Buying from Japan

General
1

Hi all, I’m considering moving away from English cards for now and working on a Japanese collection. I have seen multiple mentions of “middle-men” for Japanese sales…can someone explain this? Is this a necessary step when buying from Japan? If so, what are some suggestions on the best middle-man site to use? Thanks!

2

Use buyee unless you’re going after stuff over 900,000 yen, then I think you’ll need a real person

2 Likes
3

To my knowledge there are people who are distributors based in Japan that have limited contacts to American sellers whose prices may be slightly lower than other middle man services but aren’t to stark in price. These are generally unattainable contacts unless you’ve known them for a while.

Instead, I’ve heard people use yahoo Japan and Buyee as places to buy from Japan (someone else may have more sites available as I haven’t used these before), but I’ve also bought directly from sellers based in Japan on eBay and it works out fine there too! Surprisingly, shipping is not too expensive :blush:

1 Like
4

I’ve had great experiences with White Rabbit Express. Sure, the fee is a bit high compared to Buyee, but their service is excellent.

5

Buyee and FromJapan have both been perfect for me. ZenMarket is fine too but I don’t tend to use it. White Rabbit Express is good too but the fee is a bit high for my liking since I am in Canada but is good if you find something which you can’t use Buyee, ZenMarket or FromJapan for.

6

Always used japamart.com never failed me :+1: other options like proxy address and VPN work but there’s Alot of set up involved this route. For ease of use…buyee or japamart or reach out to japanese Collectors that side…they do exist :blush:

7

I use dejapan.com because the fees on FromJapan and Buyee add up fast. I do use FromJapan for my wishlist because their site is well done

8

I did the same thing, moved from english to Japanese collecting. Honestly, I made a few purchases on Ebay from Japanese sellers. After, I reached out to the same sellers about “off ebay” sales, added on WhatsApp. They were able to track down cards for me like Grand Parties and Unikarps at an amazing value. There is definitely more risk doing it this way, BUT once you make some good connections, its so much easier to get the cards you are looking for. This is Not for everyone, but if you can digest risk you can reap some fantastic benefits.

2 Likes