Lord Igniz
n00b
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2019
- Posts
- 44
Yahoo Auctions are the way to go. I buy most of my Japanese games on there now, using a friend that I pay a small fee to ship it over to me. There are third party websites like Buyee and Zen Market that also provide that service, but I feel they have a lot of hidden fees.What Yamazaki said. The only decent deals you'll find in Japan are, maybe, in Yahoo auctions.
Hard Offs and similar stores, where you could find good deals a few years ago, have their own online shops now (so prices aren't good anymore) and their junk sections are raided on a daily basis by Yahoo/eBay power sellers. For common games, just avoid Mandarake, Super Potato and, most of all, Retro Game Camp and you'll maybe find some decent deals when you visit Akiba, Den Den Town or Center Plaza.
On the other hand, PS3/4 games have really good price points now. For these, I'd suggest taking a look in GEO stores (which are all over Japan) and Trader in Akiba.
Overall, I echo the sentiment of most people on here in terms of game prices. If you were to have gone to Japan in the early-to-mid 2000s prices were ridiculously low on all second hand games. Very few tourists, no English anywhere, it was quite an adventure just to walk in that wondrous land. Today, while it's still an awesome place, it has definitely been affected by globalism and an increasing tourist industry. The magic is mostly gone now, but going to the more rural areas still has that feeling of adventure you will not get in Tokyo or most other big cities.