Shopping on Japanese Sites who do not import.
Since Zoids have disappeared from most physical stores bar a few hobby stores specializing in Japanese imports, we now have to shop online for the majority of them. However, not a lot of the real goodies can be found via Ebay or hobby stores or be found at a better price, if we are willing to go a step further in getting what we liked for our collections, we can turn to Middleman services to buy from sites like Yahoo Japan Auctions (or as we mostly call it- YJA) and Japan Amazon. There are a few out there such as Celga and Japamart.
Many members from Zoidspoison mostly use Celga but I don't use that service so I will talk about Japamart, the service I use most plus a few helpful quickie tuts on how this site works. If you wish to ask me questions that I may not have touched on, I am on Zoidspoison under the name of DarkDeathy.
I used to use Abidko as my main Middleman service, but I grew to not like the fact that I need to find things hours before they end to give the people time to respond to me and invoice me so they can bid on the item for me. So I had a reeeally good look around til I landed on Japamart. It seemed like a nice little site at first glance. Found out that I can personally bid on items from Yahoo Japan Auctions and snipe them myself as well. That got my interest, their fees are a little better than Abidko as well. It is a relatively easy to use Middleman service.
The way it works is that you sign up, make an account with your details in it. When you want to buy things from YJA, you go to your deposits page to deposit a certain amount of money you want to spend or the amount the item you already found is. This is so if you do win the item and don't pay them in a timely manner, they take the money from your deposit to recover their funds. I will come back to this a little later.
Make sure that your paypal address matches the one on your account or they will bounce the money back. This means you cannot use anyone else's paypal or a different address.
Once this is done, you go to the left hand side of the site. Select which Auction site you wish to browse through. Be aware that some sites may not function correctly, I am assuming due to the way Japamart is coded that it fails to display the auction site correctly but it IS still browse-able. You cannot use names of specific items you want, examples being "Liger Zero Souga" "Bloody Death Saurer" and so forth. You must use only the franchise name since Japamart got an internal database of the most commonly searched items (assuming) such as "Zoids", "Pokemon" and so forth. Hitting "Go" will take you to a tabled list of all the relevant results that can be found, you just click on one of them if there are multiples and it will take you to the site you selected earlier then happy browsing! Just browse the site as you would anywhere else, there will be a Japamart toolbar at the very top with options for translations, bidding/buying and so forth. Should be fairly straightforward. I recommend you right click the items of interest to bring them into another tab so you don't accidentally close the browsing page.
Japamart also will buy from Japanese sites, but for this, they do not have a searching function. They will have a link set of sites relating to items you wish to search for, use Google or something to find the proper Japanese name for the items you want. For example, if you wish to buy a HMM Customize Kit direct from Kotobukiya, google the Japanese name for "Zoids" then browse for it or see if it's in their left hand browse bar. It will be easier for me to explain the process if I make a pictorial tutorial accompanied with brief explanations. I find it easier to explain it that way. So keep your eyes peeled in the tutorial link set for it when I get around to it! You do not need to keep a deposit on the account for this type of service.
Coming back to deposits. Japamart does have a nice little explanation on how it works completed with some handy diagrams.
To put it simply if you're a bit lazy to click on "Auction" on the page to see it all. Say I put in $50 USD as a deposit. They give you double the money for what they call "Bidding Power". Basically I actually have $100 in deposit, half of that is "virtual" money in the event that a bidding war exceeds your original deposit, you have the virtual half of the money to help you if you wish to keep trying. So you don't have to frantically make another deposit. You just pay back that virtual amount they have given you when they give you the final invoice.
Middleman services are obviously not without a few little extra charges, but it's not that much! Mostly things like Japanese Banking fees, Shipping within Japan, Transaction fees and Commission fees which have a set amount depending on how much the final item price was. So make sure you do take this in consideration when buying through them. Always compare the potential final total to prices you find on ebay of the same item you wish to buy. If ebay is cheaper, then buy from ebay! If you trust the feedback that is. Comparison is important if you wish to save a few dollars.
A tip from me is to always try and bulk buy, Japamart have a 30 days/4-5 weeks waiting period for items not marked "Large item", so don't be afraid to let them hang onto it til you decide it's enough or that the first few item's end date is coming up before you request shipping for all of them! If you have purchased a Large Item, they have a 3 days waiting period, presumably to keep as much space clear as possible.
Also, be careful if you wish to buy adult items. Japamart won't be responsible if your country's Customs withhold the item according to import laws. This goes for any items that may be organic or is illegal by your country's import law.
Onwards to a few quick little explanations on the workings of Japamart! In case all of this is a little TL;DR for you~
Many members from Zoidspoison mostly use Celga but I don't use that service so I will talk about Japamart, the service I use most plus a few helpful quickie tuts on how this site works. If you wish to ask me questions that I may not have touched on, I am on Zoidspoison under the name of DarkDeathy.
I used to use Abidko as my main Middleman service, but I grew to not like the fact that I need to find things hours before they end to give the people time to respond to me and invoice me so they can bid on the item for me. So I had a reeeally good look around til I landed on Japamart. It seemed like a nice little site at first glance. Found out that I can personally bid on items from Yahoo Japan Auctions and snipe them myself as well. That got my interest, their fees are a little better than Abidko as well. It is a relatively easy to use Middleman service.
The way it works is that you sign up, make an account with your details in it. When you want to buy things from YJA, you go to your deposits page to deposit a certain amount of money you want to spend or the amount the item you already found is. This is so if you do win the item and don't pay them in a timely manner, they take the money from your deposit to recover their funds. I will come back to this a little later.
Make sure that your paypal address matches the one on your account or they will bounce the money back. This means you cannot use anyone else's paypal or a different address.
Once this is done, you go to the left hand side of the site. Select which Auction site you wish to browse through. Be aware that some sites may not function correctly, I am assuming due to the way Japamart is coded that it fails to display the auction site correctly but it IS still browse-able. You cannot use names of specific items you want, examples being "Liger Zero Souga" "Bloody Death Saurer" and so forth. You must use only the franchise name since Japamart got an internal database of the most commonly searched items (assuming) such as "Zoids", "Pokemon" and so forth. Hitting "Go" will take you to a tabled list of all the relevant results that can be found, you just click on one of them if there are multiples and it will take you to the site you selected earlier then happy browsing! Just browse the site as you would anywhere else, there will be a Japamart toolbar at the very top with options for translations, bidding/buying and so forth. Should be fairly straightforward. I recommend you right click the items of interest to bring them into another tab so you don't accidentally close the browsing page.
Japamart also will buy from Japanese sites, but for this, they do not have a searching function. They will have a link set of sites relating to items you wish to search for, use Google or something to find the proper Japanese name for the items you want. For example, if you wish to buy a HMM Customize Kit direct from Kotobukiya, google the Japanese name for "Zoids" then browse for it or see if it's in their left hand browse bar. It will be easier for me to explain the process if I make a pictorial tutorial accompanied with brief explanations. I find it easier to explain it that way. So keep your eyes peeled in the tutorial link set for it when I get around to it! You do not need to keep a deposit on the account for this type of service.
Coming back to deposits. Japamart does have a nice little explanation on how it works completed with some handy diagrams.
To put it simply if you're a bit lazy to click on "Auction" on the page to see it all. Say I put in $50 USD as a deposit. They give you double the money for what they call "Bidding Power". Basically I actually have $100 in deposit, half of that is "virtual" money in the event that a bidding war exceeds your original deposit, you have the virtual half of the money to help you if you wish to keep trying. So you don't have to frantically make another deposit. You just pay back that virtual amount they have given you when they give you the final invoice.
Middleman services are obviously not without a few little extra charges, but it's not that much! Mostly things like Japanese Banking fees, Shipping within Japan, Transaction fees and Commission fees which have a set amount depending on how much the final item price was. So make sure you do take this in consideration when buying through them. Always compare the potential final total to prices you find on ebay of the same item you wish to buy. If ebay is cheaper, then buy from ebay! If you trust the feedback that is. Comparison is important if you wish to save a few dollars.
A tip from me is to always try and bulk buy, Japamart have a 30 days/4-5 weeks waiting period for items not marked "Large item", so don't be afraid to let them hang onto it til you decide it's enough or that the first few item's end date is coming up before you request shipping for all of them! If you have purchased a Large Item, they have a 3 days waiting period, presumably to keep as much space clear as possible.
Also, be careful if you wish to buy adult items. Japamart won't be responsible if your country's Customs withhold the item according to import laws. This goes for any items that may be organic or is illegal by your country's import law.
Onwards to a few quick little explanations on the workings of Japamart! In case all of this is a little TL;DR for you~