Affordable place for modern Japanese games?

[Darkstalker90]

I usually use ebay for everything but recently, Japanese auctions have begun to make me question things. Specifically I was looking for a few titles to fill out my Oneechanbara collection (I know, I know but I like the things) and everything is on a Buy It Now with crazy prices.

The PSP Onechanbara game was around £50 for example and Z Kagura on the 360 was over £100 . Are these prices accurate or just all Japanese ebay sellers ganging up on overseas buyers?

I find it hard to believe that the PSP and 360 games are worth this much. It's not as if they're old retro items or anything. Am I missing something obvious? Is there somewhere a lot more reasonable and trustworthy to buy modern imports from?

[Shadowman]

I usually use ebay for everything but recently, Japanese auctions have begun to make me question things. Specifically I was looking for a few titles to fill out my Oneechanbara collection (I know, I know but I like the things) and everything is on a Buy It Now with crazy prices.

The PSP Onechanbara game was around £50 for example and Z Kagura on the 360 was over £100 . Are these prices accurate or just all Japanese ebay sellers ganging up on overseas buyers?

I find it hard to believe that the PSP and 360 games are worth this much. It's not as if they're old retro items or anything. Am I missing something obvious? Is there somewhere a lot more reasonable and trustworthy to buy modern imports from?

You could give NCSX.com a try. I've picked up a few Japanese imports from them and the service has been great. I got Blazblue and a few other PS3 imports for around £50 each. I also picked up the Japanese PSP Yakuza game from them and it cost about the same.

[gamesgaryjp]

Get them direct from japan, amazon.jp is the best way to go.

If you use a 3rd party site like like http://www.celga.com/ you can get them to order it for you, and ship it directly to you. They only take a small amount for fees so this is the best way to shop from japan.

You can use any japanese site with them too, even auctions. Just surf the sites through chrome so it translates it all automatically

[Darkstalker90]

I usually use ebay for everything but recently, Japanese auctions have begun to make me question things. Specifically I was looking for a few titles to fill out my Oneechanbara collection (I know, I know but I like the things) and everything is on a Buy It Now with crazy prices.

The PSP Onechanbara game was around £50 for example and Z Kagura on the 360 was over £100 . Are these prices accurate or just all Japanese ebay sellers ganging up on overseas buyers?

I find it hard to believe that the PSP and 360 games are worth this much. It's not as if they're old retro items or anything. Am I missing something obvious? Is there somewhere a lot more reasonable and trustworthy to buy modern imports from?

You could give NCSX.com a try. I've picked up a few Japanese imports from them and the service has been great. I got Blazblue and a few other PS3 imports for around £50 each. I also picked up the Japanese PSP Yakuza game from them and it cost about the same.

Tried them, didn't have the Oneechanbara games at all. I have used them before though for various things so I agree that they are a decent outlet. PSP games being £50 though? Are they sold at that price (equivalent in yen of course) over in Japan or is there a hefty sum added on top for import titles? Perhaps we just have it too cheap over here when it comes to buying millions of pre-owned games at dirt-cheap prices from places like Gamestation...

Get them direct from japan, amazon.jp is the best way to go.

If you use a 3rd party site like like http://www.celga.com/ you can get them to order it for you, and ship it directly to you. They only take a small amount for fees so this is the best way to shop from japan.

You can use any japanese site with them too, even auctions. Just surf the sites through chrome so it translates it all automatically

I'll give that a go thanks.

I guess I didn't think Oneechanbara games in particular were games that many people cared about so the prices were really shocking. Can't get over Japanese sellers asking £100+ for a 360 game . Having said this, ebay seems to be terrible for a lot of imports direct from Japanese sellers. Almost everything is on a BIN at a crazy price that makes me wonder if these prices are set just to trap importers.

Thanks both for the tips anyway

[Shadowman]

[Tried them, didn't have the Oneechanbara games at all. I have used them before though for various things so I agree that they are a decent outlet. PSP games being £50 though? Are they sold at that price (equivalent in yen of course) over in Japan or is there a hefty sum added on top for import titles? Perhaps we just have it too cheap over here when it comes to buying millions of pre-owned games at dirt-cheap prices from places like Gamestation...

A bit of both I think. When I picked up both PSP Yakuza games there was some mark up on them but I believe the Japanese retail price wasn't exactly that cheap either. Not sure if its across all games or just Yakuza games in Japan? The HD re-releases are tentatively priced at 5000 yen with Yakuza 5 priced at almost 9000 yen! If I didn't enjoy the series so much they'd be no way I'd be paying a fair chunk to import them!

[xXHotFuzzXx]

I've always found ebay to be fair! I've just purchased 3 Japanese Bleach the Soul games for psp at a very reasonable price, all were new apart from Bleach Heat the Soul 1 which is a Japanese launch title and 7 years old,it's in excellent condition though and complete.I also purchased a bundle of 8 Japanese titles and 2 UK for £30 all new but not sealed. I got mostly 2005 launch titles too.

[xXHotFuzzXx]

Here's some pics of my latest Japanese psp titles, I'm hoping to get a few more of the Bleach games next month. The 3 Bleach games in the pics I managed to get in the uk reasonably cheap however the rest of the set I'll have to source from Japan but they are still under £20 for most of the games with Bleach Heat the Soul 7 being the most expensive at £45 but it's a new sealed copy. The other 3 games are launch titles from 2005, they were as new and have all the inlays and adds catalogues showing off the launch line up. Really nice items.

[AlexTheGameboy]

Japan.

[Katsu]

I've always used these two http://www.play-asia.com/ & VGI I have used for 10 years or so now! http://www.videogameimports.com/

[PropaneJoe]

I use PlayAsia a lot - sealed GB/GBA games can be especially cheap. Also, there are a couple of specialist retailers on Amazon who sell JAP games (especially GC games) for a fraction of the price they go for on eBay.

[Tejada]

It's better to buy the games in Japan. But if you rather import than travelling over there, try Playasia. Use eBay as one of the last options.