www.bk1.jp let's you import stuff quite cheap.

Amazon.co.jp

They charge a premium on shipping though, so you should order lots at one time. See if you can combine orders with a friend.

There are also Kinokuniya and Bookoff stores in certain US cities.

Last edited by Jarvik7 (2009 June 04, 4:47 pm)

I've actually never ordered books overseas. I just buy a ton when I'm in Japan or get someone to mail me some. There is a BookOff about 3 hours away though (30 minutes driving, 2 hours boat, 30 minutes driving) if I was desperate.

Kinokuniya has stores in NYC and LA. Other stores on the west coast, too. There's also a Book-off in NYC, too. I sometimes buy stuff from the Kinokuniya in NYC and have it shipped via UPS for $7. They mark up the books a bit, because they have to pay shipping from Japan, but they have a good selection. It's about 1 month or so behind what you'd see in Japan.

Otherwise I buy from BK1 and have it shipped SAL. Usually cheaper than Amazon.jp, and no handling fees. You should do the math before you place an order, though. It may be cheaper sometimes to go with Amazon, maybe other times to go with BK1. Major downside to BK1 is that they don't calculate shipping for you until your order actually ships, so you need to be a good estimator of how much your package is going to weigh, then use their calculators.

Either way, having anything shipped from Japan is going to be expensive if you're impatient.

harhol wrote:

rich_f wrote:

having anything shipped from Japan is going to be expensive if you're impatient.

Yes Asia deliver in 6-12 business days for free. Only a madman would pay $30 + $3 per item to get something shipped 2-3 days sooner.

Ordering stuff from Japan on eBay is also quite cheap most of the time.

eBay doesn't exist in Japan, so your selection is limited to people who have brought stuff back from Japan and people intentionally trying to sell to foreigners. YesAsia also has a pretty limited catalog.

there is no ebay here, but yahoo auction is going strong

I'm in Victoria for a few more weeks then back to Japan.

onafarm wrote:

Do you have a  nearby library that stocks Japanese novels? Mine does, and as they're borrowed rarely, I can extend for months. I've never had to buy one.

That's a good idea. The Little Tokyo branch of the LA public library should have plenty of Japanese books. Also there are several BookOffs in the LA area, so just go there and get whatever's cheap.

Last edited by sheetz (2009 June 04, 8:29 pm)

KREVA wrote:

Tobberoth wrote:

www.bk1.jp let's you import stuff quite cheap.

Does bk1.jp offer free shipping for a lightweight order?  I just recently ordered from them for the first time and purchased 5 manga books.  Shipping by SAL was free, but was that because it was my first order or what?   I was expecting to pay some shipping, but they arrived at my doorstep a few days ago.  I received 5 manga books for about 1,950円 total.  (That was so much better than buying 2 of those same books from Kinokuniya, which were both around 5 dollars plus 7 dollars shipping (18 something total.)

Just curious.
How long did it take to ship via SAL?

That's odd. Usually BK1 will charge you for shipping. Don't get too used to that... you may get a nasty surprise when you go and order 10 tankubons... Even SAL starts to get expensive when you go past 2Kg.

KREVA wrote:

Tobberoth wrote:

www.bk1.jp let's you import stuff quite cheap.

Does bk1.jp offer free shipping for a lightweight order?  I just recently ordered from them for the first time and purchased 5 manga books.  Shipping by SAL was free, but was that because it was my first order or what?   I was expecting to pay some shipping, but they arrived at my doorstep a few days ago.  I received 5 manga books for about 1,950円 total.  (That was so much better than buying 2 of those same books from Kinokuniya, which were both around 5 dollars plus 7 dollars shipping (18 something total.)

Usually they don't write the shipping cost in the confirmation email, because it's determined by the weight of the items. Have you compared the amount written in the mail and the actual sum that was charged to you?
Then again, shipping to the US may be different from that to Europe.

And if you look on the actual box, BK1 will usually write the cost of shipping in pencil on it, too.

Shipping anything from Japan is expensive. To the US is cheaper than to Europe, though.

Tenso... make sure you know all the charges they're going to hit you with to transship your Amazon stuff. It may be a deal... it may not. I'm curious to find out. If domestic shipping from Amazon.JP is free, then yeah, it's probably worth it, depending on what Tenso is going to charge you to reship it. If they charge handling fees and reshipping fees, then it'll be cheaper to just use BK1.

Then again, BK1 will save you the trouble of going through a 3rd party.

But if you use Tenso, you'll be able to get stuff from Amazon.JP you can't usually get shipped overseas. (All the good non-book, non-CD stuff. Damn you, Amazon!)

I do know that Tenso charges fees to bid on auctions for you. Can't remember what they were, though.