Soundtrack Central The best of VGM and other great soundtracks

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Rrolack Mar 29, 2015

I believe you still need a separate account, but it's quick and easy to set up.

Andvari Aug 8, 2015

What I do now with Otaku is that I call him and he will usually give me a discount like if i order 2 or more he'll invoice me and just charge me the 9 for EMS. You have to talk to him and try to make a deal with him since I have bought alot from him not just VGM but artbooks as well he has given me shipping discounts yes I do live in the States and yes I do call Japan.

Kain234 Aug 15, 2015

I don't usually go to eBay for soundtracks, but I recently purchased something from champ des pins.  Was a bit hesitant at first, but after seeing the seller mentioned on here a few times I decided to go ahead with the purchase. Are there any other known and trusted eBay sellers similar to champ?

student41269 Sep 16, 2015

Just wanted to put a word in here for the fromjapan.co.jp middleman service. I've started using it and completed a couple of transactions in recent months, and it has been great. It's largely automated, with a comprehensive system, so the time between seeing what I want to buy and the middleman shipping it to me is significantly reduced compared to any other similar service I've used. There are the usual fees involved, but they seem quite fair, and costs only start to mount if there are delays (due to the user getting their facts wrong about the initial order, insufficient funds, etc) so it rewards you doing your research and sums in advance. Best of all, you can choose your preferred shipping option and specify the value written on the customs declaration.

student41269 Sep 18, 2015

As far as I can tell they do have a similar policy where you have thirty days to organise and pay for shipping, or else they go ahead and ship it however they see fit. You can arrange to extend that holding period, but there's a charge (100 yen, I think) for each extra day.

LuxKiller65 Sep 18, 2015

Thanks, same with the few services I've tried. I understand space is an issue, but 30 days is super tight, and this policy makes it very hard to save on shipping, unless you pay for daily storage, which makes it less interesting.

If anybody knows a Japanese service that provides at least 3 months of free storage...

jb Sep 19, 2015 (edited Sep 19, 2015)

I don't understand what the issue with storage is?  Do all these services hold onto items so you can bulk ship middleman service bought items or something?  That seems like a wildly stupid point from a business perspective.  I don't expect Amazon to hold 8 separate orders placed around the same time and ship them all together so I save on shipping -- that's just not how it works.  Even some of my CDJ "monthly" orders that I do have ended up being split into two shipments because one item is outside of their hold range (I think 30 or 60 days or something).  I think it's completely unreasonable to expect that behavior from any business, the fact that they do it astounds me.  I mean, how many items really need middleman services anyway? Are you really ordering that many?

jb Oct 17, 2015

A comment about CDJapan I recently ran into with their Special Request ordering service.  I ordered the new Majora's Mask album from them via special request shopping service because it was only available from http://symphony-5.com/ajrj/ at the time and that's fine.  But shortly after I ordered it they put it up for sale on their regular site as a regular item so I ended up paying more money for it than I normally would have because they were either late putting it up on their site or realized they could stock it and stocked it after my special request.  I emailed them to see if I could get a refund for the difference between the special request cost and the stock cost (even if it was in the form of points) and they essentially told me no, so I'm a little bummed out about it.  Just a heads up.

LuxKiller65 Nov 21, 2015

Some people order a lot, and some people may order less but the items may be heavy, like computers or musical instruments, or other heavy/bulky items which can't be found elsewhere (out of print, vintage, limited editions...). I think it's reasonable to expect your middleman to wait some time and group items, especially if you've been a good customer for several months. I believe it's supposed to be a more human and personalised service than your usual internet shopping website like Amazon, and that is usually reflected in the fees charged.

I still think the main issue is lack of space, and rules which they wouldn't mind overlooking, but they're rules so they stick to them. Besides, some services charge daily storage fees per item, so they're happy to keep them around smile

Ashley Winchester Apr 19, 2017 (edited Apr 19, 2017)

Ashley Winchester wrote:
GoldfishX wrote:

I would ASSUME so, quality has never been an issue with them and they get some cool stuff. However, their shipping charges PER ITEM are a huge issue and is largely why I don't buy more from them. The charges keep stacking with each item you put in your cart and end up becoming outrageous if you're buying like 4-5 items.

Yeah... when I first started out collecting VGM I ordered from otaku a lot... but the shipping really added up and, while some people would absolutely love it, I just didn't need my items THAT quickly. The cost kind of outweighed that unnecessary convenience to me. However, considering the two items I'm after it wouldn't be too big of deal this time around...

I was digging through this thread and I kind of want to take something back a bit. Like Goldfish says, the charges keep stacking with each item and if you're buying 4 to 5 albums it's a bit painful; however, like was said by others at the beginning of the thread, Alex has been nothing but helpful to me and this is one of those instances where I would honestly take the hit on shipping for the quality of the customer service.

Edit:

However, like it was said, it does pay to look and shop around the various stores.

GoldfishX Apr 20, 2017

Alex needs to fix his storefront, plain and simple. He's needed to do that for YEARS!

Zane Apr 20, 2017

Otaku is great for grabbing one album at a time, since you're only paying $9 for shipping. Alex offers free shipping on his eBay auctions, but the prices generally end up being a few bucks extra total if you order that way. The past few used albums I've ordered from him have been mintmintmint and got here in just about a week.

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