Forum - View topicWhere's the BEST place to buy Japanese CDs?
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Josh7289
Posts: 1252 |
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I'm talking about online stores. From all the ones out there, which is the absolute best (in your opinion), and why? ...And which ones should be avoided?
You know, in terms of overall price, shipping speed, packaging quality, customer service, or anything else you can think of... |
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Zoe
 Posts: 898 Location: Austin |
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This thread will probably get moved to the retail section pretty quickly.
I personally prefer CD Japan. You pay the actual yen value, you know straight out if you'll be getting the pre-order bonuses, and I've never had any problems with the orders (like cracked discs) or with customer service. The only catch is the shipping. The rates themselves are completely fair, but you'll experience a bit of sticker shock. Just keep in mind that ordering from a place like YesAsia has built the shipping into their price (and incidentally, YesAsia recently raised the minimum total for free shipping). HMV is similar to CD Japan, but I've never had a reason to switch to them. Now, all that being said, if you don't mind having overseas versions versus the original Japanese versions, go with YesAsia. |
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Josh7289
Posts: 1252 |
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Despite the significant price difference, if it's something I really really want, I'd rather have the original Japanese version. Besides, when it comes to liner notes and whatnot, I can read a bit of Japanese, but I can't say the same for other Asian languages.
Oh, and that reminds me: I also wouldn't mind using an online store that's entirely in Japanese, as long as they still ship internationally. And, thanks for the help so far. 
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vapwaazu
 Posts: 115 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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I don't know if all of them are like this, but I have a few Asian Versions of a couple of Ayumi Hamasaki's albums and from the looks of it, the booklets are exact duplicates of the Japanese Versions, except they also come with an extra sheet of paper that has the chinese translations for the songs.
But if you'd still want the Japanese versions, I usually use HMV and CDJapan. Amazon Japan only if I'm really desperate 
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Cassandra
 Posts: 1356 Location: Birdsboro, PA |
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I buy all of my CDs through CD Japan. You get bonus points with each purchase that you can use to reduce the price of your next purchase. 100 points = 100 yen so it may take awhile to save up enough points to get a really good discount but there's also bonus days where they will give out more points for buying stuff
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I used Amazon Japan once when I bought a DVD that was only available through them. It was a good experience but I still prefer CD Japan. |
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Zoe
Posts: 898 Location: Austin |
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You do get 20% off DVD pre-orders, but you only have the most expensive shipping option available. And it's the only time I've ever had to pay an import fee/tax (to DHL). The first time I had to do that was the last time I ever used them. |
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Josh7289
Posts: 1252 |
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Why only if you're really desperate? And thanks for the informaiton about the Asian versions of those CDs, but, as you suspected, I'm still mostly interested in the Japanese versions.
Any particular reason that you still prefer CD Japan? Is it because of the bonus points thing at CD Japan, combined with the familiarity of that store... or...?
All of what I quoted was in reference to Amazon.co.jp, right? And does Amazon.co.jp always use DHL, at least for international shipping? Hmmm, and which shipping services do the other online stores use? Aaand, everyone, thanks for all the help so far... I think I'm starting to get a good idea of where I should shop.
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Zoe
Posts: 898 Location: Austin |
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To my knowledge (it's been a couple of years), yes, they always use DHL. CD Japan uses the post office. HMV uses FedEx. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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Stay away from Ebay unless you know what the CD looks like and they have an actual picture of the item, not a stock photo. And especially if the item would be coming to you from Hong Kong, China, or Taiwan, I wouldn't get it.
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Cassandra
Posts: 1356 Location: Birdsboro, PA |
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I like it for a bunch of reasons. The bonus points, there are a couple of different shipping options, I've always received my stuff uber-fast, they pretty much always have what I want. And I have never had a time when I didn't understand their website. |
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vapwaazu
Posts: 115 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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Well the other two have a good points system, while Amazon Japan has a weird one that I don't really get how it works. Amazon Japan is pretty much a Japanese only site, only the more important stuff (member's pages and ordering pages and such) is in English, though the good thing about it is that you can search by catalogue number so you can search for a specific item that you're looking for, cause they're not very consistant on how they label items (especially if they're quite old). Actually I use HMV quite a lot, and they appear to only use the post office system (EMS). Amazon Japan used to use DHL exclusively, however they sometimes use FedEx as well, it's really inconsistant, you really only find out which one they used when you get the shipping notice. |
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daxomni
 Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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In addition to DHL they also use FedEx, which is better than DHL, UPS, and especially USPS in my view, but you don't get to choose which shipper they'll use. Amazon divides their shipping as they see fit without giving NA residents the option to choose shipper or category.
What kind of options do they have?
Looks like a ￥30,000 order will net you something like a ￥300 discount on your following order. That’s how it appears to work for customers living outside Japan. Domestic orders work on a different conversion from the looks of it.
I really couldn’t disagree more. Amazon has by far the most English assistance of any Japanese site I’ve ever seen. This has been the case for years now and they’ve only added more and more English as time has gone on. Compare amazon.co.jp to something like auctions.yahoo.co.jp to see what I mean.
None of the local search engines is very good at finding rare items IMO. I would strongly recommend using a true indexing site like google.co.jp to search retail sites. If you don’t know the equivalent Japanese search commands you can always use the English version of google in order to improve your flexibility. Even something like this should work on the English language google site... マインド ゲーム -"中古商品を見る" site:amazon.co.jp You can also use ISBN and ASIN codes as well if you know them. If all you see are a bunch of “???” or “[][][]” in bold above then you’ll need to update your OS and browser to work with Japanese fonts or you'll have a hell of a time trying to find Japanese goods online.
Yeah, their shipping used to be a steal during their confusing SAL/EMS transitional period, but now it’s a horrible price for DHL and only barely tolerable for FedEx when you ship multiple items. |
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Zoe
Posts: 898 Location: Austin |
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http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/help/shipping.html#1 EMS, Air, and SAL |
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killua9101
 Posts: 49 Location: Washington DC |
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It seems you live in NJ so I would recomend kinokuniya, the biggest japanese bookstore chain. they have a store @ 3360 Palisades Center Dr,West Nyack,NY 10994 or in NYC @ 1073 Ave of the Americas,New York,NY 10018(6 Ave/bet 40 and 41 ST). They have quite a collection of both cds & soundtracks. They are cheap too.
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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I've gotten two soundtracks (for videogames actually) from www.otaku.com . If you're willing to pay a bit, they're very fast and everything arrives perfectly. No bootlegs either.
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