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I'm surprised there's not a thread on ordering cards from japan


Omegaweapon
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I'm talking about using Proxy services to order yourself.

The community could use this also to verify certain places if they're legit or shady (I use Zenmarket and they've been 100% on point and don't charge much to ship cards).

Obviously, this is for those who have the money (even though it's cheaper compared to ebay/TCG rep) and patience to do so.

Now unless this has been covered and is apparently against some Terms of service, then I'm sorry.

Edited by Omegaweapon
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I've heard about zenmarket before, my friends have used it. I believe buyee is also good?

Yeah they're good. Was using from-japan till I saw an ad for this and they got me with their better shipping charges.

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Buyee gets the job done but it is on the pricey side. They have a lot of fees but it gets really cheap when they have coupons available. I know they get a lot of negative reviews for their service but I haven't had a problem with them. As far as their shipping goes, all of my cards and artbooks came in perfect shape!

I'll use Tenso every now and then and they have been great. I'll have to check out the options you guys use!

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Buyee gets the job done but it is on the pricey side. They have a lot of fees but it gets really cheap when they have coupons available. I know they get a lot of negative reviews for their service but I haven't had a problem with them. As far as their shipping goes, all of my cards and artbooks came in perfect shape!

I'll use Tenso every now and then and they have been great. I'll have to check out the options you guys use!

Zen market is good for bulk ordering on one site (like amenity dream).

You can order maybe 100 single cards and not even get charged much shipping. Good for pricy cards.

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I've heard of Buyee but J-subculture I never heard of. They don't charge a commission fee which sounds good.

How's their shipping?

It's based on weight and in terms of international shipping can go a long way.

I bought around 60g and it still ended up like 1200 yen, but that's still okay. I also bought my C89 Storage boxes from this site when they weren't like... 100 bucks. The shipping was huge for that one. They do sort of charge a little handling / delivery fee because they buy the stuff first then send it all to you, but it's still okay.

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Here's 2 cents from someone who has little to no knowledge on properly using proxies to buy cards from japan.

I think the reason why there isn't a specific thread for this is because not many people know how the whole process works. It's easy to tell someone to use "x" website or do "this and that", but even if some websites have a English option, some of the text still displays in Japanese. Not to mention, instructions are sometimes unclear and still intimidates first-time users.

Another reason would be that some people don't want to educate the public (?). For instance, prices in yen are relatively cheaper than USD because the cards are easier to come by in Japan while a bit harder in the USA. If people in Japan (or sometimes the US) have a source or easy access to cards exclusive in Japan, it's easy to manipulate the U.S. market and demand to the point where you can get away with a lot of money on a few cards (the tourney Aqua promos are a good example for this), because hardly anyone knows about their exclusivity. With that lack of knowledge in mind, secondhand card sellers can easily exploit their naivety, and blaming those naive people for not "researching" or "studying" their prices is just a poor excuse to boot. Then again, some U.S. collectors can be lazy in general about this stuff and simply just take the easy way out (paying the "premium"). With that said, the last thing and secondhand card seller would want is their potential consumers knowing how to gain access to these cards for cheaper prices, hence why there's no thread about it at all.

Edited by Dv_US
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You pretty much hit the nail on all points.

But as a community it should be stickied for new members to see. Weather they use it or not is entirely up to them due to naivete or being afraid( I myself was sceptical at 1st but now I know my site is 100%, this is just my woRd and experience).

If a couple users can verify a source then that adds Confidence.

I'm just surprised that no one has brought this up( or has a thread) and this card game is about to be out a whole year.

I did join late (late Jan) but I figured it out quick since I'm used to importing figures and due to another user helping me out (thanks Shizuun =))

Edited by Omegaweapon
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You pretty much hit the nail on all points.

But as a community it should be stickied for new members to see. Weather they use it or not is entirely up to them due to naivete or being afraid( I myself was sceptical at 1st but now I know my site is 100%, this is just my woRd and experience).

If a couple users can verify a source then that adds Confidence.

I'm just surprised that no one has brought this up( or has a thread) and this card game is about to be out a whole year.

I did join late (late Jan) but I figured it out quick since I'm used to importing figures and due to another user helping me out (thanks Shizuun =))

I'm sure I did, because as someone who's experienced with dealing with aftermarket dealers and such, Fire Emblem Cipher was a new hobby to me last year (and the first time in a LONG time I've collected trading cards), and only now I've realized that most of my ends of trades have been 1.5 - 2x the value of the other person I've been dealing with (my recent trade was a 9k yen value and I was trading for cards that was 4.7k value according to amenity). Not that these secondhand sources are a dealbreaker for me (aftermarket prices fluctuate after all), but since I didn't have enough info to assess these situations properly, the extra value those cards held that I traded away could've bargained for more cards than I initially traded them for.

But that's a part of the issue right now. As a community, we should be crowdsourcing as much info as possible right? But instead, most people here are keeping the juicy bits to themselves (especially if they have connections or are sources from THE source: Japan). In no way are these people obligated to share what they know, but most of the members partaking in Cipher are either doing their own thing or are secluded to info circles. Having a megathread of information shared by veteran collectors since S1 would do a LOT of people justice, but we'd still be unable to rectify the damage that withheld information has done to people's wallets. Just a tutorial on how to navigate certain websites such as amenitydream, bigweb, etc. and how to properly use proxy websites such as zemmarket, buyee, etc. would be the first step in helping vets and newbies alike, and potentially cause a slight decline in western market prices. Too many times where people have factored in the "difficulty in shipping cards from japan" as a big part of a card's value when they offer their prices, and to me that's a pretty sad excuse to get a few extra dollars when that's pure common sense when importing.

I've yet to import any cards yet myself, but I don't solely import more cards just to sell them for western value. Otherwise, broking info on import websites would be something I wouldn't mind helping out in my free time.

Which is sad because the U.S. community is still relatively small compared to the one in Japan. Only a % of fire emblem fans are completionist collectors, but are either "waiting for a U.S. release" of the cards or are somewhat intimidated by how expensive some cards usually get.

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I can write a little guide for subculture if anyone's interested but eh.

I'll be the first to say it, I sure would be interested if you want to invest the time to do it. Then as we move on, people will slowly come to thank the Cipher lords that someone finally managed to write a guide (which is surprising to me since we're almost a year in since initial release).

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I'll be the first to say it, I sure would be interested if you want to invest the time to do it. Then as we move on, people will slowly come to thank the Cipher lords that someone finally managed to write a guide (which is surprising to me since we're almost a year in since initial release).

Zenmarket is pretty straight forward and is in English. Just copy paste link of item, add quantity then wait for subtotal. If you don't like it; you don't buy.

For auctions you gotta put a "down deposit" to bid wether you win or not, but if you don't win you get a "refund" that can be used to buy something else (the refund can't go into your paypal but I usually use it to buy a card or sleeves or just use it on another auction).

But you're right again with people trying to withhold info to take advantage. And that's why I made this thread. The Less people know, the more cards will be juiced due to ignorance.

I even see japanese stores on ebay trying to flip cards for crazy prices cuz they see that Americans will pay, especially when they get it early and have events only in their region.

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Vince's Subculture Auction Guide 101

http://auction.j-subculture.com/

1) Sign up and make an account. Make sure your in the auction section of the site that's probably what you want to be using.

2) Use the search bar and search for whatever specifics you want. The search bar only searchs for Yahoo Auction, which is a Japanese based site. You have to use Japanese words and put them in the search bar.

3) Google Fire Emblem Cipher -> I've done the liberty and got it for you here. > ファイアーエムブレム サイファ <

4) Now after Fire Emblem Cipher, put a specific card your looking for. I do this by google searching the specific character I want to look up. Let's say for example I want to search for Lucina on google -> ルキナ

5) Now, put into the search bar -> ファイアーエムブレム サイファ ルキナ in this exact order, then search for a price you like (Lucina can be replaced with any other character if you want to look up someone else)

6) Now onto the actual auction. You probably want to win so there's a few options -> Snipe Bid, which automatically places the bid you put it if your current bid fails, an actual bid, where you just place a bid (it's just like using ebay) and placing a bid to match the reserve bid.

- If you match the reserve bid, you automatically win, so be careful.

7) Subculture notifies you by email when they have an amount for you to buy the specific item you purchased, which includes posting to them (if the seller of the said item listed it as you pay postage) and handling fees.

8) Subculture also does this safekeeping part where you can have a thing you won on auction be held there for up to one and a half months (I forgot the exact number but it's more than 40 days), so you can buy whatever you want slowly, and then when everything is at their warehouse, you can buy it all at once to save shipping (I recommend doing it like this).

9) Pay for the shipping costs towards you.

10) Win!

*If an item is taking a while to get to their warehouse safely, dispute it with them by contacting their support. They understand English. I ordered a bundle of Cordelia 4s once (4 of them for 8000 yen) and they didn't end up getting it, so I asked for a refund and I got it.

If you have any other questions I can 'try' to answer them, if they're about Subculture.

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I've been buying my starter and booster packs from AmiAmi. I've been trying to find other places that might sell them cheaper for Aussie dollars but so far i've had no luck (some were even double what amiami was offering).

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Yeah, if it's sealed product you want, AmiAmi is probably the best bet. The majority of the information in this thread is geared towards people who want to buy singles.

Certainly tempting to look into, since I'm not sure if I'm going to find someone willing to trade/sell me a Lucina SR+ here or on reddit/FB. >.>

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Yeah, if it's sealed product you want, AmiAmi is probably the best bet. The majority of the information in this thread is geared towards people who want to buy singles.

Certainly tempting to look into, since I'm not sure if I'm going to find someone willing to trade/sell me a Lucina SR+ here or on reddit/FB. >.>

To be fair, that's the equivalent of asking someone to trade/buy their waifu :P

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Zenmarket is pretty straight forward and is in English. Just copy paste link of item, add quantity then wait for subtotal. If you don't like it; you don't buy.

For auctions you gotta put a "down deposit" to bid wether you win or not, but if you don't win you get a "refund" that can be used to buy something else (the refund can't go into your paypal but I usually use it to buy a card or sleeves or just use it on another auction).

But you're right again with people trying to withhold info to take advantage. And that's why I made this thread. The Less people know, the more cards will be juiced due to ignorance.

I even see japanese stores on ebay trying to flip cards for crazy prices cuz they see that Americans will pay, especially when they get it early and have events only in their region.

Maybe I'll try zenmarket again soon since someone on FB was nice enough to give me the proper link to amenity's card prices instead of their buyback page.

Probably won't even try to do this since I'm not a big fan of putting a deposit into an account, mostly because I can't withdraw the funds afterward.

I'd like to say it's common sense NOT to trust ebay prices especially from japanese sellers, but desperation does make people irrational lol.

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Maybe I'll try zenmarket again soon since someone on FB was nice enough to give me the proper link to amenity's card prices instead of their buyback page.

Probably won't even try to do this since I'm not a big fan of putting a deposit into an account, mostly because I can't withdraw the funds afterward.

I'd like to say it's common sense NOT to trust ebay prices especially from japanese sellers, but desperation does make people irrational lol.

What i do when I deposit $ into zenmarket and don't want to "waste it"; browse some auctions on yahoo auctions for the card (s) you're interested in.

If you get out bid or win cheap; but the card at amenity dream or use the remainder for shipping.

There's alot of competition on ebay now due to alot of people buying boxes and selling whatever they have left.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Cool, I am currently trying out Zenmarket's services right now, but is there a list anywhere for all the Japanese websites that have Cipher for sale?

I see that Amenitydream and bigweb are both commonly mentioned in the forums but are there any other ones that we should know about? Other than TCG Republic, of course.

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I use yahoo, amenity, bigweb

There's also Rakkuten and Amazon.jp but bigweb and amenity are usually consistent with price. You never know thought. I scored some cheap stuff on amazon.jp but usually big $ cards float around the same price

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After looking around on Jsub and Zen I see there are "Buy Out" option. I for one are not a bidding person so I would like to buy the cards if I see the cards that interest me instead of trying to place bids and hope to win. But I dunno how these buy out works.

Some clarification would be lovely.

edit: How is it when shopping and shipping for singles or a couple of cards at the most? Using package instead for a simple air mail seems overkill in shipping cost.

Edited by FoliFF
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