From which online shops do you import original japanese manga?
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I want to buy the manga raws of Bibliophile Princess. It’s one of my absolute favorite novels and I want to own the manga too.
Now I want to ask you (in case you import original japanese manga), which online shops you use and would recommend? -
I’ve grabbed stuff off Amazon before, but that’s about it.
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Either CDJapan or Amazon jp for me, although I'm currently leaning towards the latter only because they're sort of faster in a way
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@HarunaChieP Does CD Japan offer to bill your credit card in your currency? Amazon Japan will, at least for USD, which saves a bit on conversion fees.
The main issue I've had with Amazon is that not all books are available for shipping outside Japan; I have a couple of series that I haven't ordered because one book in the middle is only available from domestic-only shippers. What they do have shows up quickly.
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@SomeOldGuy I use PayPal for CDJapan, I actually haven't tried using my own card to directly pay them though. You could try using your card to see if it works as the option for it is available
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Aside from CDJapan and Amazon I also ordered directly from japanese bookstores via ebay.
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@Qeeh Via eBay, I've used bookstoron a lot. You can send inquires for things NOT listed and they'll create an auction for it, if they can deliver. Both new and used.
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I'm mostly using Amazon Japan. Besides Amazon I'm also often buying (mostly used) books via ebay. But I’m also thinking of using CDJapan in future.
@SomeOldGuy I'm also buying a lot from bookstoron, but I can also recommend japan-ssyduk. Also, thanks a lot for the info, that you can send inquiries to bookstoron for books not listed. I didn't know that.xD
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@SomeOldGuy Regarding bookstoron, I‘ve only bought complete sets so far, but would it be possible to request seperate volumes, like volume 8,9, 11-16 of a series for example? You‘ve said, that you could request books they don‘t already offer, so I‘m wondering, if this would also be okay?
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So far, Hitoshi at bookstoron hasn't refused requests. I had already purchased v1-6 of Hen na Jyoshi Kousei Amaguri Senko, and requested v7-11 from them, and the auction was ready the next day. v12-14 I got from Amazon as they were released.
The worst that can happen is Hitoshi says no. I don't think I have any "special status" that has them doing things for me that they wouldn't do for any other customer.
(I ordered the first 6 volumes of Henjo from someone else on eBay, and the order was fulfilled by Amazon Japan.)
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@SomeOldGuy said in From which online shops do you import original japanese manga?:
@HarunaChieP Does CD Japan offer to bill your credit card in your currency? Amazon Japan will, at least for USD, which saves a bit on conversion fees.
The main issue I've had with Amazon is that not all books are available for shipping outside Japan; I have a couple of series that I haven't ordered because one book in the middle is only available from domestic-only shippers. What they do have shows up quickly.
I just checked my last cdjapan order and what showed up on my credit card, and it definitely looks like cdjapan charges in yen, not dollars. So, if your credit card has foreign transaction fees, then you'll get hit with them. As mentioned by others, they do take paypal, so you could use a card that they wouldn't accept directly (e.g. Discover doesn't have foreign transaction fees but isn't accepted outside the US, so normally, the lack of foreign transaction fees is useless, but using paypal, you can take advantage of it), but you can also use a Visa, Mastercard, or American Express with them directly. Paypal won't get you out of foreign transaction fees though. It will just potentially allow you to use cards that you couldn't use with cdjapan directly. If you're going to be buying much from Japan, you should probably try to get a card that doesn't have foreign transaction fees if you can.
If you want to order from Amazon.co.jp's marketplace (or order items that Amazon itself won't ship to outside of Japan), you can use a service such as tenso.com which allows you to ship stuff to a Japanese address, and then they ship it to you. However, if you do that, then you have to pay Amazon in yen and potentially incur foreign transaction fees (the same for Tenso, though I don't know about similar services). And of course, you can use the same services to buy from other stores (e.g. toranoana is probably a very popular one for that, and they promote one of tenso's competitors - I have no clue which is better though), which opens up the possibilities, though the less you understand Japanese, the harder such stores are going to be to deal with.
Personally, I buy most untranslated light novels and manga from cdjapan, since it's usually cheaper than Amazon (though since SAL is currently unavailable from Japan thanks to the current epidemic, you'd have to pay for EMS, FedEx, or DHL which could make it so that Amazon is a better deal right now).
yesasia.com and play-asia.com may also be good choices, though I don't know how good they are for books. I've mostly just bought CDs from them (and whether it's cheaper to buy CDs from them or cdjapan varies).
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@SomeOldGuy Okay, thank you for the answer. It would be nice, if I could order missing volumes from another online shop than amazon, if required. So your info really helps.^^
But I forgot to ask, does this also works with used seperate volumes?💖Always be yourself, unless you can be a unicorn - then be a unicorn!💖
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@Clarabelle Yes, bookstoron has done single-volume requests.
@Kalessin I considered doing the relay service routine, but the cost is prohibitive for the "whim" nature of my purchasing untranslated books.
I do still check out otakumode.com for things I don't see on Amazon, since they handle dealing with the Japanese side. But I haven't bought books from them in a long time...
