I thought I would start a thread, so that I and many others could learn how to start purchasing our video game soundtracks directly from the wholesale distributor.

I am sure that many people on this forum already do this, and I would like to know how to get soundtracks from Final Fantasy, Castlevania, Phantasy Star, Katamari Damacy, Biohazard, Baten Kaitos, etc. directly from Japan without paying these high prices in the United States.

Thank in advance for the help and advice!

I don't know of anyone purchasing VGM CDs wholesale - you'd have to be a retailer yourself to do that. The fact of the matter is that CDs are expensive in Japan. The average CD costs 2500-3000 yen, and prices remain "fixed" till one or two years after the release date (the date often incorrectly referred to by VGM enthusiasts as an "out of print" date).

As an example of how expensive music is in Japan, the purpose of albums that are released with "Japanese bonus tracks" is to entice Japanese consumers into purchasing domestic products. That's because they can usually import audio CDs from Europe or America for less money, even after factoring in shipping charges.

I find all of this to be rather moot anyway, as the CD is dead as far as I'm concerned. But if you're looking for the best prices direct from Japan, my best recommendation would be to shop Amazon JP.

You can't get it wholesale, because Japanese record companies do not do business with outside firms.  You basically need representation in Japan and you would end up being a retailer like Smeg said.  I think Play-Asia and VGMWorld are the only firms that have a presence in Japan, so they can negotiate locally.

The cheapest is usually to order from Amazon.jp (though Play Asia is sometimes cheaper), and CDJapan.co.jp is usually just a bit more.

-Joshua

We'd like to fix that on GMR but the guy who runs the site jumped ship.

place cds order from amazon japan with a quantity of 17 or more.
then the 1700 yen flat rate shipping plus 300 handling charge per cd will average out to 400 yen over the actual AJ price. if you do this when they have titles listed for 20% off and the dollar is high like it is now,, you can get a good deal... US customs wont even bat an eyelash at a 65,000 yen order

however you can expect broken cases unless at least half your order has cardboard slipcases. They will use those multidisc sets as the base in the box (arranged flat in 3x2) and all the smaller cds will be on top... then everything will be padded carefully with... oh wait,, who am i kidding,, there will be just some shrinkwrap plastic over the whole thing...

then cross your fingers that the DHL handlers arent suffering violent hangovers that day...

nah. Dying? ... maybe. Dead? nope.

It is dead to me, and that's what matters. I've got no use for the things or their limitations anymore.

So more ideas on how to do this?  There are no Japanese resellers that we can get them through other than Amazon.co.jp, etc.?

VGMWorld has a reseller page for wholesale orders, but they don't stock soundtracks for all of the series you mentioned. It appears that you have to have a business to order wholesale from VGMWorld, too.

reselling music, video games, or movies is risky unless you do it on a large enough scale to spread the risk. granted a title can go out of print and the price can shoot up, but oversaturation or a manufacturer's price cut can kill you (ie a $50 MSRP game suddenly dropping to $30 msrp when you as a the reseller still have a lot of stock that you paid $34 for)

thats why we chose limited run dolls...

The CD format dead?  I don't think there will be an alternative that is such a cost effective means of reproducing perceivably-perfect audio for quite a long time.

Man how are you missing the words to me as in "CDs are dead to me"? They're more costly and cumbersome than using my mp3 player, and while you're sure to shoot back "mp3s are lossy WAAAH" I can't hear the difference in well-encoded files. Couple this with the limitations of the format (80 minutes at a time? I can sequence the entire Der Ring des Nibelungen without swapping media. Not that I do, but I could ), and the ubiquity of mp3 filesharing, and CDs are a waste of space and an unjustifiable expense.

I don't think CDs are such an imposition.  I have no problem with mp3s, and do you know what I put them on to listen to?  CDs.  So I can listen to them with my portable CD player.  Per megabyte, a CD player and a wallet of CDs is the cheapest portable mp3 solution available.  As for comparison, only freaks will say that a properly made CD sounds worse in quality than live music, there are limitations to what the human ear can discern, and it falls well below 44.1 thousand frequency samples per second.

I hear ya, and that's cool that that works for you. I got a pretty good deal on my player though, and for me the benefits definitely justify the premium. Perhaps more to the point though, your mp3 CDs aren't quite the same thing the original topic was about and so I wasn't really considering that in my response. My intended meaning was that CDs are outdated as a form of delivering content. I suppose they're still viable for archival purposes, but how long do I really want my music collection to persist after I die?