My Guide to Purchasing from Online Sites

I get my stuff from online sites at times, if not I head down to my local preorder store, KKnM to preorder figurines ^^. Well this is just a rough guide and my personal opinions of the various websites I purchase from.

Note: This guide is more reliable for the people located around the Asia Region, US shipping rates differ!

Normally, I only purchase items from sites recommended by friends.

Few sites I personally recommend ^^. Haven’t tried Amazon JP or HLJ, but hoping to do so one day, when I have items to purchase =/

CDJapan (CDs, DVDs, Figurines)

Pros

1. Website is in English, good for customers who are unable to understand Japanese.
2. Have different types of shipping methods for you. I recommend EMS, you get your CDS fast. Normally once it ships out, you can get it within 2 days.
3. Payment methods available are Credit Cards, International Postal Money Order, Cash (Japanese Yen or US Dollars), and PayPal.
4. Every time you purchase something, you get points. These points can be used for discount when you shop at CDJapan again.^^
5. Able to sample the songs of singles/albums from the site itself.
6. CDs purchased are bubble-wrapped. A green tracing paper is used to wrap around the CDs and finally the contents is placed into the box for shipment.
7. If you have your own website, you can join as an Affiliation Site. You can get commission points from your own purchase

Cons

1. If you receive a defective item, you have to send it back within 30 days for a refund or replacement. This means you have to pay for the shipping yourself! But so far, I have not received such items yet.
2. Expensive shipping if you compare it to Amazon JP.
3. Limited Editions Singles/Albums/DVDS goes out of stock very fast. >.<
4. No restocks of “Out of Print” items.
5. The moment you place an order, the charge appears on your Credit Card.
6. You can’t keep your items for more than 60 days.

Overall Rating: 9/10
-1 for expensive shipping
-1 for limited edition items going out of print quickly, and no restocks! =(
-0.5 for immediate charge to Credit Card despite the fact that the item has not even been prepared(even in the case of preorders!)
+1 for bubble wraps used in shipment
+0.5 for points system

Thoughts:
While CDJapan is more focused on CDs and DVDs, they are slowly implementing Character Goods to their website. However, again the shipping fee kills. That is why I used Hobby Search for my Character Goods instead of using CDJapan. CDJapan is my source of CDs. ^^

Animaxis (Character Goods)

Pros

1. Website is also in English.
2. You get to purchase merchandises(Character Goods) from here. Figurines are also available.
3. Shipping is alright as there is a 10% discount for items over 5,000 yen and 15% discount for items over 10,000 yen.
4. 4 Different Shipping Methods – EMS, Air Mail, SAL (Economy Air), Sea Mail (Surface Mail).
5. Speedy Processing of your Order.
6. Payment methods available are: Credit Card and Paypal. However you need to email them if you wish to use Paypal.
7. Items are restocked regularly.
8. There is also a points system where you can use the points to exchange for items they have listed there.
9. You can email to request them for items you want to have. As long as official sites have such items listed, they will be able to obtain. ^^
10. Shipment is extremely well-protected with bubble wraps and air packs!(Click to see image)

Cons

1. Points system is useless. In fact you will take neons to obtain the number of points (about 100?) just to get the item. And the items are not very exclusive either. =/
2. Reservation of items are based on the item only. Meaning you can’t bulk order items unless they are released on the same date.
3. Site doesn’t impress you on the first visit. Need some improvement in the layout.
4. They don’t accept returned goods once the parcel has been opened.

Overall Rating: 9.5/10
-1 for useless points system
-0.5 for site layout
-1 for difficulty in reserving items (see Cons section, point 2)
+1 for excellent shipping packaging
+1 for speedy processing of order

Thoughts:
Shipping is alright if you bulk ship. Also their items run out of stock quickly once updated at the website. I don’t know whether it’s because they purchased little or what, because very little actually heard about this site. I hate the fact that I can’t reserve items here. But there are pencil boards that are only purchasable at this site. Hobby Search doesn’t have them! I only turn myself to look at this site when they email me their newsletter or when I have items that I can’t purchase from Hobby Search.

Hobby Search (Character Goods, Figurines, Gunpla, Magazines!!)

Pros

1. Website is in English. ^^
2. You can reserve items together that are scheduled to be out in the same month.
3. Website is updated regularly with new reservations or releases of figurines/merchandises, etc
4. Points system implemented! 5% of the item yen price is deposited into your account each time you purchase. These points can be used for discount, 1 yen = 1 point
5. Many items there for you to purchase
6. Cheap Shipping!
7. Only EMS shipping (Which I approve! XD)
8. You can subscribe to their newsletter for updates. Sent weekly(I believe)
9. Items sold out have the chance to be restocked, which you can request for a “notification” email.
10. Missing items in your shipment will be sent again by them, free of charge.(Personal experience T_T)

Cons

1. No bubble wrap in your shipment, only tracing paper/newspaper used.
2. Shipping fee is not accounted for when you cart/reserve your items.

Overall Rating: 14.5/10
-1 for shipping fee being accounted later
-1 for tracing paper used in shipment, should switch to using bubble wraps!
+0.5 for cheap shipping
+1 for reservation of items released in the same month
+1 for excellent points system
+1 for wide selection of items you can purchase from there
+2 for free shipment if they missed out some items

Thoughts:
Lol I can feel myself becoming a Hobby Search supporter, but the fact is I love them! I have my own personal experience whereby one of my items in one shipment was missing. I emailed them and they got back to me the next day, with a tracking number for the parcel (my missing item) and told me that they will sent it out the day after. Of course one improvement I do hope they make is to include bubble wraps in our shipments! But other than that, I am a very happy customer.

Play-Asia (CDs, DVDs, Games, Figurines)

Pros

1. Website is in English.
2. Shipping is free.
3. Items are always available, well at least 99%!
4. DVDs sold are not Region 2 only, Region 1 is available.
5. If you do not like to wait for your items as free shipping takes 1-2 weeks, you can pay for EMS, which takes around 2-3 days and only at a charge of 20SGD plus.
6. Items like CDs/DVDs/Figurines are well-protected. Normally by bubble wraps or styrofoam pieces.

Cons

1. Items takes a long time to be available.
2. Items are considered to be priced “more” than what you see on CDJapan.
3. Hard to navigate around the site for items. Search Engine there is limited. Have to manually click and click before you can view the items you want.
4. Free shipping does not mean that your items are safe. Have seen a few cases of peoples’ parcel becoming crushed(Work of our local postman? =/)

Overall Rating: 8/10
-2 for long waiting time
-1 for limited search of items
-0.5 for the fact that free shipping takes 1-2 weeks for parcels to reach our doors!
+1 for variety of items there (Region 1 and Region 2 Anime DVDs, though it’s hard to search for the different volumes)
+0.5 for bulk shipping which costs an average of 20 SGD? ^^

Thoughts:
I only purchase from Play-Asia when there is a major discount on the site. More so, only find it worthwhile to be able to purchase both Region 1 DVDs and Anime Singles(Japanese Production). Simply said, it’s killing 2 birds with one stone! The only problem is the waiting time. Sometimes I have to wait up to 1 month plus in order for the item to be available for shipping!

So in order of my Fave Online Sites:

1. Hobby Search
2. CDJapan
3. Animaxis
4. Play-Asia

Well I hope this has been a fruitful read for you. Of course I will try to purchase from HLJ and Amazon JP and improve this guide. In addition, before you purchase items from any sites, do check out whether it’s legit. You can google yourself. There are bound to be some forums or websites that mention about “Site A” etc. Of course more importantly check how they are going to charge you, and where the company/site is based in. I always play safe by purchasing items from Japan-Based Companies for they are in a way “legit”. Of course recommendations from friends helps too!

Of course, at the end of the day, if you are unable to find any websites that have what you want, you can turn to Ebay. Though Ebay has the chance of selling bootlegs and you may get cheated, try going for sellers based in Japan. They are more reliable.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, purchasing online has the chance of paying more, if the exchange rate isn’t favorable when the deduction is made on that day.

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zenical

I like anime, music and seiyuu. Fan of fripSide, Kalafina, Sachika Misawa, Nana Mizuki, SCANDAL, StylipS, Yui Horie, YUI and yuikaori.

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