Rakuten thread

[Yukima]

Actually, I just noticed, it goes from 990 yen for shipping below 20000 yen to free anywhere above. Here's their shipping price guide:



Top is order total. Second line is cost for shipping. From what I can understand of their (Japanese) policies, the only time this doesn't apply is in the case of multiple destinations. Also, if it says Free shipping, it doesn't mean free shipping unless you're in Japan.

So, wait - does that mean that the shipping reductions don't apply for international shipping?  Is shipping to the US only possible via EMS (assuming the recent restriction doesn't apply)?  I'm confused. 

[inergy]

Thanks for telling me about this site, it looks way more efficient over what I was using before.  I'll definately be using this now and If you have an affiliate link I'd be very willing to contribute towards it

[mobiusclimber]

Did the pictures of those Famicom games you bought show that they had those stickers over them? I'm wondering how accurate the pictures are, and if I can even trust that a game that shows it has the manual or front of box will have that. I'm looking over stuff from some sellers on there and there's some games that are less than a buck. LOL If those aren't disc only that's a heckuva deal.

[botulismo]

I'm going to reserve this post for answering questions.

Did the pictures of those Famicom games you bought show that they had those stickers over them? I'm wondering how accurate the pictures are, and if I can even trust that a game that shows it has the manual or front of box will have that. I'm looking over stuff from some sellers on there and there's some games that are less than a buck. LOL If those aren't disc only that's a heckuva deal.

Stickers? Well. That's something I would wonder too. Obviously if you can't read the language, it's something you will have to chance. However, I have noticed that there are two versions on gamepara's store on occasion. One with the box pictured and one without. I imagine that they correspond, but I can't guarantee.

Thanks for telling me about this site, it looks way more efficient over what I was using before.  I'll definately be using this now and If you have an affiliate link I'd be very willing to contribute towards it

Apparently they do have an affiliate system, but it's all in Japanese, so I wouldn't know the first place to set stuff up. I just wanted to let you guys know about a good thing.

So, wait - does that mean that the shipping reductions don't apply for international shipping?  Is shipping to the US only possible via EMS (assuming the recent restriction doesn't apply)?  I'm confused.  

This is for all International shipping. Sorry, I just mean that if the item itself says something like "Famicom - FREE SHIPPING" you will not get the free shipping. The reductions happen like they do on the chart for all international shipping. EMS goes to everywhere that takes EMS.

Holy shit... I just spent 5 hours on the gamepara site and I put in an order for over 60 games 

Wow! That's quite a few. I have to ask, did it start with "I'll find these certain 5 or 10 games" and then balloon up? What's the one thing you bought that you want the most? I'd like to see your order when it arrives.
------

Also, I got my stuff from Auc-egames (store here http://search.borderless.rakuten.com/borderless/search.action?sid=auc-egames&l=en). I'll do a blurb about them later.

[Kiddo]

Holy shit... I just spent 5 hours on the gamepara site and I put in an order for over 60 games 

Wow! That's quite a few. I have to ask, did it start with "I'll find these certain 5 or 10 games" and then balloon up? What's the one thing you bought that you want the most? I'd like to see your order when it arrives.
------

Also, I got my stuff from Auc-egames (store here http://search.borderless.rakuten.com/borderless/search.action?sid=auc-egames&l=en). I'll do a blurb about them later.

Well, at first I was going to get Megaman 1-6, Zelda 1 and Super mario bros 2 & 3. After those were already in my cart I started browsing and found so many games I remembered from my childhood that I also wanted. Like North & South, Lolo and Double Dragon. I also found sooo many games that cost under a dollar. If I had the slightest interest in it and it was cheap I added it to the cart, hehe. Also I got Akira just because I like the comic book so much but I have no idea what it plays like and on a similar note I got Desert Fox just because the game has a picture of Erwin Rommel on the front 

I'll let you guys have the complete list when the games arrive, cause frankly I don't remember all the games I ordered and the list they sent me in E-mail is in jibberish, cause my email provider doesn't insert japanese characters so he inserts random letters making the mail untranslateable. I'll be sure to put up some pics as well.

[mobiusclimber]

I'm going to reserve this post for answering questions.

Did the pictures of those Famicom games you bought show that they had those stickers over them? I'm wondering how accurate the pictures are, and if I can even trust that a game that shows it has the manual or front of box will have that. I'm looking over stuff from some sellers on there and there's some games that are less than a buck. LOL If those aren't disc only that's a heckuva deal.

Stickers? Well. That's something I would wonder too. Obviously if you can't read the language, it's something you will have to chance. However, I have noticed that there are two versions on gamepara's store on occasion. One with the box pictured and one without. I imagine that they correspond, but I can't guarantee.

Yup, like Daiva has a bit one over it's front label. I wouldn't be happy w/ that unless the stickers peeled off easily.

I'm actually interested in buying stuff from Surugaya-a-too. That store seems to have a TON of stuff and some pretty cheap prices on certain games (and rare stuff too). I tried to use a machine translation of the original Japanese page for some of the items, but I'm still confused about condition. LOL I emailed the seller so we'll see if he responds or not. I might just chance it tho, since some of that stuff even as disc only if it's less than a buck +shipping would be a great deal.

[botulismo]

Yup, like Daiva has a bit one over it's front label. I wouldn't be happy w/ that unless the stickers peeled off easily.

I'm actually interested in buying stuff from Surugaya-a-too. That store seems to have a TON of stuff and some pretty cheap prices on certain games (and rare stuff too). I tried to use a machine translation of the original Japanese page for some of the items, but I'm still confused about condition. LOL I emailed the seller so we'll see if he responds or not. I might just chance it tho, since some of that stuff even as disc only if it's less than a buck +shipping would be a great deal.

OH, I see what you mean. Haha, those stickers are on the cellophane wrapped around the cartridges, not on the cartridges themselves. I think it's for their inventory system. I took the picture before I'd unwrapped everything.

Well, at first I was going to get Megaman 1-6, Zelda 1 and Super mario bros 2 & 3. After those were already in my cart I started browsing and found so many games I remembered from my childhood that I also wanted. Like North & South, Lolo and Double Dragon. I also found sooo many games that cost under a dollar. If I had the slightest interest in it and it was cheap I added it to the cart, hehe. Also I got Akira just because I like the comic book so much but I have no idea what it plays like and on a similar note I got Desert Fox just because the game has a picture of Erwin Rommel on the front  

Wow! That's quite a lot of fun you've got coming there. I still have yet to play a few of the games that I got. I tested everything out though. I had an error on one of my disk system games, fortunately it was one that I had spent only a dollar or two on and had only bought just because it was there.

I'm going to make a seperate post for the Auc-egames pictures and stuff. I know I should combine posts, but all these questions don't really fit in with it. I'll be making it later tonight or tomorrow though, so hopefully it'll be after someone's reply.
Post Merge: November 22, 2010, 07:53:48 pm
LOOKS LIKE THIS WAS FORCIBLY MERGED, MAKING ONE HUGE GIGANTIC POST. I wish it hadn't done that, because now people are going to think "This is long, I don't want to read it." Can a mod please undo this automerge? I understand why most posts should be combined, but the previous post was about answering questions. This subsequent post is only loosely related.

So, I got my stuff from Auc-egames. You will find their store available here http://search.borderless.rakuten.com/borderless/search.action?sid=auc-egames&l=en&vm=2. While their service was excellent, their prices are higher than gamepara. The only reason I would imagine that you would buy from Auc-egames over gamepara are if you either wanted something from them that another store didn't have (I bought from them to get Akumajou Dracula II) or if you were buying only one or two things. You may be able to save on shipping in this case because this store uses the standard weight-based pricing system Rakuten has listed on their site http://event.rakuten.co.jp/borderless/infoservice/en/#04 here.

Everything arrived more or less in similar condition as they did with gamepara. Everything was wrapped nicely in cellophane. It came in a standard EMS cardboard envelope instead of a box as it did from gamepara, but that's okay. The only disappointment here was that Akumajou Dracula II was lacking the picture insert in the floppy disk holder. Otherwise everything works and I am happy. I got the game to play it, and that it works is far more important to me, so it's not a huge deal at this point.

Basically, there's few differences in my experience between them and gamepara. Gamepara's prices seem to be better overall, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy anything from Auc-egames if they had what I wanted for the same price or less. They do have some games that gamepara does not carry, so you may find yourself using them if you use Rakuten regularly.

Here's what I got. This order cost about $80 in total, including shipping. Keep in mind that everything is wrapped in cellophane:



Larger version here: http://i51.tinypic.com/5leb6b.jpg

[Kiddo]

         

Will post more pics and details about my experience soon. For now I have some games to test 

[Yukima]

 

Holy crud...

I'd love to know how much all that cost... or maybe I don't... 

[Kiddo]

First of all I'd like to say that Rakuten/Gamepara shipping is SUPER fast. I tracked the shipment online and the package was at the custom office in Iceland about 72 hours after I placed the online order. For those that don't know Japan and Iceland are on the opposite sides of the planet. The shipping there for gets an A+ stamp from me.

On how I went about buying them. I was actually only going to buy a few select carts. Those being all the Rockman games, Zelda 1, Lolo, Battletoads, Double Dragon and Super Marion 1 & 2. After those were in my cart I put up a search for Famicom related items worth 1-500 ISK. 177 pages appeared! I browsed through most of them and took what I liked, adding around 55 extra carts to my shopping cart! But those carts were actually just 50% of the total price since I payed a lot more for the ones I went there to get.
So that is why I ordered so many of them 

The carts came in a cardboard box. All the carts were individually sealed in plastic and then placed in two bubblewrap bags for extra protection.





Condition of the carts varies. Very few have torn stickers. Some have extra stickers on the back, perhaps from an old video rental store but I can't be sure. A lot of them though have been marked by a marker but there has obviously been some attempt to clean the marker off on most of them.
On the scale of 1-10 I'd say none of them reach below 5 although none of them could count as a 10. Overall the condition is very good and i'd say the average condition is about 8,5.

So I've tested all the games, each for about 1-10 minutes to check if they work.

Out of the 67 games I ordered I have come to this conclusion:

3 are broken and won't work. (Show below)


7 require extensive knowledge of the japanese language in order to be played. (Shown below)


5 require some knowledge of japanese to play properly, although they can be played by guessing and/or forgoing the storyline. (Shown below)


52 are not broken and don't require any knowledge in a foreign language to play. (although two of those games did show some glitches and a tendency to freeze, this might be fixed with cleaning them. Shown below)










I only have a problem with the 3 broken ones though since I could have avoided buying games that require knowledge of japanese if I had conducted a more thorough research before buying those games. So that part is on me. The 3 broken games were all if, I remember correctly, priced at 40 yen (the cheapest kind they sell). So I don't feel like I've lost a lot of money but on the other hand I feel the store should check if all games are working before shipping just in case.

Holy crud...

I'd love to know how much all that cost... or maybe I don't... 

All the carts + shipping came down to around 26000 ISK and then when it arrived here the customs office added an extra processing fee and tax for 10000 ISK. So total cost was around 36000 ISK, in USD that is around 300$.

All in all I'm pretty satisfied. I won't be placing an order any time soon since now I have enough to play with but I wouldn't hesitate doing business with Gamepara again 

Now off to play some Zelda!

[cubelmariomadness]

I love Lolo! Have fun with your new famicom games!
Some great new games to get (if you ever get tired of those)
would be Bubble Bobble, Ice Climber, and Solstice if you can find it!

[mobiusclimber]

Can I ask how much shipping was on everyone's orders? I'm planning on making a pretty big purchase, and Im wondering how much I can expect to pay (roughly).

[Kiddo]

I love Lolo! Have fun with your new famicom games!
Some great new games to get (if you ever get tired of those)
would be Bubble Bobble, Ice Climber, and Solstice if you can find it!

Thanks! I was looking to get Bubble Bobble, Ice climber and Lolo 2 but the prices on those games were a bit higher then what I am willing to pay for those games. Bubble Bobble was over 10.000 yen, Lolo 2 around 5000 and Ice climber about 3000 if I remember correctly. I've never heard of solstice though might have to check that out later.

Can I ask how much shipping was on everyone's orders? I'm planning on making a pretty big purchase, and Im wondering how much I can expect to pay (roughly).

Shipping prices are exactly as botulismo describes above. My order was about 18700 yen so Ipayed 999 yen for shipping. In retrospect I should have just spent extra 1300 yen on more random games for the free shipping. It would only have been extra 300 yen for the total price.

[botulismo]

Wowow! Kiddo you got a goldmine of games. You got an amazing lot of stuff from them! I loved looking at everything. Looks like you're back in the Famicom game. Once I get my paycheck in an hour or two maybe I'm going to have to put in a more daring order. I would definitely clean the games that are broken or have errors.

Mobius, as long as you buy from gamepara, you will never pay more than 2500 yen for shipping. That's basically what it boils down to. Most other stores seem to use the weight guide for shipping.

[nensondubois]

THey have some pretty amazing stuff there, that's for shit sure. I saw a Game Boy game that I paid $100 to someone just to complete my collection after spending almost a year looking on Ebay with no results, so I had to contact someone at cheapassgamer to get the game. Now, I see the game at Rakuten for just $10  . What game? Pokonyan for the Game Boy... i needed it to complete my SGB musics collection. I hope to buy this copy soon, also.