CD Shop questions

[ricchubunny 2013]

someone here is used to buy at Japan Discoveries? i ordered my Irokui. DVD from them today

[kiddybombs 40]

hi everyone, i try to order velours single on puresound, but they don't do overseas shipping to my country, anyone have great suggestion to help me about this???

[Bobbele 1]

Is Jpophelp still on? I tried to contact them since January and all I received was the automatic response. They never replied to my mails.

[fitear1590 2414]

Concerning digital music...

I want to purchase the new Versailles digital single. Are there any digital music experts here? For instance, do amazon mp3 and iTunes sell the same quality (bitrate) music? Which would you recommend?

(Or maybe there's another, even better place to buy such digital stuff)

[Seimeisen 4406]

Concerning digital music...

I want to purchase the new Versailles digital single. Are there any digital music experts here? For instance, do amazon mp3 and iTunes sell the same quality (bitrate) music? Which would you recommend?

(Or maybe there's another, even better place to buy such digital stuff)

I would recommend iTunes!

Technically, iTunes and Amazon MP3 are the same bit rate (256), but iTunes uses AAC which is way higher quality than MP3. 256k AAC is actually quite close to lossless, there's not too much of a difference.

[Champ213 1858]

Actually, I'm fairly sure that amazon mp3s are V0-VBR. That's at least what my last purchases were. They definetely were not a constant 256k bitrate.

To be honest, unless you have eagle ears and/or very good equipment, I doubt you will hear much of a real difference. I guess it will mostly depend on what format you prefer?

[Seimeisen 4406]

Actually, I'm fairly sure that amazon mp3s are V0-VBR. That's at least what my last purchases were. They definetely were not a constant 256k bitrate.

To be honest, unless you have eagle ears and/or very good equipment, I doubt you will hear much of a real difference. I guess it will mostly depend on what format you prefer?

Last thing I downloaded from Amazon MP3 was 256k. But that was a few years ago, so things probably changed.

Either way, I think it's easier to download from iTunes, regardless of quality, and I'm not an MP3 fan anyways.

As for my next question: I've been toying with the idea of bidding on something straight from mbok and having it shipped to a Japanese address (my Tenso mailbox), without using a shopping service. Has anyone tried to do something like this?

[Bobbele 1]

I kinda have a problem with YesAsia.

I tried to order a DVD and some books. I tried to do it a couple of times because I constantly had error messages. I checked my customer account and none of the goods were placed as order. I am not sure whether they got my order or not, since I do not have anything in my customer account. I am kinda afraid that somehow all of my orders will show up tomorrow.

Is YesAsia really as bad as many people in the net are writing? If yes and if none of my orders were placed I think of using another shop.

[fitear1590 2414]

I kinda have a problem with YesAsia.

I tried to order a DVD and some books. I tried to do it a couple of times because I constantly had error messages. I checked my customer account and none of the goods were placed as order. I am not sure whether they got my order or not, since I do not have anything in my customer account. I am kinda afraid that somehow all of my orders will show up tomorrow.

Is YesAsia really as bad as many people in the net are writing? If yes and if none of my orders were placed I think of using another shop.

If the items are not showing up in your customer account, then I think it's safe to say that they probably weren't ordered...

Have you tried contacting Yesasia about the problem?

And I've tried to order 3 things from Yesasia and only once did I have a problem (they didn't have something in stock that was listed on their website; not a big deal). Not the greatest shop in the world, but the free shipping option is definitely a positive. I hope you get your problem worked out.

[Bobbele 1]

Thank you for your answer. I wrote them but so far they did not reply. Maybe they had a website problem. I hope they do not force me to buy all the books I have ordered twice/trice because of their "no cancelling of book orders" policy.

True. The free shipping option is nice. I also like the service to avoid custom tax which is the main reason why I want to order the DVD there. The DVD is quite expensive and if I have to pay shipping fees as well as tax I won't be able to buy CDs for some time.

Oh I know that problem. I ordered a Guniw CD from Yesasia a couple of years ago. It is still listed online despite not being available. (Same problem I had with a D CD at CDJapan).

[Nyasagi 259]

I'd like to ask about the availability on cdjapan.

Almost 4 weeks ago they sent me the e-mail about the availability change of one CD, to 3-4 weeks. I didn't want to cancel it, because they had some promotion for orders placed at some particular time, if it was 5000yen, they would give 1000yen points if I remember it well. I also wanted that CD.

It's been almost 4 weeks already (I got the e-mail on June 21) and they didn't send it, yet, but the CD has its availability status changed to "Out of Print" now. They didn't e-mail me about it. Should I e-mail them, wait 2 more days or what (so it's exactly 4 weeks)? I would like to get that CD too, but I don't know how long am I supposed to wait for it and if I'll get it :/.

[Gizorz 24]

Email them, but I think you're out of luck :/

I had a similar problem with my order once, it took way too long to be shipped. I contacted them and they adviced me to cancel my order, they'd refund and I had to order again. But when I canceled the CD had gone out of print. When I emailed them about it they were just like "well we can't do anything about that".

[Nyasagi 259]

I received a long reply from them, I thought it will be good to copypaste a part of it, in case someone orders and their situation is similar to mine. I was advised to cancel it and that's what I decided to do, of course. That's a part of the e-mail:

Record companies continue to make CDs available

as long as there continue to be enough demands

for them.

However, if they do not receive enough orders,

they won't make more of it available.

Unfortunately, when the CD is no longer in their

stock, they normally wait for a few weeks to

see if more people order.

If not, they will decide to discontinue it

after a few weeks.

That happened with this CD, too.

On our product page, we simply list availability

that their system supply into our database

automatically.

[Guest Magatsu]

btw.

Are there CD shops who do not send with EMS?

or who say they send with EMS but if you can ask them to send with SAL?

And what CD's shops beside YESASIA write on the parcels that the value of a CD is lesser as 20euro?

Because of the stupid customs over here -.-

[Seimeisen 4406]

btw.

Are there CD shops who do not send with EMS?

or who say they send with EMS but if you can ask them to send with SAL?

And what CD's shops beside YESASIA write on the parcels that the value of a CD is lesser as 20euro?

Because of the stupid customs over here -.-

Closet Child always writes the value as ¥1,000 and if you ask them, I believe they can send packages by SAL. They have an English speaking employee, so you can ask them questions by-email.

[Guest Magatsu]

alright thank you

Then I don't need to worry about Closet Child if It I see something cool.

[Nyasagi 259]

cdjapan has other shipping methods available, I always take airmail and never had to pay the tax myself...

[Guest Magatsu]

but I don't live in Poland.

CDjapan is max 25euro. above it's paying tax even if you choose SAL -.-

[Nyasagi 259]

All EU has the same laws about it, if I remember well... (not sure about the tax one) tax: value higher than 22eur, tax+customs: value higher than 150eur. That's what it's like here, but they pick parcels randomly, I know some people who had to pay it (usually when they ordered dvds or too many cds), but I even had a parcel with 12 cds (lowered value though) and never paid it, so it's rather the matter of luck, if you don't use expensive shipping all the time (I used EMS only a few times, everything else is Airmail). I don't know what it's like in your country, but I'm just saying what my experience is and the laws are similar or the same...

[Slsr 207]

Well, in My country tax seems to step in when order (I don't know if even shipping might be possibly included this sometimes too though...) is over 43 euros, so I don't really think this 22 euro is true.

[Guest Magatsu]

it really depends in what EU country you live and. how often they check the parcels.

in Holland they check every parcel. they didn't a few years back. but now. they do.

Sometimes the "gift" option does work. but that only works with shops who send like a normal person ^^"

[Nyasagi 259]

Maybe because it's a smaller country and less people live there? There are almost 40 millions people living here, so it isn't possible to check every parcel, they probably focus on the ones worth more money. Cheaper shipping+gift option, that's all I can tell you, because lowering value may be suspicious for them, if they check everything.

[Guest Magatsu]

nope it's because of the economic crisis. now they try to get money from people no matter how.

but CDjapan + gift option doesn't work. you still have to pay. since they checked if CDjapan is a webshop yes or no.

it's since end 2011 that they do this ^^"

Before they only picked some of those parcels (who where send with EMS).. now they charge everyone ^^"

and the gift option did still work.

yeah yeah people have to pay because of the debts of a country ^^"

[Nyasagi 259]

They don't charge it when the parcel comes from another country im EU (there are probably limits, but much higher for sure), so buy with a friend from a country that doesn't put the tax on things so often and ask them to send it to you? Dunno, I have no other ideas, I never had this problem xD

[Guest Magatsu]

not possible with everything...

And my good friend in Japan doesn't have always time to help me out.

But I saw that yesasia right now sells more interesting CD's so that's already good