yes, i know, i know - the best way is to use a proxy service and buy through MercariJP;
but as a young Visual Kei fan, who can’t spend a whole lot of money on cds, i find it hard to find a good proxy service, which can offer good shipping prices, without it being the double of what you’re already paying for only the cds.
i see a lot of people online saying, that JPfans is a good option, but those that are saying this are mostly people who are sponsored by them, and regular people who have used the site say that the shipping prices are huge, so my other idea is using Buyee.
does anyone who have bought VKei cds or merch from Japan using a proxy give some suggestions or tips?
I use Buyee primarily, though I’ve used a couple other proxies as well. None of them are cheap, and I think hefty expense is pretty impossible to avoid right now due to all the chaos around shipping and fuel. Your best bet is definitely secondhand sites like Mercari as opposed to getting anything from a proper retailer, but even used stuff will come with additional fees, fairly high shipping costs, and whatever customs/duty fees your country might have.
I’m American though, so YMMV over there! Buyee does have an international shipping fees estimator - it isn’t exact, but it can give you some sort of idea what you’ll be looking at.
No matter where you buy from, buy in bulk. Consolidate your packages if you can. You want to minimize that shipping fee per item bought. Just be careful and make sure your shipping fee doesn’t exceed the original cost of the items!
I use CDJapan because I can bundle new and proxy together, but I think their rates to Canada are reasonable and I’ve never had an issue requesting items from websites besides Mercari either.
Like others said, buy in bulk whenever possible. On CDJapan at least, it increases the proxy fee, but the shipping stays about the same and the shipping cost is usually far more than the proxy fee. But again, I’m in Canada, not Europe.
I don’t buy new cds, I am strictly interested in the stuff that was never on the internet. Which is why I always order from buyee. The order can be consolidated, but the delivery to Europe and customs usually cost me around 150-200 euros total
Remember now is starting a new “tax” for packages under 150 € for EU…3 € per item category of the package, so maybe is a good idea to keep most of the things u buy under same category.
Also, note that you are asking to ship something from the other end of the world, so the shipping prices are very likely not to be “good”. With EMS or AIR you can expect around 25 € for a couple of CD/DVDs.
Other tip, ALWAYS avoid buying posters or long items, as they will “break” the shipping cost, only buy this stuff if you have many of them…dont buy 1 poster and 4 CD for example, as the shipping cost will skyrocket.
If you use Buyee, try to stick to Mercari or sellers that offer free within Japan shipping. If you buy from shops/Yahoo, the internal shipping fees will build up to quite a lot.
Depending on the Europe country you are, the final paperwork can be different, but Id suggest to keep the items+shipping under 150€ to avoid extra complications.
If you are in Spain, you can do the custom paperwork online by yourself, which will save you quite a lot money, but not sure in other countries.
I don’t have an issue with the shipping prices. The service fee is pretty low so they make their money on the shipping. It’s fair enough.
I can only recommend you regular airmail since it’s the best as far as speed to price.
My main issue is what @TrentReznor brought up and IT’S THE FUCKING TARIFFS! I don’t know how is it in other countries but here in Spain the tax is CRAZY and everytime I recieve something I have to pay around 30-40% value of the package if you’re lucky in what I can only describe as a RANSOM (and that’s doing the paperwork myself… but even that carries a fee because they have to charge you for holding your property hostage, it’s so much work you see…)
I’m sorry if this is not suited for the forum or considered political talk and such, I understand if mods erase it but I honestly felt the need to vent about this because it’s insane. If you want people to buy in EU stablished business instead of AliExpress and such I can get behind charging a little more for getting packages from China, but going after all Asian postings is just greedy! I honestly have to make an effort to stop writting before I say something I truely regret…
Are your packages over 150€? Keeping it under 150€ I always just pay the IVA (21%) + 1.86€ of customs handling, never leave the 3rd party companies do the customs handling.
This new tariff is kind of stupid, as Aliexpress/Chinese companies will find the way to keep their stuff in UE warehouses and avoid taxes (like make yearsago when YesAsia shipped the stuff from Germany, I think it was), and will mostly impact to ppl buying from US, UK (nice move leaving ), Japan and other “secondary” outside EU markets)
I try to split them best I can so I don’t get to 150€ but It has been made clear to me they will charge whatever they feel like at any given time.
And yes, as you say, the tarif is now moot as they distribute from within EU but legislators will act like it’s doing wonders (and it’s doing it for them making them all this money…)
Not sure if you do this way, but if you keep the track of your package, as soon as it enter Spain, go to https://www.correosaduanas.es/ track ur package and you can get it by just paying the IVA and the 1.86 handling fee. I remember time ago, I didnt pay attention to a package and it was just 30-35€ for 2-3 freeking CDs, because they customs handler charged whatever they want, so better do it yourself.
I use them as well but had to use buyee recently because some FC only items could only be obtained with them an I found they have cheaper shipping options to Europe than FromJapan, so I might switch over.
), Japan and other “secondary” outside EU markets)
(Speaking from a german perspective, obv 