Buying Import Games Online

Well it worked out at pretty much the same price as buying rom Amazon marketplace from sellers that ship internationally. It was shipped in a more expensive service than I paid for. Sent from Japan on Friday and I got it in the UK on the Monday. Crazy.

Next, has anybody used Tenso? It gives you a Japanese address you can ship to. I seem to already have an account that was set up iin 2010. Then Tenso intoduced the Buyee service in 2013. So it seems to be the same fulfilment as Buyee but you actually do the shopping yourself and don’t pay the per item fee?

I used Tenso to get the Glaylancer reproduction cart, as Amazon Japan would not ship it to the US. It worked pretty well for me, they pretty much had it packed up and out the door, hmmm like a day or two after they got it.

What was your buying process like?

I pre-ordered the game on Amazon Japan, and told it to ship to the address Tenso gave me. When it showed up they asked me to pay for shipping (tenso that is) and I did and then it shipped. Was pretty straight forward from what I remember.

So you registered in Amazon using your own non-Japanese payment card?

Yup, just used my regular US cc. I’ve got ESP Ra De, and The Core Grafx mini pre-ordered with them as well. Though those will ship to the US.

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haven’t tried any of the ones in the OP, i just did most of mine years ago when (i forget the account name?) on ebay used to start most stuff off at a penny, and i’d snipe a bunch of things to bundle together for shipping. sometime years back, it got to be a lot less fun, because said sellers took all their saturn/PCE/etc stuff and just started pricing it as high as everyone else.

Affordable Bulk Buying using Suruga-ya

Suruga-ya sell used games, accessories, magazines, electronics, game-related stuff — and they have an excellent range of stock over multiple stores and central warehouse https://www.suruga-ya.jp

One thing I recently discovered is that if you order more than 1500JPY (11GBP/14USD) of items from Suruga-ya then you get free domestic (Japan) shipping! And they also consolidate (batch) for 220JPY too (or free if you spend obscene amounts)!

So if you do a bulk (more than 1500JPY) Suruga-ya order on Buyee you will be charge only 300JPY for the whole order, there is no domestic shipping, there is no consolidation, so the only additional cost you have to pay is international shipping.

item cost +
220JPY suruga-ya service +
300JPY buyee service +
international shipping =
TOTAL

Shipping up to 2KG is an affordable ~1500JPY, and it goes up exponentially from there.

I did a bulk buy in December, 25 items over three orders weighting 5KG. At the time Buyee had a free international shipping offer which made the whole thing a steal. And in hindsight those three orders would have fitted in a single box and reduced my costs even more as it would have been a smaller package.

Note: the international suruga-ya.com store works slightly differently and only ships to a dozen or so countries.

I should ask a friend in Switzerland to do a test order. A quick look shows that this would be the most affordable method.

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Also, has anybody bought anything from Korea? I’m looking for DS game: TOUCH! 함께 즐기는 DS 고스톱

Regarding availability of suruga-ya.com international shipping to Europe

“Thank you for your inquiry. We are currently increasing the countries we ship to and we hope to add Europe in the list in the near future. For any updates please keep an eye on the link here below: Which regions do you currently ship to? | Q&A detail | Suruga-ya.com
Best regards,
Surugaya Customer Support Team”

:pray:

Does anyone have any advice for where to buy games from Asia? I’m trying to chase down Everybody’s Golf 6 for PS3, but have only found dead ends. I know of heavyarm but they don’t stock PS3 titles, and eBay turns up no results for this one.

Read this very thread!

Amazon £16
Suruga-ya ¥880
etc

Sorry, I meant Asia, as in Hong Kong version, rather than the Japanese release.

What’s the serial number of the version you want?



These are the releases i’m after, Thanks

Searching the barcodes for those shows some for sale in Taiwan and Thailand. Not sure how to buy.

Just catching up on this thread, this is an awesome service. I need to make a list and see what I can dig up for a bulk order.

For anyone within the EU - the era of cheap frictionless imports seems to be over:

From July 2021, the €22 VAT exemption on small parcels being imported into the EU for delivery to consumers will be withdrawn. This exemption has been heavily abused by many sellers mistakenly or deliberately under-declaring the import values of goods to avoid VAT. Instead, VAT must be charged at the point-of-sale for consignments not exceedng €150. This VAT is may be declared and paid via a new submission, the ‘Import One Stop Shop’ (IOSS). This will create a more efficient fast-track, or ‘Green Channel’, quick and easy customs clearance.

Part of the appeal of getting the odd cheap game off a Japan-located seller on eBay because it lay below the exemption price, so wouldn’t be held up by customs and I wouldn’t have to pay a handling fee that’s at least half the price of the game itself because of that process.

In the UK, the same rules are coming in to effect on January 1:

Imported consignments of goods not exceeding £135 will be subject to sales (supply) VAT instead of import VAT. This will be charged ot the UK consumer by the UK or non-UK seller in the checkout at the point-of-sale. The seller will then report and pay the collected VAT through a regular UK VAT return. A simplified customs declaration will still be required. Goods above this value will be subject to VAT and customs in the current way.

I do wonder what the heck is all the talk of free trade deals being struck with places like Japan actually mean if the the intention is to just charge VAT on everything.

It just ends up in double taxation for anyone that is not a business.

I think you’ve got it.