buying imports from Japanese Stores/Ebay Users

[dra600n]

Has anyone had any issues? What about from Rising Stuff, or ebay user accounts? How long did it take to get delivered?

I'm a bit hesitant from ordering from such places as I've never done it before. What's your experiences?


Thanks!

[todesengel]

I've never had any problems ordering from Rising Stuff or from ebay members located in Japan. As for how long it'll take to get something, depends on the shipping method you pay for. If you pay the more expensive EMS shipping then you'll get your pacakage in like 4-5 days plus it'll be insured and have tracking. If you go the cheaper shipping it can take about 2 weeks to get to you and has no tracking or insurance.

[JLukas]

EMS (Express Mail) has tracking and insurance, and incredibly reliable. It takes about 4 days from Japan to the US (it's like overnight in each country, but then add 2 days more for the plane flight and customs)

Airmail is about 2 weeks. Assuming it's something like a game or CD, it's usually around $5 cheaper than EMS, and good for saving money on cheap $10-20 purchases.

Returning something is probably more cost/effort than the item is worth, so pay careful attention to the description. The auction text will also give you an idea if you'll have to deal with Engrish if for some reason you need to contact the seller.

I've purchased tons of stuff from different sellers, and never had a problem. However, it still makes sense to limit it to stuff that simply has no chance of showing up from a US seller. With the amount of import games in the US, most of the time you can put a title in your favorite search, wait a few weeks or months, and it will be listed by a US seller and cost less overall. Super Famicom is a perfect example.

[dra600n]

Good to know. JLukas - that's some useful info, same as the info from todesengel. I appreciate it. The things I started looking for (Final Fantasy 5 import for example), I found from a US seller for $10, so naturally I went with that, even though the ones from Japan were a little cheaper, with shipping it would have been a little more. I'm still a bit nervous about ordering anything from over seas, but maybe one day in the next few months I'll plunge into that. Thanks guys

[Kyle15]

I've never used RisingStuff, but I have used eBay. The Japanese members have been a joy to deal with. EMS always helps too.

[Parodius Duh!]

ebay sellers are usually reliable as long as they have good feedback. I always get things shipped via EMS too, its safest, you get a tracking number, and it only takes a few days to a week at most for the items to arrive. you should have no worries as long as you get EMS shipping, its worth the extra bit of money....and Im from CT too, so it does not take long at all for the items to get to our neck of the woods...

[RPG_Fanatic]

ebay sellers are usually reliable as long as they have good feedback. I always get things shipped via EMS too, its safest, you get a tracking number, and it only takes a few days to a week at most for the items to arrive. you should have no worries as long as you get EMS shipping, its worth the extra bit of money....and Im from CT too, so it does not take long at all for the items to get to our neck of the woods...

I've only bought a couple systems & guides from Japanese sellers on Ebay. I've never had any problems either. Use EMS shipping it's worth it, you'll get it within a week.

[frogofdeath]

I've bought from a few Japanese sellers on ebay. No issues. As already mentioned, look at feedback scores. This tells you plenty.

As for delivery, I don't recall ever waiting more than 10 business days (maybe not even 10 days total?) to receive any game that was shipped from Japan. That was the most basic shipping available too, though the ones I usually purchase from only send EMS.

[dra600n]

ebay sellers are usually reliable as long as they have good feedback. I always get things shipped via EMS too, its safest, you get a tracking number, and it only takes a few days to a week at most for the items to arrive. you should have no worries as long as you get EMS shipping, its worth the extra bit of money....and Im from CT too, so it does not take long at all for the items to get to our neck of the woods...

Nice! Glad to know someone close by has done this with a promptly shipped item. Thanks!

[gum_drops]

I have probably ordered around 50 items over the years from Japan/Hong Kong and only had an item go missing once, a sealed radiant silvergun, got a refund though.

Shipping is usually fast with EMS, but even airmail seems to show up quick. Depending on if your stuff gets held up in customs which can delay delivery.