Getting someone to ship amazon.co.jp items from non-international shippers

[Swami]

So, found a few video games exclusive to Japan from Japanese auction sites and amazon.co.jp, but cannot use the Japanese auction sites and the sellers of the items on amazon japan do not ship internationally (although there are sellers who do, they are not for the items I am looking at). Some of these items are even "fulfilled by amazon" and will still not ship to US. Does anyone know of a trustworthy 3rd party service in Japan that can order these for me and ship them to me, for some commission/surcharge?

 

Thanks

[CPUWIZ]

I think we have at least one member from Japan on AA and multiple that travel there for business.

 

Good luck, maybe one of them will see this.

 

I am gonna move-mirror this into the marketplace.

[+madman]

There are plenty of proxy services that will do that, just Google for "buying from yahoo japan auctions" or similar. I used to use one of these services about a decade ago for buying off YHJ, there seem to be many more now.

[spacecadet]

Buyee.jp is the easiest. Same company as Tenso.com. Buyee is the shopping service, Tenso gives you a Japanese address so sellers will ship to you. So it ends up being pretty seamless, and no other shopping service really does what Tenso does (meaning you theoretically can order from *anywhere* in Japan). AFAIK you can sign up and just do everything through Buyee, though I signed up with Tenso first just because a Japanese address was what I primarily needed at the time.

Edited August 7, 2017 by spacecadet

[Swami]

There are plenty of proxy services that will do that, just Google for "buying from yahoo japan auctions" or similar. I used to use one of these services about a decade ago for buying off YHJ, there seem to be many more now.

 

 

Buyee.jp is the easiest. Same company as Tenso.com. Buyee is the shopping service, Tenso gives you a Japanese address so sellers will ship to you. So it ends up being pretty seamless, and no other shopping service really does what Tenso does (meaning you theoretically can order from *anywhere* in Japan). AFAIK you can sign up and just do everything through Buyee, though I signed up with Tenso first just because a Japanese address was what I primarily needed at the time.

Thanks for the info. These seem to be the most popular. Are these fairly reliable? The ratings are so-so. Sounds like it is fine as long as no mistake, and then you are out your money. I looked into tenso and buyee. Just want to know what is the most trustworthy and has the best customer satisfaction. A little riskier than eBay or Amazon, as there is no money-back guarantee if you don't get your order. I can always start with smaller purchases and see, I guess.

[spacecadet]

I looked into tenso and buyee. Just want to know what is the most trustworthy and has the best customer satisfaction. A little riskier than eBay or Amazon, as there is no money-back guarantee if you don't get your order. I can always start with smaller purchases and see, I guess.

 

I've only used Buyee for Yahoo Auctions and there is a money back guarantee there if you choose the option for the "deluxe" service (or whatever they call it). I think even just the inspection service gives you a money back guarantee as long as the package actually gets there; it just doesn't come with any insurance in case the package gets lost in the mail on the way to them (pretty rare with Japan Post).

 

I've never used them for Amazon, so I'm not sure if they offer the same thing that way.

 

Generally they are very reliable. Never had any problems, though I haven't done exactly what you're planning to do with them. But usually buying from auctions is less safe than buying from the Amazon marketplace, so I think it would be ok.

Edited August 7, 2017 by spacecadet

[Swami]

I can see the benefit of using Tenso over Buyee, if you want something bought quickly, because you buy it. With Buyee, it looks like they may wait a day or two to make the purchase...I'll see how quick they are.

 

Edit: Less than 12 hours, so not bad there. The item was 3000 JPY and they charged 500 JPY shipping (~$6), but the shipping from Amazon was not included, so I have no idea how they make any money on this. Another modest limitation of Buyee compared to Tenso is that you are limited to their list of stores. It is a pretty good list, but is missing some stores I find obscure things at.

[spacecadet]

Edit: Less than 12 hours, so not bad there. The item was 3000 JPY and they charged 500 JPY shipping (~$6), but the shipping from Amazon was not included, so I have no idea how they make any money on this. Another modest limitation of Buyee compared to Tenso is that you are limited to their list of stores. It is a pretty good list, but is missing some stores I find obscure things at.

 

It's really the same company - Buyee is just an additional service over Tenso. With Tenso alone, you do the shopping yourself - Tenso just gives you a mail forwarding address. I started using Buyee mainly for Yahoo Auctions; for Amazon I think their main advantage would be in case there's any interaction with the seller, they will handle it for you. A lot of Japanese sellers will *only* deal with Japanese buyers, and Buyee is a Japanese buyer. With Tenso, you're on your own as if you were shopping on the US site... all Tenso's doing is giving you an address. So some sellers might still not deal with you.

 

As for how they make money, first, they're going to add the shipping fee from Amazon on to your total shipping fee later, so don't be surprised when you see it. Then they just have a lot of little fees on top of that, some of which you might not notice. I just bought a CD from Yahoo Auctions that was 2500 yen, or about $23.56 at current exchange rates... I selected no additional service and still I ended up paying something like $27 and I don't even remember why. I'll also be paying a 1500 yen "consolidation" fee later, but hopefully I'll save on shipping overall by doing that (that's the point of doing it). But yeah, their prices are pretty reasonable I think. You don't end up paying all that much more than if you just bought something directly and shipped it here.

[Swami]

 

It's really the same company - Buyee is just an additional service over Tenso. With Tenso alone, you do the shopping yourself - Tenso just gives you a mail forwarding address. I started using Buyee mainly for Yahoo Auctions; for Amazon I think their main advantage would be in case there's any interaction with the seller, they will handle it for you. A lot of Japanese sellers will *only* deal with Japanese buyers, and Buyee is a Japanese buyer. With Tenso, you're on your own as if you were shopping on the US site... all Tenso's doing is giving you an address. So some sellers might still not deal with you.

 

As for how they make money, first, they're going to add the shipping fee from Amazon on to your total shipping fee later, so don't be surprised when you see it. Then they just have a lot of little fees on top of that, some of which you might not notice. I just bought a CD from Yahoo Auctions that was 2500 yen, or about $23.56 at current exchange rates... I selected no additional service and still I ended up paying something like $27 and I don't even remember why. I'll also be paying a 1500 yen "consolidation" fee later, but hopefully I'll save on shipping overall by doing that (that's the point of doing it). But yeah, their prices are pretty reasonable I think. You don't end up paying all that much more than if you just bought something directly and shipped it here.

Now if I wanted to buy something from Mercari.jp, that is not on the Buyee list of stores, I think I would have to use the regular Tenso service with mail forwarding or some other open ended service. Of course, that probably leaves me try to navigate through a foreign, character based language website. Although I have done this with European websites it is somehow more difficult with Asian characters.

[spacecadet]

Yes, then you might need another shopping service. But in my experience most of these are just like one guy going to stores and buying stuff for people on his day off, then shipping them from the post office on his other day off. They're usually of questionable reliability.

 

If Mercari.jp will accept a foreign credit card (or PayPal), then I think it's better to try to navigate through the Japanese order page yourself and just ship to your Tenso address. You'll save some money that way and it's usually not really that hard. You can run the order page through Google Translate and figure it out well enough.

[Swami]

So Mercari.com/jp/ required me to enter my phone number, so I entered the phone number Tenso gave me and mercari-jp said the format is incorrect. I am thinking about trying to get a Jananese eBay store to buy it for me. It was of the format:

 

05-1234-1234

 

Tried it with and without dashes, with and without first two numbers. Tried my American mobile number. No dice.

[Swami]

The eBay Japanese seller originally responded to my request with "how much you buy for", but did not respond to my offer to pay a "50% mark-up/commision (negotiable) + shipping" to get it for me (e.g., $45 for an item $30 on a Japanese store site, plus whatever shippiong expense). They put on the business card they sent me with a previous purchase to contact them with any special item requests. So, I have now tried an internet proxy business called "white rabbit express," which says it will buy and ship items from any website for you. So far, cost without international shipping is $42.58; So, it is so far a little cheaper than the 50% commision but will have to wait for import/export damages (and there was domestic shipping estimate of $7 added, but item price already included shipping, so I may get this deducted).

[Swami]

I have confirmed shipping is a bitch through Buyee. Tried to have the $32 light gun shipped by registered airmail for $30 and they told me it was too big, so having to ship it by EMS for $43, which is a lot for a $32 item.

[ApolloBoy]

I've used Shopping Mall Japan for years, they only charge a $4 flat commission fee for YHJ auctions and they let you buy from a variety of places including Amazon.

[Swami]

I've used Shopping Mall Japan for years, they only charge a $4 flat commission fee for YHJ auctions and they let you buy from a variety of places including Amazon.

Okay, Thanks. I'll look into it.