The MLP Arena
TCB => Trader & Shipping Support => Topic started by: Lady Frostbite on January 05, 2023, 01:23:21 PM
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So, in a moment of fan-induced madness, I've ordered a hanging wallscroll from Melonbooks via a proxy buyer Japan Rabbit. I've never ordered via proxys, I'd rather order direct from anyone but that wasn't an option for this site; has anyone else done this? Has it worked out well? I'm very worried now since the shipping isn't outright stated. The item is pre=order at the moment from the seller.
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I've used Proxy's before but I've not heard of Japan Rabbit. The one I use is Rinkya.
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I've never ordered from Melonbooks or used Japan Rabbit, but I've used proxies loads of times - my preferred ones are Treasure-Japan, Buyee and Tenso. So I can't comment on this particular site/proxy, but in general, my experience with proxies has been very pleasant! :) They usually don't state shipping upfront since they need to calculate it when it arrives, shipping is usually based on the weight of the package rather than being a fixed rate. Usually the proxy site will have a shipping calculator though so if you have an idea of how much the package will weigh, you can try that to get an idea of how much shipping will be (it's not generally exact but it can help to give you a ballpark figure). Sometimes you can get stung with big shipping bills but usually that only happens to me if I combine a few too many packages together - shipping has been a bit pricier in recent years since less options are available due to COVID and the war in Ukraine, but it's usually not too bad, pretty much what you'd expect from international shipping. Hope this helps :)
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Thank you for the replies :) It makes me feel a bit more secure, and gives me hope that I could one day order direct from sensei's mail order and support her. Here's hoping it goes well!
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I've ordered via them when they were WhiteRabbitExpress :) Had no issues with them and they're pretty quick!
ETA: I haven't ordered a pre-order via them. But my items were via Amazon Japan and a Manga retailer. Nothing was too outrageous price wise.
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They're not the cheapest but when I was using one in the past, I always used Noppin (it was Crescent Trading, Ithink, originally). I did that because it had good reviews and because they've always come through for me on difficult transactions (like when something doesn't turn up, or they need to find something out).
I'm familiar with Rinkya and Buyee and haven't heard bad things about either, I don't know the Japan Rabbit one.
It's annoying because I could ask the seller stuff direct, but I can't, because they won't ship to me. I swear, I bought way too much random stuff online in the 3 months I was in Japan because even shipping it home myself was cheaper -.-
But yeah, there are a lot of decent proxies floating around. Good idea to look at reviews and feedback from other users, but there's always a small amount of risk involved.
At least buying direct from Amazon.jp is now possible (at least it is to the UK). When I started out looking up stuff, nothing was.
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I just wanted to update this thread that I have paid for the shipping and a couple of extras for my scroll after Japan Rabbit FINALLY received it ... it's all looking good so far!! I probably paid far too much for a silly wall scroll, but merch of this series is so rare! If it all goes well, I think I'll be using them to buy directly from sensei's store to support her!