Unsure if this is the right place to ask but im curious to where you look for cards outside of this forum and ebay.
Are there other big platforms private sellers use?
Ebay, Yahoo Japan
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First and foremost is always eBay. eBay is definitely the majority of my purchases.
If I’m looking for a lower price, I’ll check Mercari (US). Prices are usually lower there and the pricing culture is more flexible. Most items I buy from there I get below asking, but the pickings are really slim. Finding something you want there is a total roll of the dice, but it’s worth it if you do.
If I’m looking for Japanese stuff and can’t find what I want on eBay, I check Yahoo JP and Mercari JP.
I have never had luck buying from Craig’s List, FB Marketplace, or anything like that. Those are usually bulk lots and the condition is usually really beat. Those are people’s closet collections so not really the cream of the crop. Some people here have experience buying/selling in Instagram but I don’t have an instagram so I can’t say what that’s like.
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It’s all in Japanese. It takes practice and you have to know the right way to search what you’re looking for. It helps if you keep your searches super broad and just put the time in to page through every result. Once you’re up to date you just have to look at the newest ones and it doesn’t take much time.
Communication with sellers is not usually an option. It’s a risk.
Thanks but i find navigating on the japanese sites next to impossible, wish there was a translate button.
oh well, i guess i’ll keek looking around here and on ebay 
)
Chrome should automatically translate it for you, which makes reading it easy. It’s just the searches (copy+pasting the Japanese from Google translate or a reference document) that requires Japanese text.
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Thats a great tip, thank you!
Ebay. Trademe (nz ebay clone)
most raws I buy in person, never had much luck on ebay except for a few sellers. Graded I usually try to do myself but if I cant then ebay/TT
Troll and Toad when picking up cards less than $5. It’s hard to beat the price of $0.20 for a common card. Modern cheap cards are usually mint condition. The more expensive cards or vintage cards are more on the light play side, even though they state near mint. I think they don’t usually get NM/Mint cards from their buylist on the more valuable cards because people would make more money grading or selling raw instead of their buylist option.
Otherwise I pick up singles on ebay. I usually only need a couple of specific cards from a set, so I don’t buy sealed product to open.
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If I may add to Stagecoach’s response.
Apologies if this has already been said in some fashion. Not only is it beneficial to use the Japanese character set but it’s also the way you phrase and words you use in the search criteria. For instance, let’s say you want to search for the Vending Series set/cards. We will use Mercari. Typing in pokemon vending series cards ポケモン自動販売機シリーズカード will return zippo results. Type in pokemon vending series will return zilch. Type in pokemon vending cards ポケモンの自動販売機
you get something but not what you really won’t. Maybe some hits but not many. Then try typing say pokemon expansion cards ポケモン拡張カード You get some good hits along with a lot of other hits not related to the Vending Series. Now enter pokemon expansion series cards
ポケモン拡張シリーズカード. This is better but not quite what we are after. Now change the one word “card” to sheet and remove the word series from the equation ポケモン拡張シート and you get the hits you are looking for.
My point is you have to use words that the Japanese use not the words we use in English. Card, sheet, vending, expansion so on and so on. This comes with practice and studying the type of descriptions the sellers use when listing their products.
Best of luck with your adventure into buying from Japan. I find it fun, rewarding and a little challenge.
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Just ebay at the moment myself. If I could find some of similar quality or better from reasonable sites, then I wouldn’t mind using them either.