Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai - View Single Post - The Official Online Merchant Discussion Thread

♥ you! · #3 11th February 2009, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DOLCE

So I usually buy all my cd's from local stores but I'd like to start ordering some online. Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of some online places?

Thanks in advance!

I'll give some for CDJapan, HMV Japan, and YesAsia. They tend to be the most popular choices with ordering and I've used all 3.

CDJapan
Pros
- amazing customer service
- packages come in sturdy boxes, they also roll posters nicely
- they tell you if the first press bonuses are sold out or not
- purchases count towards oricon

Cons
- disgustingly overpriced shipping

- things tend to sell out/go out of print really fast there. Especially first press bonuses

HMV JAPAN
Pros
- Only shipping option is EMS (this can be considered a con) but it's wayyyyy cheaper than CDJapan's EMS.
- They always have sales going on. Currently they have 2 DVD's for 23% off for example.
- They have special first press bonuses exclusive to HMV (usually post cards)
- purchases count towards oricon
Cons
- can't tell if first press is sold out or not (you can email them but it gets annoying..)
- they fold posters
- if you place a really really big order they are bad at packing things. (by big I mean like 8+ cds)

YesAsia
Pros
- FREE SHIPPING (if your order is $39+)
- Even when CdJapan and Hmv JP have all these special sales YesAsia is still usually always cheaper.
- free gachapon if you buy two+ Japan press cds.
- posters come in a sturdy mailing tube
- they have hard to find items (such as the "avex collectibles")
Cons
- they tend to sell things like first press posters separately
- shipping is the slowest out of the three
- a lot of people report getting cracked stuff from them (this personally never happened to me, but if you get a damaged item you can just send it back.)
- purchases do not count towards oricon

so like, I usually rotate between the three depending on what I order. There's also Ebay which has some good deals. Even though there are a ton of bootlegs/cheap china versions on ebay it's really easy to tell them apart from the Japan/overseas press...