Is buying in Japan really worthy?

[Vlad]

And I don't mean ordering from those stores that may assrape you with overpriced items and shipping fees. I mean going there in person, not just for the sake of gaming purchase. I've heard stories about people buying AES consoles for about $40 and tons of good SS games for about 1$ a piece. Recently I have checked on several forums and people said that most Akihabara prices have sky-rocketed in places like Super Potato, and the good old times of bargain shops have been replaced by huge porn stores.

What do you think?

[tom]

Porn stores rule

[c0ldb33r]

Porn stores rule
Is that a specific response to his question or just a general comment?

[Fuyukaze]

You get what you pay for and prices change as the market dictates. Not every importer is out to ass rape their customer but living in Spain your going to be paying out the ass reguardless unless your placing large orders with many items in each order. Sellers dont like to sell for pennies on the dollor and they dont like to ship at their own expense either.

[Vlad]

You get what you pay for and prices change as the market dictates. Not every importer is out to ass rape their customer but living in Spain your going to be paying out the ass reguardless unless your placing large orders with many items in each order. Sellers dont like to sell for pennies on the dollor and they dont like to ship at their own expense either.

You didn't get my point. There are several Japan-based stores run by Europeans that clearly overprice their products, even for the actual sum those items go in the West for.

But come on, this thread is not about bashing eBayers.

[DreamTR]

I'm sure they overprice their products because they are tagged on Customs to bring things over to Europe unlike in the US. I would bet that it is cheaper to bring stuff to the US in large quantities and sell here, and you can make a decent living off of it.

16-bit has been doing that for awhile I believe, and Japan Video Games just sells from Japan, but is from AZ.

Biggest issue is everyone always wants the cheapest stuff, but if these guys are going out and doing the legwork, I still don't understand why people complain (not you Vlad) when you go to a store and the prices are more than wholesale/flea market/back alley deals.

[pugmagician]

Talk about going in every direction execpt for what was asked!

To answer yes, I would go to Japan for a little fun, I'd really want to check out the game stores for thier merchindise. Whether you'd actually end up with alot or not I don't know, but I'd bet it be a blast, and I'd be stupid enough to probably laugh at all the engrish signs I saw while I was there too. My wife and I are planning to go there sometime in the future, but just have to wait until we have the money to go on such a venture. We'd want to make sure that we had enough cash to go game hunting while we where there, that wouldn't just be the extent of it. Japan does have some nice history and culture and I would love to see it myself.

[smork]

And I don't mean ordering from those stores that may assrape you with overpriced items and shipping fees. I mean going there in person, not just for the sake of gaming purchase. I've heard stories about people buying AES consoles for about $40 and tons of good SS games for about 1$ a piece. Recently I have checked on several forums and people said that most Akihabara prices have sky-rocketed in places like Super Potato, and the good old times of bargain shops have been replaced by huge porn stores.

What do you think?

I think you're making a big assumption that needs to be cleared up, namely Akihabara=Japan. In the end there's under 10 retro gaming shops in Akiba. That's not all that many. There's tons of other shops, many of them will have excellent deals, many of which will be extortionists. It's not so much different than anywhere else, really, just the density of stores is higher.

That being said, i've noticed the opposite trend in prices lately, and see that prices 'in general' seem to be lower now than 6 months ago for the large portion of games. This is in Akiba as well. I can still set a maximum price of 300 yen per game (~$3) and walk away with literally hundreds of unique saturn games, if I want to do some digging. Rares will still be expensive, but there's ALWAYS the good bargain to be found.

Just this year alone I've found these systems (approximate prices, I don't keep good notes):
FM Towns Marty (Mint, complete) ~ $40
NG AES (slightly beat up, but complete) ~$50
Super Grafx (complete) ~$30 (I think, +/- $10 or so)
Nintendo 64+64DD (loose) ~$20

These were all within a few miles of my suburban apartment.

And my point to that is - YES it's worth it! You're not going to walk into a store and find all the games of your dreams for super cheap, but you will find good deals....

[Greg2600]

I'm trying not to bash and very rarely do on this forum (as opposed to others), but spending hundreds of dollars or more to fly to Japan, just to buy video games? Um, no.

[kaedesdisciple]

I'm trying not to bash and very rarely do on this forum (as opposed to others), but spending hundreds of dollars or more to fly to Japan, just to buy video games? Um, no.

Hundreds? Try a few thousand easy and no, I wouldn't go simply for that. That would certainly be part of the experience for me, but there are so many other things I would want to see and do while there. I'm sure many others feel the same as well.

[y-bot]

I'm trying not to bash and very rarely do on this forum (as opposed to others), but spending hundreds of dollars or more to fly to Japan, just to buy video games? Um, no.

Actually, I've done exactly that. Two times as a matter of fact. Paid for my entire 2-3 week trip and made a profit. It's no different than anywhere else. The "deals" are not at retail stores. Sometimes they are but usually not. You have to know where to look. The problem now is that Ebay is flooded with Japanese games from Hong Kong sellers. There are hundreds of Famicom games in Ebay Stores for under $2 buy-it-now.

y-bot

[Vlad]

I'm trying not to bash and very rarely do on this forum (as opposed to others), but spending hundreds of dollars or more to fly to Japan, just to buy video games? Um, no.

I wrote


I mean going there in person, not just for the sake of gaming purchase

I don't love video-games that much to make buying stuff the only purpose on that trip.

smork, you're right. I know that the best deals are anywhere but in Akiba, although I recall reading that some years ago you could still find rare bargains at Akihabara.

How godd is Den Den Town in Osaka?

[DreamTR]

Y bot: But they charge EMS shipping or Air Mail shipping rates, so a lot of people run from those. I still sell buttloads of Famicom games when I get them, and I never have to pay too much for them at shows....some of my best sellers next to the $1 and under junk box.

[lkermel]

I went to Japan two years ago and, for me, it was totally worth it as I've found items that would have been tricky to get from Ebay or import shops (like PC Engine magazines and unusual Japanese game items). However, prices were not that cheap and rare items were indeed expensive. Nonetheless, I got many common Famicom and PC Engine game for 100/300 Yen a piece. So I think it was worth it - but not if you only fly there to buy games. Japan is a gorgeous place and it'd be a shame to only go there to visit Akihabara... but it's my take on this...

[y-bot]

Y bot: But they charge EMS shipping or Air Mail shipping rates, so a lot of people run from those. I still sell buttloads of Famicom games when I get them, and I never have to pay too much for them at shows....some of my best sellers next to the $1 and under junk box.

Yeah, Famicom games sell great at shows but I was saying it's a waste to put them on Ebay. Most people buying on Ebay don't have the common sense that you or I do to realize that $4 + $2 shipping is less than $2 + $10 shipping.

y-bot

[Jorpho]

Porn stores rule

I was indeed once told that if you're looking to buy stuff in Japan to sell at a profit elsewhere, porn is a much better bet than video games.

I rather suspect there is already no shortage of natives there scouring the stores for the best bargains.

[ubersaurus]

I never even visited Akihabara, but I found a good number of deals all o'er the land. Osaka's denden town has two very good game shops, there's one near Nara I heard about on this forum, and some decent shops all over: Kyoto, Hiroshima, Okayama, Himeji, Takamatsu...I found deals practically everywhere I went. Even a porn shop had some old games!

Not everything was cheap, but it was almost all cheaper than I could have gotten back home with a bit of searching around. I wouldn't throw down to go to Japan just to game shop, but if you're heading there anyway, there's no sense in NOT hunting. I'd do yourself a favor though, and learn to read Hiragana and Katakana first. Makes game hunting MUCH easier.

[NE146]

I've been lucky in that I've been able to shop at least once or twice a year in Japan for the past 30+ years or so with the only lapse being very recently when I moved to North Carolina.

I'd say it's worth it.. although the increased awareness of the jap videogame market by everyone around the world (In the NES days, no one I knew ever even heard of "Akihabara") has obviously sort of changed the dynamics there now. That being said I don't think it's affected it all that much. Prices seem expensive, but in my mind it was never exactly cheap for most of the good stuff anyway. Bottom line, if you get the chance, Go :)

[otaku]

I can't wait to go not so much for shopping or buying I just want to experience japan and have fun.

[DeputyMoniker]

You didn't get my point. There are several Japan-based stores run by Europeans that clearly overprice their products...

He got your point. Market dictates the price at which these items will be sold. If you consider the cost of traveling to japan to purchase these items for yourself, then PlayAsia is offering a pretty good deal. If you wont get $50 of satisfaction out of said item, then you certainly wont get $5,000 of satisfaction out of traveling to Japan to buy the same thing.

[emceelokey]

From what I've heard, Akihabara is essentially a block of stores that are equivelant to Best Buys, Circuit Citys and what have you in the U.S. I would assume that pretty much everything is at the current retail prices for Japan but can be worth double than what you paid to the U.S. market. There should be more than enough "deals" to take advantage of but I would assume that it's basically like someone from Japan coming to the U.S. to buy U.S. games.