Buying Agent In Japan

[Wendell]

SHORT VERSION

 

If you need to use a buying agent in Japan, a good option might be:

 

Tatsuya Hirai

http://www.japan-records.net/index.htm

japan_record_store@yahoo.co.jp

 

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LONG VERSION

 

Most online sellers in Japan will not take overseas orders. Some won't even ship within Japan if you have a foreign name. So if you want to buy something from Japan, you probably need to use a buying agent. There are many such businesses. Here are some that are well known and get generally positive reviews:

 

http://www.celga.com/

http://goody-japan.com/

https://www.japantodoor.com/Index.asp

http://www.mailorderjapan.com/index.php

http://shoppingmalljapan.com/

 

The greatest complaint people have about going this route is that fees add up pretty quickly when you order multiple items. Also, creating and maintaining an account can be a hassle.

 

One way to reduce the cost is to use http://www.tenso.com/en/. They are just a shipping agent. You buy directly from the online seller and have the item shipped to Tenso, who then reship to you. You can save some money this way, but it takes more effort. There are also many complaints about how well they package things.

 

When I was looking for an easier way to do things, somebody recommended Tatsuya. I did a trial order and it went well. His service is definitely the easiest to use that I know of and his fees are at the lower end of the spectrum.

 

When you want to buy something, send an email giving where you are and a link to the item you want. He will reply with an estimate of the total cost and a request for a small deposit. Once you send the deposit to his PayPal account, he orders the item and will contact you again with the final cost once he has the item ready to ship.

 

Miscellaneous observations:

 

Tatsuya's English is quite good and he seems willing to get involved in deals that require detailed instructions.

 

Shipping within Japan seems to be relatively slow. Figure at least a week for him to get something.

 

Listed fees are "per item" not "per order", but he seems to do some consolidation of fees when you order multiple items from the same source.

 

For the cheapest and smallest object, the overhead of fees + shipping will be in the neighborhood of $20.

 

The packaging of my order was quite good. Everything was in perfect condition.

 

Although he also serves as a bidding agent for Yahoo Auctions, you still need to know what you are doing to have a reasonable chance of succeeding there. Most frequent buyers, including Tatsuya, use sniping software that doesn't post a bid until the last moment. So you will usually have no clue as to how high something will go. You have to know the market.

 

On the customs declaration for my package, he put the value as the total amount I paid him rather than the retail cost of the items. You may want to ask him not to do that if you are someplace where heavy import duties are imposed.

[Hex]

Thank you Wendell, that is good to know.

The fees I have been paying until now was around $30.00 for a boxed pen.

[maverink]

no need for such agents when you can directly buy japanese pens from the rakuten shops

[Lou Erickson]

I've used Tenso with good results, mostly from amazon.co.jp, who doesn't care what your name is, just where your address is.

 

Costs do add up, though.

[zanio]

How about this...at least for Yahoo japan.

http://buyee.jp/?lang=en&rc=yauctop

[Wendell]

I needed to order something from Japan, so I decided to survey the options again for a buying agent. In the end, I decided to use the same service as it appeard to be the most cheap and convenient option for a one-time deal. All of the observations I made in the original post still hold.

Some on FPN have reported good experience with whiterabbitexpress.com. I looked into it, but it was a bit more hassle to use and the fees seemed higher for a small purchase. Still, I would evaluate it again for larger purchases.

If you are shopping on Yahoo! Auctions, Buyee looks like a convenient option. Buyee is run by Tenso and my comments in the OP about Tenso seem to still apply. In the otaku forums, people making lots of purchases from Japan report general dissatisfaction with Buyee and advise to use www.j-subculture.com instead.