I was going to buy the Rockman 25th anniversary albums, along with Zuntata's Cozmo 25th anniversary album. I put all 3 albums in my shopping cart at CDJ last night, expecting the total to be around $100. No, it was not anything like that. The total came to $169 for three game music albums (shipping included). If they were out of print and hard to find on YJA, then that would be a good deal. But they are brand new.

I am accustomed to paying high prices for game music, but when brand new items have OOP caliber prices at CDJ, then even I'm not going to tolerate it. For the first time, I didn't finish an order I started at CDJ.

I find it interesting that my other Asian interest (South Korean movies) have remained stable in price. The dollars I send to South Korea have the same value they did 7 years ago (DVD prices have not increased). In fact, South Korean DVDs decrease in price, while Japanese vgm increases in price. It's a much financially friendlier experience to collect Korean movies. One would figure otherwise, given the fact that DVDs typically cost more than CDs.

The observation is meaningless: The prices of TEAM Entertainment releases have been quite stable over the years (check VGMdb) and the Zuntate album is not representative. It's four discs and a limited edition.

I'm also surprised how you can be surprised by the total amount. CDJ already shows you the amount in USD on each item. If the ZTTL item is already around 60 USD then it's quite naive to expect a total of 100 USD if you're adding another two albums. Sry, but your posts reeks of exaggerated whining.

Or is this actually about conversion rate USD <-> JPY???

Buying stuff from Japan is awful now because of the exchange rate. The Zuntata anniversary is at least available without special order. I had to special order both Bare Knuckle Original Soundtrack (5,040 yen) and DODONPACHI SAIDAIOUJOU / DODONPACHI MAXIMUM ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK (4,500 yen) and my grand total was $192.85. And if you don't order some of these items you'll have to shell out even more for them (that Cave soundtrack is selling for double the price). CDjapan on that Zuntata collection:

Ordering a 2,000 yen cd off yahoo japan with shoppingmalljapan is $46.50. It's a good thing I am not interested in much vgm coming out this year. I may have to pre-order that Zuntata collection. yikes.

It would take a fairly large miracle for those Rockman CD's to turn into anything worth purchasing. Price aside, you probably made a wise choice.

Ah, the good old days, when the exchange rate was in my favor while placing an order. 3000 yen items for $22-$23 apiece.

I've been spending all my CD money at Gohastings this summer. $2 albums, good selection...Even if there was stuff I really wanted right now, is hard to fathom I can literally buy an Office Depot box worth of CD's for the cost of 3-4 VGM albums.

I know the prices have been stable. My point is that the dollars I send to Japan have less buying power now than in the recent past. A 5,000 yen album used to cost around $50, but now it's closer to $70. CDJapan also doesn't offer free shipping; I get free shipping from other Asian countries, so what's Japan's problem?

I don't look at prices until I see the converted total when I checkout. I shop by what I want, not by price.

Then you really have no right to complain when things turn out too expensive.

Yes, I can live without them. They really don't stand a chance of competing with much of the pre-2000 game music. It's mainly habit which drives me to attempt purchasing these newly released albums, but this is another habit I think I have finally clinched. I've only placed one CDJ order this year so far, and it was back in February. I managed to avoid this last order, which was remarkable.

You don't understand my point. My point is that the prices have increased magnificently. I shouldn't have to look at or worry about the prices because 3 newly released albums should cost around $100. That's what I'm accustomed to. When things change, it is natural to complain.

Speculators outside of Japan make ¥ much higher than it deserves, after all. The government should increase money supply more though. USA and Greece would also be blamed for weak $ and €, respectively.

Yes, it is common practice for countries to devalue their own currency. USA does it with "Quantitative Easing", Japan has done it in the past as well...I remember like 2 years ago, the Japanese government sold off a bunch of yen on the currency market and the US government called it currency manipulation. Yes, our government is a trolling band of hypocrites. Euro is just losing value because all the countries in it keep bickering on how to keep the weaker countries afloat.

Regardless, it is KILLING things for people that are used to importing. Probably good for people from Japan buying US goods though. I think I heard this was one of the reasons they made Persona 4 Arena with region lockout...So people in Japan couldn't import the cheaper American version.

Edit: And Jodo, I remember the feeling. Up until the well ran dry my last year of college, placing orders for VGM was the norm (I kept all my old receipts for Game Music Online and various places...I even have some of my albums grouped together that were purchased together). Was like signing free agents, with an offseason that happened every couple months.

It's been a hard hit the past three years or so. I've had to cut a few discs from my wishlist and even with free shipping from YesAsia it's really gotten hard to justify these prices, especially for a single disc.

This has nothing to do with VGM then.

1) CDJ != Japan
2) Why don't you ask the customer support this question?

Exactly this. Your post has nothing to do with VGM being to expensive. It's entirely about the USD/JPY conversion rate.

No, the point is that you're complaining about something entirely different. TEAM Entertainment / Zuntata Records don't decide the conversion rate. This is about politics.

Wrong attitude. When things change one should first figure out _why_ they change an don't randomly put the blame on someone who isn't in the slightest involved with this mess. The whole financial industry is one part of this equation. VGM publishers / distributors are very much not...

I do not have any statics with the average prices of the publishers in question, but selling one disc album at more than 3000JPY sounds so insane. It makes me once again realize the first SQ Chips was a miracle, because with such a cheap price (1890JPY), it offered both quality and quantity.

Well, if this is ultimately a political problem, then I won't be able to understand it. I couldn't pass the politics course I took in college. This also explains why I was incapable of recognizing it as political.

The prices has stayed the same, only thing that has changed has been the exchange rates, as few people have already said.

And if these albums would have been released 5 years ago, the price would have been around $115. (Assuming you did choose registered air mail as shipping). So, it's somewhat a big difference, but economy is economy. Hopefully euro and dollar would start getting stronger again, so importing would be bit cheaper.

It's been way too long at this level, unfortuently. Been 'hoping' for a while...the sites that sell in USD already converted (like Play Asia and Yes Asia) have just gotten worse even though the rate has barely changed...

I think Play Asia has just adjusted to the rate more slowly.  When the yen got stronger, they held their prices (in USD) for a while, but eventually they had to relent.

And if you think it's bad for US customers, think about how the Brits have fared.  Go back 5 years, and they were getting 240 yen to the pound.  Now it's 125 yen to the pound.  In the same time, the dollar has gone from 120 yen to 80 yen.  It costs 50% more for US buyers to import Japanese albums over the 5 year period, but 100% more for British buyers.

I think this is because those other Asian countries, in particular China and Hong Kong and maybe a few others, are or consider themselves very export-oriented so they get the benefit or "benefit" of a Government subsidised postal system. This leads to what I think are ridiculous economic situations whereby, for example, it is cheaper (in terms of postage costs) to receive an item from China/Hong Kong than it is to receive the exact same thing locally (e.g. same State, same country, etc).

As mentioned in a few posts above me, this is similar to the currency situation where China pegs (fixes) its currency to the US Dollar so that the Chinese currency will always be "cheaper" than the US dollar relatively speaking, helping its exports. This also leads to nonsensical economic situations such as it being cheaper to manufacture and assemble something overseas and then import it, than it is to make the item locally in the first place. China's slave labour (a resource which America "unfortunately" no longer has) also obviously helps facilitate this and is the bigger factor.

Whether this Government intervention (something that takes place in every country) is a good thing or not depends on how you view "free markets".

Having said all that, the main issue of contention in the video game music "market" is the relatively high value of the Japanese Yen against all other currencies.

1) Who is to blame for the high Japanese currency? I will attempt to answer this question based on my uninformed opinion.

I blame Japanese people (and Asians in general) and by extension, its Government, for having a "buy what you can afford" mentality", and for placing value in saving. Old Chinese man/woman placing their life savings under the bed stereotype anyone? Since the Japanese yen is not being spent and released into the foreign exchange market, there is no cause for the yen to depreciate, which is something we video game music consumers want.

Accordingly, I blame Western First-World Countries for the exact opposite: being addicted to credit and buying things they can't or shouldn't afford. This is taken to the extreme with the United States whereby they borrow money from China (a large amount of the US' foreign debt is owed to China) to fund their military activities, instead of funding the video game music industry. Imagine, instead of going to war with brown people, the US government subsidises the video game music industry so that white people can find video game music albums in their local Walmarts? They could even subsidise the costs of holding a video game music concert (it should be pretty cheap) so that every year (instead of once in a lifetime), Nobuo Uematsu's The Black Mages/Earthbound Papas or the Persona Music Live Band can perform in the Western world? Actually, if I was in charge of the Treasury, I would give Motoi Sakuraba and his drummer and bass guitar player $1 million dollars and try to convince them to hold another concert, this time featuring music from Star Ocean 4 and Valkyrie Profile 2/Valkyrie Profile DS. The fact that there is only one Motoi Sakuraba concert DVD is criminal.

In summary: Borrowing money from China + Using that money to destroy instead of create ⇒ $3 trillion dollars in debt ⇒ Depreciation of US Dollar ⇒ Higher prices for video game music albums.

Now for the second question:

2) What can we consumers do to depreciate the JPY/appreciate our local currency and/or lower the prices of Japanese video game music albums?

The answer to that question is nothing and next-to-nothing.