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nyerus · 7 years

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A Beginner’s Guide to Anime Merchandise

Hey guys! So a few of my friends have asked me where I get all my YoI merch and I figured I’d make a post so anyone who’s kinda new to buying anime merch in general knows where to start.

This isn’t too comprehensive and meant to be a just quick-start guide of sorts, but if anyone has things they’d like to add to this, please feel free.

The Basics

There are some great websites dedicated to procuring anime goods from Japan for folks outside of the country and work like any other online shop basically. Some are better than others in various aspects and I’ll cover the most well-known/used ones.

AmiAmi: This one is first because it has a wide range of goods available from basically every anime, and also because it often has steep discounts on most items. They’re pretty fast to add new things as well—usually within a day of it being announced. It’s easy to use and has the option of monthly shipments, in which every purchase you’ve made for a specific month is consolidated into one big package. This saves big on shipping, if you’re willing to be patient. This also means that you will receive an invoice for that month’s full order rather than paying per-item/order individually—which can be either good or bad depending on the $$$$, haha! Apart from flexibility in shipping methods, it has an easy-to-understand points system (100yen=1point). The main downside to AmiAmi is that sometimes it doesn’t have certain items, and there seems to be no real rhyme or rhythm to that. Thankfully it’s only a few items.

CDJapan: I mainly use this as an alternative to AmiAmi, especially in regards to wanting those aforementioned certain items. However, it’s quite similar to AmiAmi in terms of providing decent discounts (though often not as steep as AmiAmi) and also has a similar point system.

*NOTE: neither AmiAmi nor CDJapan ship certain goods out of Japan such as the Yuri!!! on Ice dvds/blu-rays and soundtracks. (You can blame Avex for that.)

Mandarake: This site is a geared more towards secondhand goods and doujinshi but you can also find some amazing deals on new items if you’re willing to be very patient and thoroughly look. Their search system (and UI in general) isn’t great and leaves much to be desired, but usually gets the job done when you know what you’re looking for. (It may help if you search in Japanese.) They have multiple shopfronts you can buy from so you may wish to check that all your items are coming from the same one to save on shipping. Mandarake’s packaging is excellent, however, and others should take notes!!! One minor warning would also be that they no longer seem to accept Debit Cards, even through paypal, so you may wish to arrange another method of payment.

AitaiKuji: This site is great for getting limited edition items that you usually can’t find in other stores, such as the Yuri!!! on Museum goods or collaboration goods. It has a nice UI and it’s easy to find the items you’re searching for. However, AitaiKuji’s customer service is notorious for being slow to respond and also their shipping rates tend to be somewhat exorbitant, especially for the lackluster quality of packing. Their markups aren’t too bad on most items, but the shipping rates are what’ll get ya. However, AitaiKuji is one of the only places to get individuals items that normally come in a set OR to get opened blind packs. I usually only use them as a last resort, when I can’t get certain goods elsewhere and I don’t feel like hunting in auctions.

YesAsia: While this site doesn’t have a wide range of items available, it DOES offer free international shipping on certain orders! Additionally, it does sell the dvd/blu-rays and soundtracks outside of Japan. (The site overall is quite good for buying music/movies/etc from Asia.) However it has heavy markups on certain items, so you may want to price-check with other sites.

Yamnillion: I’ve never used this tictail-based service before and it’s not a full-fledged company I don’t think, but if you’re really desperate for a certain individual item from a set and don’t mind paying a premium for it + shipping, this is an option. However they have a very limited range of items and they seem to run out of stock quite fast, so you’ll have to be quick!

Using Proxies

Besides the English sites provided above, there is another option for people hunting for either very specific things/limited edition goods/out-of-print items OR hunting for the best deals: Japanese sites. Yahoo Japan Auctions, Otamart, and other such sites (including Amazon Japan and Rakuten!) can be a great place to snag merch you really want and can’t find elsewhere. However, to use these sites you run into the basic problem of a language barrier. Additionally, most of these places do not ship outside of Japan anyway. So there’s where a proxy service comes in. There are two different types of proxy services that exist (many current services function as both, though!):

ones that act as a mail-forwarding service

ones that actually buy the items for you

The first type of proxies still have the problem of you having to navigate a site in a foreign language and manage to buy the desired item and input the proxy’s address, etc. This is probably really overwhelming to people like me who have little understanding of Japanese! Hence why it would be more prudent to use the second type of proxy and let them act as your middleman. Using a proxy seems daunting at first, but it’s really not too bad once you jump into it.

*NOTE: Some proxies don’t deal with R-18+ goods so if you are looking for certain items, do your research!

Because I don’t have too much experience with proxies, I can’t really give any reviews on them (though I’m sure you can use a little google-fu for that), but here are the ones I know people have used before successfully:

ZenMarket: This is the only proxy site I’ve used thus far, and so far so good. Speedy customer service, easy-to-use interface, and also seems to have fairly low fees.

Buyee: Fees are a little higher, but has a more polished look and is a little faster than ZenMarket from what I hear.

WhiteRabbitExpress: Probably the most popular one I’ve heard of so far, however the fees are higher.

BuySmartJapan: This has a partnership with Toranoana, a famous Japanese doujinshi store where basically everyone and their mothers get their sweet, sweet doujin from. (Though you can use any proxy for that, really.) But it’s also great for buying general goods as well.

FromJapan: This has a partnership with Otamart, which is like a flea market for otakus. Again, you can use it for more than just this purpose.

Jpn-Depot: This proxy is simple to use and has low fees, but seems to work better as mail forwarding service. Their buying service seems to be sort of lacking from what friends have said.

*NOTE: When using these sites, if they offer an in-built search function, it’s better to search in Japanese rather than English. Additionally, keep in mind that some sellers (i.e. from Yahoo Japan Auctions and Otamart) may not wish to deal with proxies, for whatever reason.

Special Mentions

MyFigureCollection is a great way to keep track of all the official merch you’ve bought. You can also search user listings for an item you’re looking for and with some luck, someone might have it for sale! Also they have a list of partnered sites that essentially serves as a list of alternate shops, though I would encourage price-checking from most of these places (like Play-Asia and GoodsRepublic to name a few), lest you heavily overpay.

I would avoid searching on eBay not only because things on there tend to be super overpriced, but mostly because you will run into many bootlegs/counterfeit items. And sometimes it can be hard to tell whether or not what you’re buying is a fake. A good bet is to buy from sellers not based in China. I’ve bought a few things from Japan and USA-based sellers which were genuine, but I almost bought a few fakes from China before I realized.

Buyfags.moe (a product of 4chan’s /jp/ board) is actually an amazing guide on buying anime goods. Their full guide covers everything from explaining various shipping methods to helping you recognize bootlegs. They have an extensive list of shops/proxies/etc to check out. If you have the time, I highly suggest taking a look!!!

Fan Merch

Most of my YOI stuff is actually fan merch. Doujins, zines, prints, keychains, etc. However the problem with fan merch is that it is usually very limited and ephemeral. An artist will put up PO’s for an item and once that order is closed, it’s closed for good. You can get lucky and snag it during a second run or something, but many things are one-and-done. The main exception here are Japanese doujinshi—most of which get put on Mandarake and Toranoana (the latter of which will require a proxy to use) for a long sale period or until they run out of stock.

I haven’t been really reblogging much fan merch on here apart from the occasional zine I’ve been personally interested in. For those looking specifically for YOI doujins and zines, my friend @moonphantoma runs an incredibly organized and up-to-date blog here. (Be warned: dangerous to your wallet!)

The best way to know about other fan merch is to follow artists on tumblr/twitter. You can also peruse sites like tictail*, storenvy, etsy, and even kickstarter and see if you find something you’re interested in!

*As for tictail, make sure to use an artist’s storefront instead of going to their store via tictail’s “marketplace” because they will charge the artist a nasty fee for it. :( You can find guides on how to spot/avoid this, but I’ll make it easy by saying you should always buy from a URL that looks like “storename.tictail.com” and not “tictail.com/storename.” You’ll have to manually change the URL yourself, because tictail is tricky….

Good merch hunting, and sorry to anyone’s wallets that I might have hurt!

#anime #yoi #yuri on ice #yuri!!! on ice #merchandise #i actually really made this with YOI goods in mind bc that's all i buy but honestly it works for all anime merch #hope this helps at least a couple people!!!#nyerus.txt #misc

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