Maidens of the Kaleidoscope
~Bunbunmaru News~ => Front Page Headlines => Topic started by: Letty Whiterock on May 31, 2009, 11:23:42 AM
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Greetings, everyone! It's your wintery friend with an amazing figure, Letty Whiterock! How have you been enjoying your stay at MotK? Don't answer that! I already know! With people like me on the board, it can only be a good time! Well, enough chit-chat. Let's get down to business... literally!
I have a friend in Japan... and it's not J-List! He's a good friend of mine who provides an excellent service: he will get things for you in Japan, such as Touhou merchandise (games and doujinshi and what-not), for absolutely no mark-up! You pay what he pays, straight from whatever source, plus shipping, which is pretty good since many a doujin shop and convention dealer are known to be ridiculous as far as that goes. In fact, allow me to post his words straight from the AIM conversation I'm having with him right now!
I mean, I know there are ways to get Touhou games and random stuff in America, but I want to be an affordable alternative. The games are cool and all, but paying more than $30 for one is a crime.
But Letty, you say, why should I trust a random stranger with my money? Well, I'm glad you asked! I'm actually a satisfied customer! (I use customer lightly, since he's not really profiting off of this.) Take a lot at what I got thanks to him. (http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/7247/dscf0440.jpg) Oh yes. Also, he provides this service for various Bemani forums, so a lot of people have gotten stuff from him with excellent results. So I ask you wonderful people, are you interested?
On a related note, would you guys be interested in creating a Marketplace-style forum for buying/selling whatever amongst each other? It'll give us a place to put his service thread, and it'll give you guys a chance to also barter amongst yourselves for stuff.
Please reply soon, my pretties!
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Yeah, hey there. I am the friend Letty mentioned, and allow me to clarify a few more things. I'd be willing to buy not only Touhou stuff, but pretty much anything else in Japan provided I can find it. However, I won't buy anything I don't feel comfortable sending through the mail. This includes hentai, which should go without saying. Anything else goes though. I've seen all kinds of stuff in various stores in Akihabara: keychains, cards, straps, buttons, games, you name it. I can even buy and pre-order certain figures.
Also, since I'm not doing this for a profit or anything, I only ask for patience. I live fairly close to Tokyo and Akihabara, but it might still take a little while to buy and ship orders out. I'll use air mail to ship which takes about a week, unless you're willing to pay for EMS shipping. I'll give a more detailed outline of the process if this takes off.
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Personally I wouldn't see any use for such a board.
I would just have your friend run a stickied thread in the TARC or something.
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Err, how would we go about paying you?
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If it ships to RSA, secure payment options available, I'm happy.
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Err, how would we go about paying you?
Logic dictates the use of PayPal.
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Hmm. I'd be interested in getting the Touhou games this way. Got any ballpark estimates on shipping costs?
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well paypal rules me out.. that's for sure.. unless remittance counts..
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This actually sounds really interesting. I'm used to having stuff take even months to arrive in the mail, so it's no trouble. Only thing is I'm stingy and might not buy anything even if you do open a service. I hope I would be able to.
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I only wish this is suggested sooner.
Yes I'm all for it.
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I'm definitely up for it.
Maybe now I can get some of those touhou merchandise.
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oh gosh...
i don?t know if it would be possible to send all that awesome (Touhou related...) stuff to Germany (where i live)
but if it would be possible (and doesn?t cost to much shipping tax) i would do it for sure...
i am already wondering what i should get...
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sweet idea, shame i won't be able to be part of it.
i guess im up for the idea
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Shipping generally isn't too bad. Things like CDs aren't more than $5 to send, and that's to pretty much everywhere in the world. Larger things like figures usually cost from 1500-2500 yen depending on the size, but it's still probably going to be a whole lot cheaper than scouring eBay or conventions. Also, I mark everything as a gift (since I'm not making a real profit anyway) so that should circumvent being charged anything by Customs or whatever. The only other thing I take into account the exchange rate, which seems to be all over the place these days, but I'll give you a fair rate.
In case anyone needs some ideas on what exactly is available, I'll try to assemble a list of websites for reference later.
I greatly prefer Paypal, although I suppose remittances might work as well. You'll need to cover any fees incurred of course.
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I would be greatly interested in this. Just so you know, lol. Friend's birthday is coming up... plus I'm making quite a bit of cash this summer, so this would be awesome. What better way would there be to get cheap, useless things like character keychains and bookmarks? XD
Oh, and I do wonder how much the games actually are, too...
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If my stepsister isn't able to buy one of those bubblewrap things that's tsundere for whoever touches it, I may have to beg you to get me one. But I probably won't have to ask for a mugen puchi puchi thing.
What I will ask for once I get a job, though, is a Patchouli, Remilia, Reimu, Marisa, and Flandre plush. Once I have money, I'll love you forever and cosplay as your favorite Touhou character and give you an internet hug and then pay you to buy and ship all that to me. Then, I'll give donations. Then, I'll continue loving you forever.
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there is only one problem here on my shores, any foreign imports are scanned by customs and hence the potential of me asking for a ero dakimakura (with pillow included) would be a crime on my end.
that said, I will see what else I can get from you. (other than Fate testarossa figurines)
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any foreign imports are scanned by customs and hence the potential of me asking for a ero dakimakura (with pillow included) would be a crime on my end.
Did you read his post?
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there is only one problem here on my shores, any foreign imports are scanned by customs and hence the potential of me asking for a ero dakimakura (with pillow included) would be a crime on my end.
that said, I will see what else I can get from you. (other than Fate testarossa figurines)
ANON!! CAN I ASK U TO HELP?? ^^
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I must thank N-Forza and Letty for their initiative. Thank you very much!
If I only were more comfortable about my spare money (a situation that might last for a long time), I would like to get the original games first (and then, consider buying the Aki Sisters Anthology when it comes up, and if I can afford it -- even though I expect it to have lots of japanese text, which I can't read -- along with Another Dream issues :D )
Perhaps my post shouldn't be considered, given that I can't actually purchase stuff atm
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So you say you'd let us essentially buy the games by sending you money? You have caught my interest, but I doubt I'll be able to participate. Needing parent permission, said parents being wary of scammers, etc. :( May I ask what each game would cost?
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This is interesting indeed. while having the option around is nice. I really don't know how much traffic a whole page dedicated to shipping these Japanese goods would get. I have my own supplier so to speak ( <3 my super famicom with my copy of Seiken Densetsu 3) who has everything I've wanted thus far, so I don't know how much I'd use such a service.
The only thing I can think of is if and when I'm done playing Touhou for awhile, and I want more Japanese danmaku games, which aren't available here, I might like to order some of those. Alas the only one I know of at this moment is that mushinomusha (I don't know the spelling at all lol) game which I really can't afford..stupid arcade.
I also am nervous about ordering things long-distance. I seem to have this knack for being charged more money for "duty" than I do for the actual product form UPS. It's very annoying. For example the other day I ordered:
http://www.extremefood.com/shop/product.php?productid=42&cat=7&page=1
A carton of 4 hot sauces, it totaled about 50 bucks for me after shipping and exchange rate. UPS guy comes to my door, and even though I already paid shipping and handling, I was charge 40 damn bucks for "duty" WTF. This isn't the first time this has happened to me either. One time I ordered a snes cartridge from ebay using paypal, it was 13 bucks total. duty costed 30 bucks.
So.. Generally I don't ever order across border unless I'm desperate and have no alternative. This problem isn't even with the person I'm purchasing from, so they can't really do anything to help me. UPS on the other hand can goto hell >=P.
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do you mean mushihimesama?
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Alright, it looks like a whole forum won't be necessary, but I'll wait for Letty's recommendation before I start my thread (TARC maybe?). Like I said I'll make and maintain a list of current and upcoming Touhou merchandise for people to peruse, which will include prices if I can remember them. (For now: Touhou shmups: ~1500 yen, EoSD & STB ~1000 yen, IaMP & SWR ~2700 yen)
But like I said, I'll have access to other stuff. I can get arcade parts and boards, console games, other doujin goods, books, figures, and the like. I might not have prices for them off the top of my head, but it will definitely be doable.
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Honestly, I think that it should go in The Real World, as this is a real world service that isn't necessarily confined to Touhou products. That, and TARC already has three stickies, and I don't think having a lot of stickies. So go ahead and start it up whenever you feel like it, and I'll sticky your thread.
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Open for business (http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php?topic=566.0)