Physical Media Megathread

Suruga-ya has the volumes #46-50 and #52.

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I always put second hand books in the freezer. You never know what might be lurking in them. :face_without_mouth:

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Does this kill the stuff on books similar to fish?

Depending on what might be in there, wouldn’t it just put it to hibernate?

I have never done that before and I have bought a fair share of second hand books. Do you put it in a sealed plastic bag so it doesn’t get humidity?

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As far as I know, it basically kills all pests known to lurk in books (e.g. book lice) and yes, you absolutely have to put them in an airtight bag and wait for them to return to room temperature before you open the bag.

(It does not help against actual mold, though. The spores just go to sleep. Personally, I would discard moldy/mildewy books but so far haven’t had any. Not to be confused with those rusty looking spots which are usually just oxidation due to aging.)

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That would leave me with the problem of 51.
If not it would have had to wait until I visited Japan and getting it there, as shipping 50+ volumes gets ridiculous quick.

But I already found some sets in Mercari/Rakuten that I’m getting through FromJapan

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You said you are willing to use a proxy. You could search on the Japan internal web site of suruga-ya, then. They usually have a greater variety of books than their international site.

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Yes, the proxy I use charges 500 yen per item.

That’s why buying individual items can get expensive quick vs a set.

After a lot of digging I found a 44-49 and 51-52 sets in mercari, which makes it only 500 yen vs 3500 of individual purchases.

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Has anyone here ever bought something from Mercari using Buyee? Is buying something through Buyee really only an additional fee of „500? This sounds way too cheap

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I’ve used FromJapan and it’s only 500 JPY for everything.

You have to take in mind sometimes there’s a domestic shipping fee or a payment fee that the seller imposes.

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Yes, back when I bought it was even only „300 (which they recently upped to „500, as you discovered). And I only had to pay an additional „1,330 for shipping to Austria.

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„300 still matches the Inspection Plan instead of the Standard one.

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I don’t remember what is what, but they wrote me an email that it becomes more expensive from April 1st on.

Notice of Revision to the Buyee Purchase Fee

Thank you for using Buyee.

Due to rising operational costs associated with inflation and other factors, and in order to continue providing stable services while maintaining service quality, we will be revising the Buyee purchase fee as outlined below.

ā—Details of the Revision

Buyee purchase fee

Before revision: 300 JPY

After revision: 500 JPY

ā—Effective Date and Time

April 1, 2026 (Wed) 00:00 JST

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I see, well I hope FJ doesn’t follow that route.

I like FJ because I know is 500JPY and only one plan, so there’s no confusion possible. Also Buyee used to charge for consolidating packages while FJ was doing it free.

Also found out FJ shipping was a bit fairer than Buyee back in the day, although this might have changed too. FJ repackages stuff to make the package as small as possible, while Buyee used to just drop everything on a box, making it huge.

@9Sora2 if you want to give FJ a try, shoot me a DM I can give you a 500yen off, although Buyee should work as well now that they have waived the consolidation fee.

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Thanks everyone, I ended up just asking a friend in Japan instead :laughing: I’ve only heard negative things about proxy shopping services… Also Buyee changed their Ā„500 commission to one that gives them a certain percentage depending on how much your order is

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Oh wow that’s bad. Where does it say that? Is it hidden?

FJ has been good to me so far, cross fingers that they remain like that.

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Neokyo has been good for me. It’s 300 per item plus shipping and sometimes there’s coupons.

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I’m taking notes.. I’ve been considering some auctions lately but have only bought stuff from Surugaya and Mandrake thus far.. but I have a longer and longer list of things that I haven’t been able to find through either of those sites and are unlikely to show up at a BookOff whenever I get back to Japan again..

although my tsundoku is crushing and I should really just read what I have already

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So I’ve been looking into Buyee, because I recall it had at least two fees, and they are still there, one of them is ā€œoptionalā€

The guarantee plan, you can choose not to have it, but if the seller sends you a brick, you get a brick. So to get a full coverage at Buyee you need 500JPY + 500JPY per listing.

In FJ this is all covered in the flat fee of 500JPY for now.

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Personally I’ve used (and occasionally still will) FromJapan, though this time around I’m using Tenso, cuz I needed a n address in Japan for a pre-order or something? Actually idrc why… Anyway you can check these links out to get a sense of what works best for you:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pokeplush/comments/1kwwm5m/very_best_proxy_service_to_buy_from_japan/

3 years old, but otherwise helpful: https://www.reddit.com/r/kpopcollections/comments/176pjr1/japan_proxy_service_mega_guidecomparison_project/

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not sure how it works out now (tariff bs and whatnot) but tenso is also super convenient when traveling around Japan (assuming you already have an account)

takkubin stuff to yourself and then all the omiyage can get collected and you can have it shipped home

Not the cheapest option but super extremely convenient when you are there for a month buying lots of things for others. Buy a box from the hotel and have it sent to yourself at your tenso account and then at the same time can do a separate form for your luggage and off to the train with just a backpack.

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