Been posting rather frequently in the past day or so 
Woke up on this fine Saturday morning and heard the doorbell within minutes, it’s from the post office! The Project Tenso packages have arrived!
This experimental project known as Project Tenso is meant to be a test run to say what I can do with a real Japanese address. To be absolutely honest here, it was not as easy as I had hoped. The biggest problem as it will remain, is that I don’t have a Japanese credit card with a Japanese address… now Amazon Japan is quite far along with dealing with oversea customer and they even have options in their payment system to allow you to enter a separate billing address from the shipping address, so no problem there. However, both packages were flagged as possible fraud by my credit card company, possibly because the billing address and shipping address are different; luckily I was at home when they called with an automated service so I was able to authorize the charge. I am going to give it one more try in the future and see if they still flag it as fraud. Now it’s time for a cost comparison that I had promised from my earlier post. For the sake of comparison, I will be using the Amazon Japan package since I have make a similiar purchase in both cases.
First, the total run down of the new package from Amazon Japan through Tenso.com
And this is the cost of the Amazon package from Goody Japan.
Now the weight of the two packages are not the same and since Tenso charge by weight and Goody Japan charge by % commission, it’s difficult to compare their cost side by side. I think I will eventually compile an excel spreadsheet to do an accurate costing for each purchase from now on since they both have their advantages. But for the moment, let me just do a cross comparison to see what it would have costed me if I had switched the packages around.
Cost table from Tenso
Cost table from Goody-Japan
Tenso is running a commission marked down campaign, for the first 10000 customers? Not sure how long it will last but I would use their marked down pricing for now:
Tenso cost on the two perfect visual book would have been:
Weight: 2750g
Commission: 980yen, compare to the 1245 yen I paid to Goody-Japan, Tenso win
Goody-Japan on the new Amazon Package would have been:
Since the total cost of the package is less than 5000 yen, the commission for the whole order would be 750 yen fixed plus the bank wiring fee 300 yen.
Commission: 750 yen + 300 yen = 1050 yen compared to the 980 yen I paid to Tenso, Tenso win.
So, from a commission point of view, Tenso win in both cases.
However, if I were to widen the scope to say having multiple packages from different sources, Tenso would have lost out on the shipping end of the stick because Tenso do not currently offer combined shipment of packages.
My original plan was to see if Tenso could combine the two packages and have it sent to me in a single package, because I wanted to save the EMS shipping of an additional package. By my rough estimate, I could have saved may be 1500 yen in shipping if Tenso were able to combine the shipment. After exchanging email with the Tenso support person, it seems they plan to offer combine shipment service soon. I remain hopeful and would continue to try to use Tenso.com in the future if the opportunity arises.
Pro of Tenso.com, they charge by weight instead of % cost, their cost average improves as the cost of the goods goes up. Example: Dollfie Dream! expensive electronics, etc.
Con of Tenso.com, do not currently offer combine shipment, if you have multiple packages, they will ship them separately.
Pro of Goody-Japan, they offer combine shipment to save on shipping if there is opportunity to put 2 packages into one.
Con of Goody-Japan, they charge by % cost, so the commission will go up quick the more expensive the goods.
In the future, I hope to compile a spreadsheet so I don’t have to do this kind of manual calculation again
Let’s proceed to loot inspection, shall we?
The Volks package, Tenso actually overpack the Volks box with an over carton plus a little bit of bubble wrap, may be too little… I would have preferred the empty space to be packed with paper or something.. but the package arrived safe and sound though.
Finally, the all too elusive Type C saddle stand and the wig stopper! Both items are still out of stock in Volks USA. In fact, there was may be a very small window of opportunity that the type c stand was available in Japan, it’s gone out of stock again! They must be making a killing off these stand and they can’t keep it in stock for more than a few short days! I should start designing Doll stand instead lol. Adopting a Dollfie Dream is serious business here, even with all these packages arriving I am still not completely prepared to take care of my DD Escalayer… soon I will all the supplies ready.
And in the Amazon Japan package…
More Feena goodies! @.@ Why you looking at me funny like that? I actually bought these in honor of Cynthia Marguerite I am actually very tempted to pre-order her limited edition pocket watch … which is open for pre-order in Hobby Search.
Obviously, my main reason to get these magazines was to get my hands on the trading figures!
Feena in her casual dress and my first Cynthia figure! I can’t wait to see an actual release of Cynthia PVC figure!
Now the lovely ladies trading figure set is now completed!
And the magazines themselves…
And when I flipped them open, I noticed bonus!
Nice pull out of Feena and the Marguerite sisters! I am glad I went and bought them now, hehe! There are numerous eroge game pull out posters inside too, some are just too NSFW for me to pose them here!
More packages are slated to arrive in the remaining days of the month! 1/8 Senhime from Alter and 1/5 Freeing Kenshin have been shipped out and hopefully I will be able to reveal the identities of my newly adopted musumes within this month!
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Love those trading figures. I have yet to own any Feena figures at all. Almost bought the Alter Sai Feena but something was off about her. Maybe her face….
I’m looking into those services to be able to use yahoo japan auctions. The outfits I am looking for, I have little chance of finding for sale here in Japan (unless I go to a dollpa or something). Nanoha is going to need some new clothes.
You’re right, the Alter Sai version is a little off on the face. I actually have 2 of them by mistake lol. Let me take a few close up photos of her in a little bit. Both Kotobukiya and Max Factory 1/8 version are very good imo.
I am studying another service call http://www.shoppingmalljapan.com
They can use credit card to authorize the charges which is easier than goody-japan. And their commission is a bit lower than Goody-Japan. I am probably going to give them a try in my next auction.
I notice poor Nanoha is still available in Volks International site, almost tempted to get her to pair up with Feito chan
Feena Fam Earthlight Atelier Sai version photoset uploaded to my flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfheinrichsworld/sets/72157618694876380/
The only thing I hate about Tensou is that they don’t have option for SAL shipment… which is a big minus for me… >.<
When what I purchased is light-weighted, to ship them with EMS will be an overkill, a torture for my wallet…
I don’t mind the 1 month wait to be honest, as long it’s cheaper… I would rather break down my shipment to 2 SAL shipment, then 1 expensive EMS.
That being said, I just recently raided Yahoo Japan and Amazon, bought so many stuffs that it will need 5 or 6 SAL shipment… granted of course, I chose EMS…^^; should be here in a couple of days.
Another dodgy thing I found about Tensou is, their promotion comission price… should they ever go back to the non-promotional price, I think it will be just too expensive… especially if they weigh what we purchase per package, not combined… still, when you buy expensive light-weigthed stuffs (e.g. dollfie) I agree that Tensou would be the perfect choice…. Tho I wonder whether they would accept purchase from Yahoo Auction Japan… -_-
(I WANT MY RIN !! T.T)
Btw, is it confirmed by your experiment?? That Goody-Japan is the best for bidding in auction?? One of them reason I like them is because they comission are ever so slightly cheaper than some I saw, but the big difference is they don’t charge you paypal fee. Oh btw, i forgot to ask this, does Tensou charge you via paypal as well, or can we just pay with CC??
Lastly, for comparison sake, from the stuffs i bought via Goody-Japan that still yet to come, as i mentioned above… I bought some stuffs from Amazon as well…
It costs me 13,219 yen
it weighs 2.8 Kg
The comission is 1,851 yen
Do note, that it’s not entirely accurate, but if I were to explain it here, it’ll make this comment even more longer… ^^; just e-mail me if you want to use my recent purchase as comparison.
Sorry for the looong comment, cheers.
Heya lolipedofin,
My understanding is if your package is less than 3kg, it doesn’t make a huge difference between EMS and SAL, EMS will arrive much faster with tracking, SAL is slower and could be lost. I have had a HLJ SAL package lost on me before.
Ah yes, multiple packages would not be good with Tenso, since they charge each package separately and ship separately. Depending on what you are buying though. Say if you have an expensive package from one single source, Tenso is probably the choice of service. Tenso do not currently accept YJA I don’t think. I doubt they ever will since they are just a forwarding address service. No paypal fee from Tenso since I pay with credit card. If you are buying something from Amazon Japan though, it might still be a toss up between Tenso and Goody Japan.
So far I am fairly happy with Goody Japan and I am still waiting for my massive dollfie shipment so I will wait and see how it goes. If you are gunning for Rin DD, I suggest you wait a little bit longer since there aren’t many auction up yet and she is still rather expensive right now.
I am actually exploring a different service that’s more cater to the US residence. Shoppingmalljapan.com, their commission is slightly cheaper than goody japan and they bulk ship to their US distribution center and send the package out in the US again. I might just give them a try in the next go around.
Feel free to come back to check for any update ^^;
hmmm… I think it’s the other way around… EMS is a real choker when you only ship light items… the rift of difference to SAL is just too much… but when it weighs, say, more than 3-4 KG, then gradually, EMS will be cheaper, as you need to break the shipment via SAL, and it’ll gradually get heavier as the weight of the cardboard is added in… not to mention that EMS will be cheaper as the shipment become more heavy…
yes, I’m stingy, bear with it…^^
your shipment was lost?? wow… i asked HLJ before, and they said, that it never happen to them once… @__@ They do take ages to arrive tho, and kinda random as well, I once placed 2 orders at HLJ, there’s about 1 weeks difference of the time i placed the order IIRC. The one i ordered later actually arrived before the one I ordered earlier… and the firsts one arrived a month after I placed the order, you can’t imagine just how anxious i was waiting for them…
Shoppingmalljapan?? have you tried it?? do share the experience when you’re done with them… i like the fact that Goody-japan doesn’t charge you the paypal fee… my previous experience with japamart was kinda bad… not horribly awful.. but pretty bad…
Umm really? I could be mistaken there since I rarely pay attention to how much HLJ charge me for SAL shipping.
Yes, I have had a package lost on me before, it took almost 6 months before I get my hands on the replacement. If it’s limited release item, I am not risking it on SAL anymore. How bad was your experience with japamart? Care to share your story?
I used Shopping Mall Japan once and they were very good. They’ve got an order status page and contrary to what I wrote before, they did send me a tracking number when they mailed my stuff via USPS (it just took them a few days to send out my package after I asked them to mail it).
I am considering them as an alternate source but since I have already completed the bulk of the Dolffie Dream auction, I haven’t had the chance to actually use it yet. Though there is a set of doll clothes I have my eyes on, we shall see.
Ah thanks for experimenting
I used my credit card with no problem for Amazon Japan and received no phone calls about it either. It depends on our cards perhaps? I think I’ll continue to use Tenso if I do want to order from Amazon Japan again, and hopefully their combo shipment will be setup by then ^^
Perhaps it was the volks order that triggered the fraud alert since volks do not a way for me to enter separate billing address and I tried to have the stuff shipped to Tenso. Combo shipment is definitely a plus for Tenso when they do implement it. I would still weight my options on Amazon Japan though thru either goody japan or tenso. I think it’s worth the effort.
reading on your comparison on goody and tenso, I would think the little extra money that is paid to goodyjapan would be that you do not have to fill out an order shopping form with address and everything.
You just give them a link of what you want and pay them when the invoice comes. It seems better for people that do not want the hassle of typing in this and that.
Precisely, some prefer one stop shop, some prefer DIY. But Tenso really shine when the cost of the item is expensive. Then you could possibly save some money that way.
Thanks for the comparison. I want to order something from Japan but they don’t ship overseas, so this really helps me out.
I am glad to hear this topic was able to help you out.
good comparison. guess now i can order something which has never be shipped to international in amazon.co.jp
I wrote this specifically to help solve the mystery of ordering items from Amazon Japan, since they usually have good price on various items and have good selection of stuffs, it really does make sense to check this out.
In my never ending hunt for a method to avoid the auction service’s comission fees, I came across your Tenso report. I’m still not 100% sure I understand the difference between a shopping/auction service and Tenso. Is Tenso just a shipping forwarder, i.e. they do no bidding on Y!J on my behalf?
Let’s say I want to avoid the auction service’s comission fee, would I then do the bidding on Y!J myself and enter the Tenso address as my shipping address?
What about payment to the Y!J seller? Do I pay through Tenso or do I pay the seller directly with PayPal?
What is your oppinion of Tenso’s handling of the packages – do they allways re-pack the items (looks like it in your post above)?
The long answer is this:
There is a upper limit of 5k yen on anything you can bid on in YJA without back account verification which more or less requires you to be in Japan or have someone doing the dirty work for you. The money you pay to a deputy service is to get around all those logistics of not being in Japan and pay for the item in the way the Japanese prefer it to be, bank transfer.
The short answer is:
Don’t bother trying to get around the Deputy service commission fee, they are still in business because there is no other way around it.
Aha! So that’s how it’s done.
Thanks for the info!