Middleman Site Opinions?

Well, thread title kind of self-explanatory, do you guys prefer Tenso vs DankeDanke vs Celga vs OohJapan (and other services I didn't list). Any of you guys have any experience with any of these companies? Any feedback?

[zalas]

Depends on what you want to do. I generally use DankeDanke for buying stuff by myself on Amazon and only using them as a shipper. I used to use Crescent Shop for auctions, and now they're renamed Noppin.

[Sirf*palot]

How heavy are standard eroge packages (just one eroge)? I'd like to know how much EMS shipping will cost.

[Agilis]

I've been using Dankedanke for the past.. probably 3+ years for the occasional preorder or comike special. COD fee can be a bit pricey, but no worse than other services last I checked (years ago...). If you order from places that take your credit card directly, (I've used Sofmap, Messe, Getchu at various times) you save on those fees, and get to collect points on your account.

For a single game packed in a typical cardboard box and no special heavy tokuten, sent over to the US, I seem to usually pay somewhere in the vicinity of 3600yen for the EMS part. Add in service fees and such and you're looking at roughly half the price of the game all over again.

[Stranger]

how long does DankeDanke take to process orders? I used to use Akibado, but had to stop since they can take more then 3 months to process orders and ship the items (if I am lucky!).

P.S. Unregistered, stay away from Akibado unless you have the time to wait for them to process your order, and by time I mean months. (unless they have improved recently!).

[Sirf*palot]

Is there really a big price difference from using middlemen sites as opposed to Importer ones?

I mean how much does eroge shop usually charge for shipping and tax?

Cause here's my calculations for the Eroge Sekai de Ichiban Dame na Koi

It costs 2940 (+ 5% tax = 3087 yen) assuming free shipping from Amazon.jp.co.
Then applying the service charge of 4580 yen (3600 for shipping, 980 for service charge) I'm going by Agilis's estimate of weight.

That costs 7667 Yen (plus possible conversion fees from the bank)

On eroge shop they orig. charged 50USD at a time where the 2940 Yen was only worth 24.50USD. So if they keep that "ratio" with the new pricing, they would raise the price to approx. 70 USD, plus their 18 USD (not sure if this will remain the same) Shipping charge and whatever taxes. They both come out to be quite the same?

So yeah....I'm kinda stumped?

[Agilis]

@Stranger
Dankedanke has fairly quick turn around. If I send them a COD request and the relevant details, and paypal them the money at the same time, they'll usually have all my details down and within the next business or so, depending on time zone funkiness.

When my stuff arrives in their office, I'll probably get my notice within a day or two, another day for me to respond and them and pay up, and the package usually goes out a day or so after. I can usually expect to see a pre-ordered game on my doorstep within 1.5-2.5 weeks after release. Earlier if the stars align.

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@Sirf*palot
As for why the difference between importer vs middle-man sites? As your rough calculations show, the cost is approximately the same. W/ some variance depending on the fee structure. EMS rates are constant, cost of games/taxes is constant, the only variable that matters is service fee for places that ship out of Japan. On top of that you bear the currency risk at the moment of transaction.

Importers often take the risk of currency themselves, so depending on where the currency moves, you might be able to find a deal at times, but overall these things smooth themselves out in the mid-term. Their shipping rates are usually lower, but that simply means the unit price covers that leg of shipping (granted sea shipping is less than EMS, but still there)

The real difference is in selection and pre-order goodies. Importers don't usually offer the same range of goodies/games as the big two dealers, Sofmap and Messesanoh, or the other major shops like Getchu, etc. They also might not offer limited editions for less popular games. There's no way I could get mail-ordered nekonekosoft comike goods through anything but a middleman service.

If I want the first press OST CD and bedsheet that only comes with Sofmap orders, or one of Messe's drama CDs, or just a specific telephone card design (since it all costs about the same money either way), there's only one way to go.

Oh, and you can also get used games through middleman services, which can sometimes save you 30-60% off for typical games, maybe 10-20% for good games.

[Stranger]

thanks for the update Agilis, I'll give them a try in the near future.

Sirf*palot, eroge is not the only item that these middlemen can ship to you. Also, not all stores ship worldwide, many would ship to selected countries.