Question for those who import Japanese BDs

Mangaranga

Mangaranga

Za Warudo
So, I have been looking into importing the Japanese Accel World BDs, as I really liked the show, and the BDs have ENG subs.
The question I have is what is a good site to import from. (CDJapan is OOS for the LTD ED)
I have used Play Asia once when I imported the japanese Persona 4 The Golden and managed to avoid import fees, but was that just luck?
Has anyone had any experience with getting charged for items from them?
Are there more reliable sites out there to avoid having to pay another £20 on top?
 
I often get hit by customs with Play Asia. Yesasia tend to charge more up front but they sail through customs.

Amazon Japan is pretty good (you'll probably get hit, but they have good pricing in general - though they tend to split ship which can be troublesome). For items with special bonus items from weird shops, I order directly and use Tenso for forwarding.

R
 
Rui said:
I often get hit by customs with Play Asia. Yesasia tend to charge more up front but they sail through customs.

Amazon Japan is pretty good (you'll probably get hit, but they have good pricing in general - though they tend to split ship which can be troublesome). For items with special bonus items from weird shops, I order directly and use Tenso for forwarding.

R
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So overall, which one would you recommend?
Do items from Yesasia always get through customs?
Do Amazon Japan have a Customs deposit like the US site?
Also the charge is something like 20% of the item price + £8 isn't it?

Sorry for all the questions, I never know where to go for Imports, and I still need to get Project Diva f too.
 
The only way I've ever avoided fees is to use Yes Asia (delivery takes longer than anywhere else and, unless they have updated in the last couple of years, there is no indication of stock levels).

YesAsia.com will pay VAT (Value Added Tax) and custom duties on orders shipped to the United Kingdom and Germany via our Standard Shipping method. When placing an order, please choose the Standard Shipping option to enjoy VAT-free shopping.

In the event that VAT or customs duties are incurred, you may contact our Customer Service Department to request a refund in YesAsia Credit. Please note that an official receipt from your local customs agent or post office is required to successfully claim a refund. Our customer service team will guide you through the procedure once we receive your refund request.
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When I first used them they used to ship to you from somewhere in Croydon, further delaying delivery but guaranteeing no customs problems. They later switched to marking all packages as $5 instead, but as they say above, they will re-imburse you if you do get charged (apparently, never had that problem but, again, not used them in a few years as not had the cash).
 
Shiroi Hane said:
The only way I've ever avoided fees is to use Yes Asia (delivery takes longer than anywhere else and, unless they have updated in the last couple of years, there is no indication of stock levels).

YesAsia.com will pay VAT (Value Added Tax) and custom duties on orders shipped to the United Kingdom and Germany via our Standard Shipping method. When placing an order, please choose the Standard Shipping option to enjoy VAT-free shopping.

In the event that VAT or customs duties are incurred, you may contact our Customer Service Department to request a refund in YesAsia Credit. Please note that an official receipt from your local customs agent or post office is required to successfully claim a refund. Our customer service team will guide you through the procedure once we receive your refund request.
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When I first used them they used to ship to you from somewhere in Croydon, further delaying delivery but guaranteeing no customs problems. They later switched to marking all packages as $5 instead, but as they say above, they will re-imburse you if you do get charged (apparently, never had that problem but, again, not used them in a few years as not had the cash).
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The prices and the fact that they only have the first two volumes on their site is kinda offputting. Amazon JP seems to be the best bet so far as the volumes are around £40, although on the first page of their sign up form I have no idea what the second box is.
 
Amazon Japan lets you switch everything to English now, I think? If you paste a screenshot we can help.

I generally use Yesasia as I'm lazy and buy extreme amounts of music as well as anime. I like them a lot. When something seems to be missing I recommend searching in Japanese as their English is a bit dodgy (they have the rest under Akuseruwarudo in roomaji...)

R
 
Rui said:
Amazon Japan lets you switch everything to English now, I think? If you paste a screenshot we can help.

I generally use Yesasia as I'm lazy and buy extreme amounts of music as well as anime. I like them a lot. When something seems to be missing I recommend searching in Japanese as their English is a bit dodgy (they have the rest under Akuseruwarudo in roomaji...)

R
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Ah, you were right about the English thing. The box said Name pronunciation. Still kinda confused about what I need to put in it.

Just confirming again, import charge is something like 20% of the item price + £8 isn't it?
 
Ah, in that case, just put your name again. It will be for Japanese people who need to specify the reading of their name - if your name is foreign you can just write it in katakana again or probably in English if you used English in the first place.

The import price depends on the carrier. Royal Mail charge £8+20% (but if you go over the duty threshold it's a little more as duty is added in). If you're unlucky and it's a big/heavy parcel, Parcelforce will carry it and they charge up to £13.50 as the fee plus the actual taxes. I hate Parcelforce.

Amazon Japan usually use a courier service for direct international shipments. I don't remember who they are currently using (I want to say DHL?) but the fees tend to be less obscene for the superior courier services, compared to our disgraceful national postal service. £8+20% is a reasonable estimate.

R
 
Rui said:
Ah, in that case, just put your name again. It will be for Japanese people who need to specify the reading of their name - if your name is foreign you can just write it in katakana again or probably in English if you used English in the first place.

The import price depends on the carrier. Royal Mail charge £8+20% (but if you go over the duty threshold it's a little more as duty is added in). If you're unlucky and it's a big/heavy parcel, Parcelforce will carry it and they charge up to £13.50 as the fee plus the actual taxes. I hate Parcelforce.

Amazon Japan usually use a courier service for direct international shipments. I don't remember who they are currently using (I want to say DHL?) but the fees tend to be less obscene for the superior courier services, compared to our disgraceful national postal service. £8+20% is a reasonable estimate.

R
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Amazon JP's shipping baffles me. Shipping for one vol is 3000 yen, yet for two it's 3300.
Either way it takes it up to £108 for two vols.
The courier service would end up costing anything up to around £30

Eh... supporting the companies at the source just gets more and more expensive when everything is added in...
I suppose I'll look at Yesasia next, although I doubt they will be that good since they only have Vol 1+2.
How much is shipping from Yesasia, and how long do goods take to arrive?
 
Mangaranga said:
Amazon JP's shipping baffles me. Shipping for one vol is 3000 yen, yet for two it's 3300.
Either way it takes it up to £108 for two vols.
The courier service would end up costing anything up to around £30

Eh... supporting the companies at the source just gets more and more expensive when everything is added in...
I suppose I'll look at Yesasia next, although I doubt they will be that good since they only have Vol 1+2.
How much is shipping from Yesasia, and how long do goods take to arrive?
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They have all of it, it's just the English title is wrong because they're run by non-native speakers. Search in Japanese on Yesasia for best results. Shipping is free and takes 2-3 weeks most of the time (or you can pay, which I never do, and receive it faster - IIRC they also use DHL as an express courier but prepay the VAT so you don't have to pay extra. They couriered me a correctly-declared replacement PS3 a few months ago and I didn't have to pay to release it).

R
 
Rui said:
Mangaranga said:
Amazon JP's shipping baffles me. Shipping for one vol is 3000 yen, yet for two it's 3300.
Either way it takes it up to £108 for two vols.
The courier service would end up costing anything up to around £30

Eh... supporting the companies at the source just gets more and more expensive when everything is added in...
I suppose I'll look at Yesasia next, although I doubt they will be that good since they only have Vol 1+2.
How much is shipping from Yesasia, and how long do goods take to arrive?
Click to expand...

They have all of it, it's just the English title is wrong because they're run by non-native speakers. Search in Japanese on Yesasia for best results. Shipping is free and takes 2-3 weeks most of the time (or you can pay, which I never do, and receive it faster - IIRC they also use DHL as an express courier but prepay the VAT so you don't have to pay extra. They couriered me a correctly-declared replacement PS3 a few months ago and I didn't have to pay to release it).

R
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Derp, I should have thought of that. Only bad thing Is that it doesn't state whether it's the LTD editions or not.
(Hopefully) Last question, Do they charge on despatch, or when you place an order. Only asking as I will be wanting to order some OP/ED singles from the current season and want to know when I will be charged.
 
On despatch if you pay by card, when you place the order if you use something like Paypal. I don't think I've ever failed to get a LE through them, though check the description for what it says (if the title and description are for the LE you should get it, they usually list the standard editions separately when they come out).

Edit: For example, for vol 7 the description in Japanese says タイトル: アクセル・ワールド　７: 初回限定版 【Blu-rayDisc】which means it will be the first pressing LE.

R
 
Okay, thanks a lot for helping/putting up with me here Rui. I appreciate it!

I hope to get all of it but heck, even if I have just one volume I'll be happy.
Always feels good when you get your first Japanese import per category (CDs, Books, etc), or at least for me it did.
 
Congrats :3

I'm tempted by Accel World myself but since nobody is streaming it here I'm sulking petulantly and waiting for the US release (it helps that I have no money at the moment due to having overspent).

R
 
Rui said:
Congrats :3

I'm tempted by Accel World myself but since nobody is streaming it here I'm sulking petulantly and waiting for the US release (it helps that I have no money at the moment due to having overspent).

R
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So we're the no stream, no see type?

I watched episodes 1-9 as they aired, then for some reason stopped until the week after it finished airing, at which point watched it all in one evening.
I recommended it to someone a few days ago and they watched it all within 24 hours 0_0

But yeah... I kinda liked it enough to be willing to pay this much for it.
 
I haven't used any of those sites, but got the Haruhi BD set via eBay (second hand though). The seller HUGELY undervalued the set on his postage note so it escaped customs. Obviously if something had damaged the package during delivery to me, I'd have been screwed, but I was lucky and got it without any problems. It's an option that might be available, but carries risk - and of course undervaluing stuff is very illegal...
 
VoxPhantom said:
of course undervaluing stuff is very illegal...
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Depends what you mean by "very". It's certainly very easy. I'd rather everyone sent stuff around the world marked at $5 in value with no receipts.

Besides, in the unlikely event your parcel is opened (and the even less likely chance anyone still cares if it's anything other than drugs) are HMRC really going to go out of their way to obtain proof you didn't really pay $5 for it? Perhaps that's all the seller considers it's "value" to be despite selling it to you for more. Not actually a lie in that case, is it? ;)
 
I love it when shops or sellers from abroad help you out by "undervaluing" the package. Especially when it's something actually quite costly that would cause you a really painful customs fee. It's just such an unnecessary fee.
 
Last time I made a really expensive import (the Kiddy Grade BDs IIRC) I weighed up the discount, expensive shipping and guaranteed import duty charge on AMJ versus the free shipping on YesAsia and the difference was negligible, so I went with the latter since a delay was preferable to a trip to the post office.
Last time I ordered anything from AMJ mind, it was delivered fine and I was invoiced afterwards by DHL; which was especially annoying since it was books and magazines... funnily enough, they only tried that twice then stopped. Anyone would think they were fishing for people who didn't realise there was no duty on books...
 
So I'm back on the idea of Importing Accel World and I was wondering if anyone who has used Yesasia could comment on how they package items - especially for BDs which come with a season artbox. (At least, I'm guessing that's what comes with judging by the size of Vol 2.)
 
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