CD Shop questions

[Number Girl 48]

I use SAL almost all the time. The longest I've had to wait is a little over a month and it's always eventually made it to my house.

[CaRaN 212]

I used SAL once and it took almost 3 months to arrive here in Spain xDD I guess it was just bad luck haha

[fitear1590 2414]

Okay, that makes me feel better (kinda). As long as it's not lost.

Guess I'll just keep waiting! Thanks everyone.

[TheBistroButcher666 228]

It might be held at customs, only packages that I have had inspected was going SAL. It took a little over a month when normally SAL takes about two and a half weeks. You'll know it was with customs when it arrives, it'll be covered in cute fancy official tape and stickers with Homeland Security Official Whatever on it and a note saying they went through your stuff and some legal government mumbo jumbo all over it.

[fitear1590 2414]

Thanks for your assurance everyone. My super slow SAL package arrived last week, so right under two months. No sign of customs ransacking it though... Oh well!

Anyway, next question.

Has anyone ordered from Disk Union before? Do they have overseas shipping?

[Number Girl 48]

Disk Union doesn't ship overseas. You need to use a deputy service.

[fitear1590 2414]

Disk Union doesn't ship overseas. You need to use a deputy service.

Dammit, that's what I feared. Thanks for the prompt response, number girl.

[froggyman75 28]

Okay I have a question about YesAsia now.

How can you tell if an item they're selling is the first press or not? I'm planning to pre-order the remastered version of Dir en grey's UROBOROS and I know the first press of it has a different case but I can't find any mention of it on the page. Will it be the first press version?

And another question, how do you pay for things on there? Do you use Paypal or do you have to put in your credit card details and if it's the second one, do the banks automatically convert the money when it's taken out of your bank? And on that note, they say they take out money when your order is shipped, if they ship out the item AFTER a sale has ended, do they take out the price of the item while the sale was on or do they take out the amount that it costs when the sale ends?

Sorry if these questions don't make much sense, I'm sort of in a hurry.

[sai 868]

Okay I have a question about YesAsia now.

How can you tell if an item they're selling is the first press or not? I'm planning to pre-order the remastered version of Dir en grey's UROBOROS and I know the first press of it has a different case but I can't find any mention of it on the page. Will it be the first press version?

And another question, how do you pay for things on there? Do you use Paypal or do you have to put in your credit card details and if it's the second one, do the banks automatically convert the money when it's taken out of your bank? And on that note, they say they take out money when your order is shipped, if they ship out the item AFTER a sale has ended, do they take out the price of the item while the sale was on or do they take out the amount that it costs when the sale ends?

Sorry if these questions don't make much sense, I'm sort of in a hurry.

If it says first press it most definitely is. I ordered AYABIE's Virgin Snow Color -2nd Season- limited A Type and that was truly a first press. Look well in the description if it doesn't say "first press sold out", because it says it's still first press in the title of the product but the description can tell you otherwise.

About payment, you can both use Paypal and creditcard. The money from your creditcard will be converted after Yesasia has shipped your package and not earlier, it's their policy, like you said. The bank will automatically convert the money as well. The price it has when your order it is the one you will pay, even if the sale has ended. Your order number will include the price so they will charge you the original sales price, even if the sale ended when the packaged is shipped. The chance for that is rather slim though, seeing as most packages from Yesasia are shipped within a day. I hope this answers your questions!

[froggyman75 28]

Okay I have a question about YesAsia now.

How can you tell if an item they're selling is the first press or not? I'm planning to pre-order the remastered version of Dir en grey's UROBOROS and I know the first press of it has a different case but I can't find any mention of it on the page. Will it be the first press version?

And another question, how do you pay for things on there? Do you use Paypal or do you have to put in your credit card details and if it's the second one, do the banks automatically convert the money when it's taken out of your bank? And on that note, they say they take out money when your order is shipped, if they ship out the item AFTER a sale has ended, do they take out the price of the item while the sale was on or do they take out the amount that it costs when the sale ends?

Sorry if these questions don't make much sense, I'm sort of in a hurry.

If it says first press it most definitely is. I ordered AYABIE's Virgin Snow Color -2nd Season- limited A Type and that was truly a first press. Look well in the description if it doesn't say "first press sold out", because it says it's still first press in the title of the product but the description can tell you otherwise.

About payment, you can both use Paypal and creditcard. The money from your creditcard will be converted after Yesasia has shipped your package and not earlier, it's their policy, like you said. The bank will automatically convert the money as well. The price it has when your order it is the one you will pay, even if the sale has ended. Your order number will include the price so they will charge you the original sales price, even if the sale ended when the packaged is shipped. The chance for that is rather slim though, seeing as most packages from Yesasia are shipped within a day. I hope this answers your questions!

That does answer my questions. Thank you

Although I do have another one, how reliable are they? I found a few reviews online that have said that YesAsia aren't trustworthy or reliable with people not receiving items or getting broken items and not being refunded and all that. Has anybody here ever had any problems with them and if so, what were they? I'd rather not be spending £100 on some CD's that'll either be broken, fake or just won't even arrive.

[sai 868]

I've ordered there multiple times and everything arrived fine and all were real copies of said CDs. One poster I ordered arrived broken, but that was the fault of the Dutch postoffice, not Yesasia themselves. The insurance company handled it incorrectly and now Yesasia blocked my creditcard :/ But that has nothing to do with their credibility, the negative experience was the fault of the postoffice, not Yesasia.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Has anybody here ever had any problems with them and if so, what were they?

While I found YesAsia extremely reliable when ordering K-pop stuff, I almost only had bad experience when ordering Japanese music. The problem is always availability: if "usually ships within 7-14 days" is written next to an item then be careful because they might not be able to obtain it, and you'll have to wait an excessively long time for them to notice, or you'll have to cancel it yourself (this situation has happened to me like 2 out of 3 occasions). They do refund you and stuff, but it's still a pain in the ass to having to expect something is available when in reality it will not be.

[froggyman75 28]

I've ordered there multiple times and everything arrived fine and all were real copies of said CDs. One poster I ordered arrived broken, but that was the fault of the Dutch postoffice, not Yesasia themselves. The insurance company handled it incorrectly and now Yesasia blocked my creditcard :/ But that has nothing to do with their credibility, the negative experience was the fault of the postoffice, not Yesasia.

Okay. That's convinced me and got rid of the few doubts I had, thanks Although it sucks about that crap with the post office but I guess these things can't be helped sometimes :/

Has anybody here ever had any problems with them and if so, what were they?

While I found YesAsia extremely reliable when ordering K-pop stuff, I almost only had bad experience when ordering Japanese music. The problem is always availability: if "usually ships within 7-14 days" is written next to an item then be careful because they might not be able to obtain it, and you'll have to wait an excessively long time for them to notice, or you'll have to cancel it yourself (this situation has happened to me like 2 out of 3 occasions). They do refund you and stuff, but it's still a pain in the ass to having to expect something is available when in reality it will not be.

That sucks. There's a few CD's I want that are 7-14 days so I guess I won't risk ordering them. Luckily though the few things I ordered were pre-orders or were 1-2 days/in stock. Thanks for the heads-up

[Jigsaw9 6783]

^ Well you can always try...maybe I just had bad luck or something. xD Good luck with the shopping!

[fitear1590 2414]

Um, does anyone know anything about CDBanq or bought anything? The prices seemed decent, but I wanted to know if they were even reputable. I am really paranoid about getting bootlegs. . .

http://www.cdbanq.com/

I'd like to second this question, since I saw some stuff there I was interested in. Has anyone used CDBanq before?

[Seimeisen 4406]

^ I know it's three months later, but I feel I should still answer that question before asking mine.

Just in case you haven't tried it out yet, the site looks legit. I think prices are decent because they're in Taiwan, not US. But if you're still not sure, make your first purchase cheap.

I have two questions:

1 - Does anyone know if Japanese iTunes has finally upgraded all they're stuff to "iTunes Plus"? I've noticed that plus icons on some albums (that did have them) have disappeared, but I'm still not quite sure.

2 - What's a good shopping/auction service to use for mbok?

[Manic 361]

2 - What's a good shopping/auction service to use for mbok?

For me Japonica Market seems the best. They are 100% reliable on japanese yahoo.

[Biopanda 2675]

2 - What's a good shopping/auction service to use for mbok?

I've been using FromJapan for a while now and absolutely love them. Their Yahoo Auctions bidding is instant and they're usually very fast with bidding on mbok. Their commission prices are also some of the best I've seen. They've got a flat 5% commission on everything. I really wish I knew about them earlier... so much money wasted with Mukunoki's flat 20% commission :'<

[Nyasagi 259]

5% commission? Do they also buy everything you ask for from the shops? It also would be nice if you gave the direct link to their fee page, because I can't find it.

[stylelover 1086]

http://www.fromjapan.co.jp/title/charge

that sounds rather good. i used shoppingmalljapan in the past, but they are expensive.

i guess i will try fromjapan. thanks for the recommendation

[Nyasagi 259]

Thank you. I hope their "0yen promotion" won't end, because 5% is some Paypal processing fee (but maybe this is what they're making money on)

[Biopanda 2675]

As far as I know, the "0yen promotion" isn't going on anymore? Here's some example charges from something I bought though

① Final winning price ￥9,345

② Used Point(s) 0

③ System usage fee （ ① - ② × 5％ ） ￥467

Charge1 Total （ ① - ② + ③ ） ￥9,812

Domestic delivery charge ￥630 ( Will be quoted later at the charge 2 payment )

Bank transfer fee ￥168 ( Will be quoted later at the charge 2 payment )

So there's still the 5% fee there(the 5% fee is on credit card/paypal payments). I think if you mail them a check/money order as deposit, they give you that amount in points which don't get the 5% fee, but that seems like a bit of a hassle. The domestic delivery and bank fees all get added into the "charge 2" payment which you pay when everything is ready to ship to you. There's a 5% on that as well(again, unless you use points), but it is still the cheapest option by far.

As for shops do you mean physical shops? I've only ever used them for auctions and webshops, but I do believe they can go to physical stores to buy things as well if you request it.

[Nyasagi 259]

That's what I meant about 5%, it's just some Paypal payment fee, not the commission. About the shops: do they buy from any shop if I send the link? Or do they have the list of the shops they only buy from?

[JRD 5156]

Thanks for the shopping service link, bio! <333

@Nyasagi to answer your question, yes they buy from any store you want them to. There is a link on the top left called Place an Order(Shopping), it lets you choose from what site you are buying from(if it's not on the thing choose the other sites bubble) and link them e.t.c

[Guest Magatsu]

I have two questions:

1 - Does anyone know if Japanese iTunes has finally upgraded all they're stuff to "iTunes Plus"? I've noticed that plus icons on some albums (that did have them) have disappeared, but I'm still not quite sure.

not everything. depends if the labels did join it.

Because you can still buy stuff from ex. Starwave Records.

But the big labels are gone. -.-

But why can't we upgrade to itunes plus then?