to get more pictures from Japanese sellers.

Just some of my experiences buying Japanese games and consoles.

[fcgamer | 4,719]

7 hours ago, Shmup said:

In my experience you need to build a relationship with some sellers to get the good stuff. It’s really no different then locally making relations with sellers and buyers.

Using places like buyee and eBay are really your only option until you build a working relationship.

Also modern consoles tend to be expensive even in Japan, so there’s a good chance that some of those consoles aren’t marked up too much over local pricing.

I think if you want a dead mint one then it’s probably safest to buy a brand new one because it can sometimes be hard to get more pictures from Japanese sellers.

Just some of my experiences buying Japanese games and consoles.

I'd agree with this, building up relationships is king in these parts.

[koifish | 555]

Interesting input on the building relationships.

@fcgamer @Shmup Any advice to give on building such a relationship? Just talk to buyers that I've bought from previously, or do you use other means (ie. befriending folks you know in Japan)?

I technically have some connections in the country, and I am part of some language-learning groups that Japanese folks. I've also done repeat purchases with people on ebay. Whichever angle is best, I should be good to go with it.

[Brickman | 3,979]

2 hours ago, koifish said:

Interesting input on the building relationships.

@fcgamer @Shmup Any advice to give on building such a relationship? Just talk to buyers that I've bought from previously, or do you use other means (ie. befriending folks you know in Japan)?

I technically have some connections in the country, and I am part of some language-learning groups that Japanese folks. I've also done repeat purchases with people on ebay. Whichever angle is best, I should be good to go with it.

I made contacts by buying from the same sellers and now they just sell directly at a more reasonable price than eBay/yahoo. 

If you already know people there though that might make it easier for them to find the items you want.

Just reach out to both groups and see who is willing to help.

[Tanooki | 4,929]

When I wanted a very specific item I did use Yahoo Japan Auctions, but I used zenmarket as a proxy.  They're very reliable, fast turn around, first buy has no fee, fee after is just 300yen which is nothing.  The only hit you take is just paying shipping once in country from seller to them, then another from them to you (and with JP Post I think still being jerks, they won't ship so you need to use an expensive courier like DHL (I did, were cheaper than fedex and ups.)

 

Zenmarket also works with rakuten, amazon japan, and a few others so they're handy.  I'm holding off going again through them until the post office thing over there is sorted out.  I got lucky making out on what I did pay with the lame courier costs due to 2 key titles in there which are not cheap.

 

If you can't go that route, try and make friends with a local online, they could have you pay them to get stuff and ship it.

[koifish | 555]

As it ended up, I got lucky. A listing for a multi-system "warehouse item" where there was shockingly a sufami version still available. Pictures weren't great, the seller said they couldn't do more as it was in "a distant warehouse" but I thought, "why not take a chance?"

It didn't cost me much more than the system would have outright buying it in Japan, the shipping was not only free but two-day airmail (!), and as my luck turned out, the system I got was basically brand-new. The box was rough, and the inside foam wrapping around the system and between the screens was missing (if you have spares then I'm looking for them, check my WTB thread!), but otherwise it looked spotless. Even still had stock firmware (for a 3DS sold in 2016 anyway) which shocked me, because I figured there were no untouched 3DS left, and boy was I wrong! This really was a brand-new unit, never handled by anyone but apparently the seller, and even then I couldn't even see fingerprints or notable dust, so it seems they were very professional. I was surprised and impressed. Don't know if I would try my luck again, but I can't say I didn't make out great here.

On the other hand, I do have some other ideas for items from Japan, and so I did take some of your suggestions into account. I've got a good lead potentially on some other matters, and so I thank you all for your input.